Day 3

JC had passed out somewhere mid chapter three of his book and woke up blurry eyed but well rested the next morning. He took in a relaxing shower before heading to meet Alice, hoping after yesterday’s intense hike that today wouldn’t take as much of a toll on him.

He immediately knew he was wrong when he entered the lounge to find Alice sitting with her head hung low, envelope dangling from her fingertips. “It can’t be worse than yesterday,” JC tried to sound optimistic. Alice didn’t even look up as she handed the envelope up for him to read.

“Yesterday you demonstrated the unconscious bond that has already taken shape between the two of you. This morning’s exercise will show you both the importance of teamwork and trust to complete our boot camp obstacle course. Your instructor will meet you shortly.”

JC grimaced. His body had been pushed the past few days but he certainly hadn’t been expecting some military grade agility course. “Ok, we can do this,” he tried to put on a brave face.

Alice finally looked up, her expression clearly showing she didn’t believe him in the slightest. “Are you still high?” she quipped.

“It’s possible,” JC smiled and sat down next to her. “Come on, it won’t be so bad.”

“JC, this,” she gestured at her body, “is not a person who runs an obstacle course. This is not a person that runs, period.”

“Now that’s a lie cuz I have seen you run,” JC joked. “You survived your barre class. We managed to climb a freaking mountain yesterday. We can do it as long as we take our time and work together.”

“That’s the attitude I like to hear,” an older gentleman approached them. “Name’s Art and I’m assuming you’re Josh and Alice?” JC nodded in agreement. “Wonderful! I got a golf cart outside we can take to get to the course.”

“Is there an ambulance waiting to bring us back?” Alice asked.

Art gave a hearty laugh that almost seemed to billow through the room. With his white mustache and short beard, he looked like the fittest Santa Claus either of them had seen. “I promise to get you back on your own recognizance.”

Alice gave JC a wary look. JC forced a smile and gave her back a pat as she reluctantly stood. Every day it felt like their limits were being pushed in tougher and frankly odder ways and Alice had to keep reminding herself that it was important to remain open minded about all the various “character building” exercises they threw her way. Of course, that’s how she ended up drugged and feeling like she was standing inside a tree yesterday so what did she know.

Art drove the two out past the garden and down a dirt path into the valley, the lake they had seen the previous day coming into view. “Now don’t worry, I know the word boot camp can be daunting. Just think of it as a series of physical challenges you need to complete.”

“Unless this is Double Dare and I win moon shoes at the end, I’m not sure it’s worth it,” Alice deadpanned back to him.

Art once again gave a joyous belly laugh. “Oh, you’re a real spitfire, aren’t you?”

“More spit than fire nowadays,” she lamented.

“Definitely still fire in there,” JC smiled at her. Alice gave him a weak but appreciative smile back.

“Alright Lady and Gent, here we are,” Art pulled up to a clearing. Alice and JC walked forward and could see a short wood wall about a hundred feet away followed by a cargo net. “Leave your shoes here. You’ll need the heavy duty ones,” Art instructed them.

Once equipped with steel toed boots plus elbow and knee pads, the duo headed for the starting line. “This is like every terrible Field Day rolled into one,” Alice stated.

“Did you play any sports in school?” JC asked.

“Colorguard was mostly it but I did play defensive line woman in our intramurals powder puff league,” she told him.

“Football? Tough chick.”

“No, big chick. It was pretty easy to stop the cheerleaders who only played to impress the boys.”

“Well, bet they were cheering you on by the end of it.”

“Yeah, but, teenaged boys. It was more funny than athletic to them,” Alice shrugged. “You ready?”

JC nodded but noted how she clearly didn’t want to continue that conversation. High school had been weird for him. He was shy but oddly not unpopular back in Maryland. Once he started the television show, of course everyone wanted to be his friend. When he finally did transfer to Dr. Philips, he mostly just kept his head down and stuck with his friends from the show. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t memorable. 

“Alright kids,” Art began. “This isn’t a race but it’s about teamwork and helping your partner. I’m supposed to say something about remembering to let others help you on your journey or some horseshit but if you get some kind of inspiration from doing this, good for you. I’m here to show you how to traverse this course safely and make sure you don’t die.”

“I’m beginning to like you, Art,” Alice smiled.

