by S. Tron
The End Game
By S. Tron
Copywright © 2019 by S. Tron
all rights reserved
Cover design © 2019 by S. Tron
Cover model: David Lurs
To Helena.
All the woman that is being told they 'can't do it'. Sure, you can.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the auther, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the auther's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
the following story contains mature themes, strong language and sexual situations. it is intended for mature readers.
Contents
Title Page
Epilogue
1. Jude
2. Andrew
3. Jude
4. Andrew
5. Jude
6. Andrew
7. Jude
8. Andrew
9. Jude
10. Andrew
11. Jude
12. Andrew
13. Jude
14. Andrew
15. Jude
16. Andrew
17. Jude
18. Andrew
19. Jude
20. Andrew
21. Jude
22. Andrew
23. Jude
24. Andrew
25. Jude
26. Andrew
27. Jude
28. Andrew
29. Jude
30. Andrew
31. Jude
32. Andrew
33. Jude
34. Andrew
35. Jude
36. Andrew
37. Jude
38. Andrew
One year later Tokyo 2020
Epilogue
29:17:42, stop!
Holly shit
That was the first thing that went through my mind. I could not talk, could hardly breathe. Everyone was shouting, laughing and clapping. It took me a few seconds to realize David was talking to me, my phone camera still rolling Live on Facebook in his hands. Holy mother of dragons, I broke the women's world record in the 10,000-meter run.
1. Jude
David was so happy for me; he knew I could do it. He was the first one I told. the thought crossed my mind more than a year ago. I think I can break a world record; first, David laughs, then he realized I was dead serious. He helped me through. With the loss of my husband, Daniel and the heartbreak, it came with. He helped me with the children so I could go running.
Looking at the big clock on the wall, I remembered I had a deadline. Shit shit shit it's ten minutes to four I have to go pick up the children!
David, in his usual carefree attitude, gave me my phone, he got that last one on camera.
Last what? Did I say it out loud? Knowing myself I probably did, it doesn't matter, who is going to watch this video anyway?! I'm just a widow from a small town, where everyone knows me, and people only care about you when it's good gossip. Though not all is bad, a lot of people offered to help after the accident, I kept to myself, hardly asking for help, leaning on my brothers in time of need. I did it almost myself when Daniel was alive, and now it is not so different.
I run down the stairs of the gym towards the daycare. My daughter is never the last child there. It never happened before; it would not start today, especially not today, I'm high on supermom powers.
My son, Sam, waits for me by the gate. He is getting so tall. I wish Daniel were here to see; I said he is going to be tall from the day he was born. When I was pregnant with him, I had a huge stomach. People often asked me how I'm feeling. I told them I hope I'm big because he's as tall as me. He was born over nine pounds.
Being a woman, towering to 5.8 feet was not always easy, sure it had its perks, probably helped a lot with today; breaking the world record. In the romance department, never comfortable. Daniel was a short man, 5.4; it never bothered me. I loved him with all my soul. We had our differences, and we fought like every couple, we still loved each other very much till the end.
"Mum get on with it we are late!!" Sam retorts.
"We are not late; we still have a few minutes."
"You always say being on time is being late."
"You are a smartass". I say. Moving my fingers through his hair, "You know, I did it!." I whisper to him, afraid if I say it out loud, maybe I will wake up realizing it was a dream. Feeling tears at I try blinking them away, bay instead they roll down my face.
He looks at me, hugs my leg tight with a smile he says
"Dad always told you, you couldn't, I guess he was wrong"
"Again," we say together, we both laugh and go inside.
Matty my daughter, now at the age of two, lift her head. She is finishing her class of the day, teaching the other children ‘how to put your shoes by yourself'. Giving Sam and me a huge grin, she wobbles to me saying babay, waving everyone goodbye. That little girl is something else. We call her bossy-Matty, from the day she came to the world, she bossed us around.
How I got so lucky, the two of them are a miracle. I always thought that way. But even more so after the accident, they both just understood this is the way things are going to be.
Dad is gone. Mommy is not going to school; she is going to stay, work in the tractor garage like before. Take you to daycare every morning and pick you up every afternoon. We have each other, it is sad, and we will miss him. We will get through it together.
"Eddy not miss daddy"
Matty said, and we laugh, the first time I laughed since getting the news 24 hours before.
Matty was right. The dog was old, though energetic; Daniel hated her. I loved her though I did wish a few times for her death. The dog, Eddy, was harder to rise than the children, but they loved her too.
"Okay then, all the little bugs are ready to head home?"
