Five - Jenny 66

 

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[Old back story is here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and read more recent Jenny episodes especially this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

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It was the morning after the night before and Peter was regretting many things. He was regretting the decision to have a few beers with the match, he was regretting not actually limiting the number of beers to a few and he was definitely regretting not stopping the beers after the penalty shoot out, but there seemed little else to do.

Peter wasn’t even really into football. But it was a national occasion and he got swept up in it all. He wouldn’t be into football again now. Not for a while at least. And certainly not until they’d fixed the remote that shattered when he threw it across the room.

Most of all he regretted ever having challenged Jenny to something as dumb as a bike race. It wasn’t that he was out of condition, unused to riding his bike or anything like that. It was just that right now the idea of getting on a bike seemed the most preposterous thing to do in the universe ever.

“Ready for it then?” asked Anna as he wheeled his bike out the garage.

“Absolutely,” he said.

“Ready for it then?” asked Helen as he wheeled the bike past her and Astra in the front garden.

“Save me!” he whispered from the corner of his mouth.

“Ready for it then?” asked Jenny, ready, and impossibly professional looking on the road outside.

“Bring it on,” said Peter. “Actually, wait a sec’,” he then said, dumped the bike where it was, went over to the corner of the garden and was sick into the Buddleia bush.

Three hours later Peter had pulled himself together enough to be lining up outside the house next to Jenny once more. He refused to let the bet fall and claimed, perhaps with some merit, that his physical condition was simply going to spur him on to greater speeds. Or put it another way, he needed it all to be over as quickly as possible.

“So,” said Anna. “You both know the course. You are both being tracked via GPS so no corner cutting, short cuts or taking the bike on another form of transport. You will be found out. Person with the shortest time over the course is the winner. I also have a stopwatch, but clearly that’s just for show.”

She counted down from from five shouted ‘GO!’ and hit the start on her unnecessary stopwatch. Jenny sprang into life and hit the peddles with a verve of someone ten years younger than herself. Peter coughed, wiped his nose on a sleeve and headed after her with the verve of someone ten years older than himself.

Anna turned to Helen. “They’ll be busy for the next hour,” she said, “and I suspect Peter’s going to be disappointed.”

A couple of cups of tea and baby games later, Helen and Anna reassembled on the driveway outside the house. Jenny had been able to track the two through one of her apps and it looked fairly neck and neck as they were approaching home. She wouldn’t be able to adjudicate the winner until she studied their individual GPS results.

With Peter in the shower she looked at the figures. One had a five second edge on the other. 

“Well?” asked Jenny.

“You’ve got it,” said Anna. “By five seconds.”

There was a sense of achievement on Jenny’s face, but it was replaced quite quickly by a more conciliatory expression.

“You know what?” She said. “Give it to him. “He’s worked hard and he deserves it.”

Before the great announcement, Jenny had a shower too. 

“Go on then,” said Peter while she was gone, “Give us a hint.”

“You’ve got it,” said Anna. “By five seconds.”

There was a sense of achievement on Peter’s face, but it was replaced quite quickly by a more conciliatory expression.

“You know what?” he said. “Give it to her. I think she’ll enjoy it more than me.”

With everyone assembled the final result was given.

“Dead heat,” said Anna. “Can’t quite believe it, but there you go.”

Peter and Jenny hugged. Helen smiled and gave Anna a high five. Astra grinned the biggest grin.