“Remember that feeling because you’re going to hate me in about five minutes,” he chuckled. “Let’s go,” he told them as he took off in a jog. JC and Alice dutifully followed as they soon approached the first obstacle. “Simple to start. Just climb over the four foot walls.”

Both threw their bodies over the two walls before them, JC slightly easier than Alice, and jogged up to the cargo net. Alice took the net with ease and JC marveled at her as she ascended. It took him a minute to get the rhythm but he eventually joined her at the top and they traversed down the back side together.

“What in the ninja warrior hell is that?” JC asked as they approached the next obstacle.

“It’s called a Z wall,” Art told them as he walked up to it. “The goal is to steady your feet and balance with your fingertips.” Art hopped up onto the wall, one foot on a small piece of wood jutting out, about a foot and a half apart from the next, while he gripped similar blocks around chest height and started quickly across the wall. “You’re only two feet off the ground. You’re fine,” Art called back.

JC looked over at Alice to find her already hoisting herself up on the first peg. She made it past the first four fairly easily then paused as she tried to round the outer corner. “I’ve made a terrible mistake,” she declared.

“Hold tight, I’ll guide you,” JC positioned himself below her and helped her find her footing around the blind turn. She made it to the inward turn but the transition was awkward. “I got you, go slow,” JC braced her, his hands holding her waist.

Alice took a moment to breathe, taking in the feel of JC’s fingertips before continuing. With JC’s help, she made it to the end where he greeted her with a high five. “Great job, Alice!” Art enthused. “Josh, you’re up.”

JC was able to complete the obstacle a bit easier, having watched Alice tackle it first. Alice spotted him as he went but wasn’t surprised that JC could handle a balance challenge. They barely had time to relish their success as Art took off towards the next challenge.

“Oh, absolutely not,” Alice stated as she came to a halt in front of a hanging twelve foot long rope. “I have zero upper body strength.”

“Now we both know that’s not true,” Art gave her a wink. Alice stared at him a moment, trying to decide if he was just being encouraging or he knew more than he was letting on. “Josh, why don’t you show her how it’s done?”

JC approached the rope cautiously. It wasn’t an exercise he was unfamiliar with but more one he hadn’t done in a very long time. He shimmied slowly up the rope, his muscles immediately starting to burn as they carried his weight. He stretched and successfully rung the bell at the top and tried to lower himself carefully. He dropped in an exhausted heap on the mats below once his feet touched the ground and managed to give a thumbs up to show he was ok as he worked to regain his breath.

“Yeah, that’s why I’m not doing that,” Alice told Art.

“You’re scared,” Art smiled at her.

“No, I’m sensible. I cannot climb that rope. I am not strong enough to hold myself up. These are just facts.”

“I’ll help,” JC breathed as he got himself to his feet.

“You look like you are about to pass out,” Alice quipped. “I don’t want you hurting yourself.”

“I can give you a boost, it’s fine,” JC walked over.

“JC, no,” she stood firm. “I am a lot bigger than you. If I fall, it would be really dangerous for both of us.”

“Teamwork, remember?” JC told her.

“Yeah, and part of teamwork is making sure your partner stays safe,” Alice grew angrier.

JC looked at her, trying to figure out what really had her so upset. “Can you please just try?” he asked her softly.

Alice felt her resolve start to crumble looking at JC’s pleading eyes. She turned away in a huff and went towards the rope. “No one ever fucking listens to me,” she grumbled as she positioned herself to climb.

JC quickly got behind her. He thought he’d just spot her like before but Alice had been right; she kept sliding down the rope whenever she tried to move her hand upwards. JC knelt down next to her. “Try again,” he yelled up. Alice grunted as she tried to move and JC quickly swept his hands under Alice’s foot to hoist her up. “Again,” he told her.

Ever so slowly, Alice inched her way up as JC supported her. He couldn’t lie, it hurt but then again, he wasn’t randomly carrying Jen around the house anymore. Hell, the dog took a lot out of him some days. He was out of shape and while he knew that, this week was a real wake up call about it.

“Doing great!” Art shouted to the both of them. “Almost there.”

Alice looked up and could see the bell in sight. She nearly screamed in frustration and pain as she reached and caught the bottom of it with her fingertips. She could hear applause as JC’s hands gave her a quick squeeze before helping her get down. She laid down on the mat and shut her eyes, breathing heavily.

“Blah blah blah, teamwork. Blah blah blah don’t be afraid to ask for help. Blah blah,” she heard Art say over her. She opened her eyes and promptly gave him the middle finger, making both him and JC laugh.