We walk. We always walk, it's a small town, everything is close. On the way we meet few people congratulating me on my ‘amazing achievement', probably they all saw on Facebook, asking questions, saying they did not know that was a goal of mine, I want to tell them they did not see because it's none of their business, deciding it is better to smile and nod. I try to get home as fast as we can, it is a hot summer. I want to change and go to the swimming pool with my children. I answer politely to everyone.
Remembering I did not text my dad. He is my biggest fan; he is waiting for my text. I write to him 29:17:42. He will go to my mother, asking her to check if I broke the record.
We get to the house; I tell the children to change into bathing suits while I organize everything else, I hear incoming text one after another. Notifications from all my accounts are arriving; the noise is unbearable. I take my phone not bothering to read anything, search my phone for our family group chat, 'piglets', writing to them
I've done it. Now I'm going to the swimming pool with my children, meet me there.
They will start by asking millions of questions. I need to focus on my children for the next few hours, anyway I will speak to my brothers tonight after the children go to sleep.
2. Andrew
I watch the video Angela sent me, stopping it every time at the same spot 29:17:42, that is fucking amazing. A woman with no proper training, with no appropriate gear, running, breaking the world record. That is bullshit. No way
it's real.
Pressing play again when I hear a loud cough; I turn in my chair to look at the room, Angela, Marcus, Liam and the two suits from the GB Olympic team are watching me.
"This isn't real".
The man from the GB Olympic team, Mark I think he said his name, stands up, walk to my computer and closes it. Then go to his briefcase and takes out a big folder, still standing he opens it and starts,
"Jude Thron is thirty-one years old, female, Jude lost her husband in a car accident and was left alone with-"
"Yeah yeah yeah" I stop him in the middle of his sentence, very rude, I know, "it's not real, this is a scam, photoshopped or whatever".
"It is authentic; we checked this video thousands of times, the best team you can imagine worked on each frame. making sure."
"How come a woman, as old as her, can break a fucking world record, look at her worn-out shoes."
I'm pacing the room getting angry, moving my fingers through my hair, but why? I don't even know her. Is it because she broke a world record? Am I jealous? She was so effortless in that run, Graceful even.
Marcus stands up, "can everybody please sit down?"
We sit in silence.
"This woman is real, I saw this video, I asked the gentlemen from GB team to watch it, also we send an investigator to check who Jude is since she refuses to talk to the media." now that is interesting. Marcus continues "Judes been exercise since the military, four-teen years that she's in good shape, she smokes five cigarets a day, works as a secretary in a tractor garage, I'm telling you all of that, so you can understand the potential we got here, just think with a good trainer like Andrew, a team like Angela and me what we can accomplish."
The room is silent, each of us in our thoughts.
Liam raises a hand "we're not in school Liam. Speak" I say annoyed. "Why is the Israeli Olympic team didn't take her?."
Mark answers "Israel Olympic team does not have a lot of money, they are not very good at that sort of thing, they take only people that can surely succeed, they don't know how to build them for success, Jude refuses to interview on television, so they think she is nothing, also there is another issue-"
Again I cut Mark, the suits from the GB Team do not know shit about athletes, so I guess he sees money somewhere. "She's from fucking Israel??? So we can't train her anyway, why the hell are we wasting our time on a tractor mechanic. And what's in it for you? You're all about money the same as the Israelis."
"First, Jude is a UK citizen, her mother from Glasgow, moved to Israel long story short Jude is British,"
Shit, a hot-blooded Scottish woman.
"Second, Jude is a secretary in the garage, and she is there because it is close to home,"
mama's girls.
"And third, we want her to be our face. also getting you in the public eye can also be very good for us."
Fuck, I hope they would not succeed to bring mama's girl here anyway. I do not wish to be in the public eye, especially not training under a microscope.
On the plus size, she will be a distraction from my life, my life that contains the gym, sitting watching videos of runners — telling all the young children what they did wrong, trying to discover one talent to groom him as Marcus found me.
Maybe it's not a bad idea, I can see the potential Marcus talked about, and the sexy legs that come with it, not bad at all.
"So how are you going to get her here?"
3. Jude
"Where is your phone?" my mom's first word as soon as I opened the door.
"I shut it down it became unbearable, I thought this shi...nonsense would have stopped by now."
Sam, my boy, runs to the couch yelling "grandpa", my father wakes up in surprise, understanding dawns on him, he gives us a big smile. "hey baby girl, Matty, Sam, do you want to tell me what you learned in daycare this week?"
Matty skipped her way to him. "Grapa look Tatty dino...dinosaurs!!!" she's so happy she succeed to say it right.
Sam counters, "you know their main Matty".