“You ok?” she looked at JC.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he shrugged off.

“You actually ok?” she asked him again.

“Just out of shape is all,” he smiled.

“Don’t lie,” she warned him.

“I’m not lying,” JC protested. “I’m not in my twenties anymore. Neither of us are.”

“You would have struggled even when you were in the best shape of your life,” Alice informed him.

“Hey? Why are you giving me so much shit?” JC sat down next to her. “Are you mad I helped you?”

“No, just…” Alice breathed. “I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“I didn’t.”

“You could have.”

“Jesus, Alice. What is going on in there?” JC grew exasperated.

“Look, I know I’m not…” Alice swallowed hard. “I really didn’t need you to have the physical reminder of exactly how fat I am, ok?”

“Alice…” JC said softly, putting an arm around her. “You aren’t fat.”

“No, I am. Let’s be honest. It’s an absolute fact and like, it’s hard enough just being…but to have you…” Alice stopped talking, wiping a tear away. She didn’t know how to convey a lifetime of inadequacy into a few sentences.

JC could tell trying to let Alice know she was wrong wasn’t going to be the right approach. “Alice, you are going through some really rough shit right now, and it seems like you have been for quite some time. You have got to be a little kinder to yourself.”

“That’s not how the world is, JC,” she lamented.

“I know, Honey. That’s why you have to give that gift to yourself. The world is hard so you gotta find the peace within you.”

“How do you do that?” she looked at him, genuinely looking for an answer.

“I, uh…” JC stammered, realizing the hole he’d just put himself in. “It’s hard to do, don’t get me wrong, but I try to remind myself that the good outweighs the bad. Case in point: it may have taken me longer to climb that rope than it used to but that doesn’t mean I’m not still healthy.” JC flashed back to his vision from the prior day and knew he was completely lying to this poor woman. If there was one thing JC would admit to, it was knowing he was his harshest critic.

“I’ve always been overweight but never had any health issues,” Alice told him. “Even when I was pregnant, they were worried I might get gestational diabetes but I didn’t. I kept the pregnancy weight on though and Donny, well, he didn’t like that.”

“I’m guessing Donny was pretty into fitness based on the hiking and what not?”

“No, Donny was a lazy piece of shit,” Alice said abruptly. “It was fine for him to grow fat and drink beer every day but not me. I mean, not that I wanted that but the double standard was just…we had a lot of fights about it.”

“I’m sorry that Donny ever made you feel like you just being you wasn’t enough,” JC brushed a tear away from her cheek with his thumb.

Alice looked up into JC’s warm soulful eyes and fought hard not to fall completely into them. The comfort she always imagined would be there was now real and in the flesh and all she wanted was to let go and indulge in it. That wasn’t how this worked though, she reminded herself as she forced herself to look away. “Yeah, well, I got used to it,” she put her defenses back up as she stood, extending her hand to JC.

JC eyed her as he rose, seeing the shift that had happened. Part of him wished Alice would just let out what happened but it was clear just from the bits and pieces he got how bad things had been. He felt silly to feel like he had problems in comparison to what Alice had endured.

“What’s next, Art?” Alice walked up to him. Art smiled at her, like an approving grandpa, and started jogging wordlessly to the next obstacle. Alice followed behind leaving JC to scramble to catch up.

The trio came upon a dirt hill where Art stopped. “Oh for God’s sake,” JC cried out as he saw the pool of muddy water below them.

“You seem like a nice guy, Josh but seeing famous tycoons and celebs get dirty is the best part of my job,” Art laughed.

“I’m not that famous anymore. Can I run through a sprinkler and call it a day?” JC asked him, to which, of course, Art gave another full bellied laugh. JC didn’t even try to argue as he began to slowly make his way down the other side of the hill. His footing, however, quickly gave out as he landed on his backside and slid into the water.

He barely had come up when he heard a splash next to him. “JC, are you ok?!” Alice waded over to him.

“Yeah, only my pride was injured,” he chuckled as he tried in vain to wipe off his glasses and quickly gave up, turning and handing them up to Art. “This should be even more fun to you now that I’m blind.”

“Everything is kind of blurried blind or I can’t see my hand in front of my face blind?” Art asked.

“The former,” JC informed him.

“Then you’ll live,” Art smiled. “I’ll clean these off so you can have them back fresh as new when you’re done.”

“Come on, I’ll help,” Alice took his hand and guided him towards the opposite muddy hill. Up and through two more pools of water, Alice made sure JC safely navigated the terrain. Sometimes she coached him where to plant his foot while others she steadied herself to pull him up the steep slippery hills. JC was tired but Alice kept encouraging him to keep going.

Once on the final embankment, the two were met with a twenty foot high inclined slip wall. JC grabbed his glasses back and threw his feet up high so he was nearly horizontal. His grip on the rope was the only thing to stop him from falling as the surface was much slicker than he anticipated.

Before he could think of his next move, he felt a pair of hands grip his butt hard and push him up the wall. JC used the momentum to get up a few feet and steady himself on a drier section he found. Once secure, he bent his knee and lunged to extend the other, letting Alice use him for leverage to get herself started up the rope behind him. They continued this pattern until JC reached the top and was able to wrap his legs around the scaffolding and reach down to pull Alice to join him.

“Mighty fine teamwork out there,” Art called up to them. “Not everyone has the same strengths or the same struggles; remember that.”

“That almost sounded like advice,” Alice yelled back.

“No, just wisdom from an old coot who’s been around long enough to have learned it,” Art told them. “Come on, one more and you're done.”

“I don’t know if I can survive one more,” JC told Alice as he was still trying to get his breathing back to regular.

“Me neither. Wanna die together?” Alice suggested.

“I don’t think that’s the type of teamwork Art meant but sure,” JC agreed with a smile as the two carefully climbed down the back side of the wall to the ground. Another short jog and their last obstacle awaited them.

“Art, be honest with me? Are you a sadist?” JC asked as she stared at the field of mud with barbed wire strung across at varying heights.

“A little bit,” Art gave a wry smile.

“Not normally how I like my sadism but to each their own,” JC commented, causing Alice to look at him in shock. JC caught her gaze and chuckled. “It was a joke, Alice.”

“Yeah, don’t…don’t make that joke with me,” she told him. JC looked at her confused for a moment then blushed, realizing a sex joke doesn’t really work on a person who’s thought about actually having sex with you. That made JC pause just a moment. He obviously knew Alice’s feelings but as he got to know her more and more each day, realizing she’d more than likely imagined them…together suddenly felt much more intimate than the average fan fawning all over him.

“Keep yourself low and remember: if you snag your clothes, they aren’t yours to begin with,” Art quipped as the duo lined up to the start. They gave each other a look as JC shrugged and Alice smiled, simultaneously bending to their knees then flat to their stomachs into the mud.

Art shouted encouragement as they crawled along and helped each of them back to their feet when they completed the course. They were both completely covered in wet cold mud that was dripping off their fingertips and hair, JC attempting to spit out a bit of muck that had splashed into his mouth.

“So, how do you two feel?” Art asked as he handed them water bottles and towels.

JC swirled some water in his mouth and spat. “Fucking tired but good…accomplished.”

“I literally cannot believe we did that,” Alice turned back to look at the course.

“Whatever you want is achievable, kids. Just remember you can’t always do it all on your own,”  Art told them.

“You know what I want right now?” Alice began to smile.

“A hot bath?” JC questioned as he cleaned his glasses again.

“Yes but more importantly…I think I want to give Art a hug,” her smile turned into a mischievous smirk as she eyed Art’s fairly clean outfit.

“Oh no,” Art began to back away, then took off in a run. As tired as Alice was, she still chased him as JC laughed at their antics. Art ended up taking a wide turn and doubling back and JC pounced as soon as he was within enough reach. “Ok, I deserved this,” Art laughed as JC wrapped him in a tight hold as Alice came up and hugged the other side of him, making sure he got nice and muddy with them.

They stayed like that a few moments until Alice let go. “Ok, now I’m starting to get cold,” she said, wrapping the now muddy towel around herself.

“Time to get you two back. Don’t worry, your breakfast will show up after you’ve had time to shower. They time everything out around this place,” Art said as he led them back to the golf cart.

Alice and JC huddled together in the back seat to keep each other warm as they drove back…at least that’s what they were telling themselves. Alice was replaying her breakdown about her body and how her size hadn’t deterred JC in the slightest from helping her. JC was thinking about his innocent joke that had suddenly become serious and what exactly that meant to Alice and maybe what he wanted it to mean. The two sat silently as they rode along, lost in thoughts about the other.