"children, they belong to both of you, play nicely please, and Sam you're too big to sit on grandpa that way, the seat beside him please, show him how you count to twenty."
I turn to my mum, "you should hear him", I feel the tears burning my eyes, I can't help it, every time they do or say something, that I know Daniel would have been proud, the tears come.
My mum knows it; she puts her arm around me, forgetting she was angry about my phone, we breathe like that for a second.
The door flies open with a bang I say to my mother "it's good we took this moment because here come the terrorists."
she laughs, my brother Lee comes in with all four children, the oldest girl is now twelve, and before puberty, I use to like her, now though…
"Jude, did you see all that fucking fuck shit said about you?"
"LANGUAGE!" We all say together, and her head drops back to the phone. I guess she is talking about the Israeli runner, a man, a professional runner; I bit his record also.
My brother's wife Jorden is a lawyer, and a good one at that, comes in last, Jordan is in her phone shouting something, then my brother screams at her to take it outside, chaos.
Lee's youngest is older than Matty in two weeks; Lee asks bossy Matty to take charge. She makes him outside to the lawn to play with the dinosaurs.
The two middle boys go straight to the television room; now we have a few more moments of peace.
"Who else is coming tonight?" I asked no one in particular.
"Well if you picked up your phone, you would have known everyone and more, it is an essential dinner, we have guests!"
"Guests? EVERYONE-EVERYONE?"
I love my family, more than life, more than food, but, and it's a big but, we are four siblings that live in this small town, me with my two children, Lee with his four and loud wife, Ron with his wife and three children and Ryan the bachelor as we like to call him, also another brother, Shak, that lives in the city with his wife, four children, two of them are twins. Big family.
"Your husband would have died if he'd been here."
Jorden my sister inlaw says. I have gotten accustomed to her lack of tact and bad jokes. I roll my eyes to my brother who in return says, "did my daughter though you to roll your eyes that way?"
which breaks the awkwardness of the moment.
Thought Jorden is probably right; he used to hate my family gathering; he never was good with people, a genius man with no patience to humans. He used to go home or not come at all.
"So what is so important this Saturday that everybody coming?"
Lee looks at me then at mum, back at me. "mum didn't tell you?"
"No, I did not. because Jude turned off her phone" my mum says in a blaming tone.
"Of course she did, that is why they called you mum!" Lee answers frustrated.
"What's going on?" I ask.
"The GB Team called the house, they want you to try out for the next Olympics, they want you running for them, they organized a team of experts especially for you, because, in their words, you are a natural and with the right trainer you will be an Olympic gold medal-worthy. As your brother I told them they got the wrong number, I know my sister and the only thing natural for her is chain-smoking, we got that under control since she had children."
we both laugh. "How on earth did I get so lucky to have a loving supporting, funny-"
"Don't forget handsome"
"Handsome brother"
"And I live close by, just if you need a reminder of how loving I am"
"Wow, thanks, brother. You're full of yourself since You're full of shit."
Again we both laugh, my mum says she hates our banters but still smiles. I guess she only hates it when we gain upon her.
&nbs
p; "so that was all a joke to make me ease up for family dinner," I say with a smile, knowing my family they will invite Daniel's parents, and tell me that to ease me. Oh god, I hope they are not coming today.
"Are Daniel parents coming? That is why you told me that story?"
"No," my mum says, "not at all, the first part is true, they send documents and stuff, Jordan still working on them. We had a long conversation; I told them that I would make you call them, they said no need because their coming to Israel, to speak to you face to face, today."
mum looks excited, "I didn't know how to handle it, so your dad and Lee took charge of everything, started to go through paperwork and contracts"
Lee cuts in "it are all legitimate, by the way, it looks there is a lot of money involved, but you have to win competitions to get the money, there is a lot to do, you need to go through every document before, you also need to go live in London."
Whoa, that is a lot to process, "what about the children? What about my work? What about you all? And my Daniel's parents? Of course, I will enjoy the distance from them, but it's not fair for them or the children."
Knock knock knock
"It's them", my mum exclaimed, rushing to open the door, a big smile on her face, she opens the door dramatically. On the other side, my brothers. Her face falls, "oh it is you, get in! get in!"
My brother's children are scattered, yelling, playing. My brothers and sisters-in-law send them to the television room, two of the younger ones joins Matty outside, Sam is still sitting on my dad's lap, listening intently.
My brother Ron tells my other brother Ryan "told you the smile would fall."
"Man, I'm the favourite. I was so sure I would get a bigger smile once mum sees it is me. Hi sis, excited? Going to the UK for a week?"
Am I?
"We just told her, she's processing," Lee says.
