Chapter 6: Newton

Marc Oglesby is thinking that maybe it's time to go home. If the weatherman had said that it was going to rain, Marc wouldn't have come at all. He has much better things to do on a Saturday than to lug his photography equipment all the way from Peabody to Newton, and if he had known that it was going to rain all morning, he would have stayed at home. In his warm bed. With his warm girlfriend. Even though it finally has stopped raining, the sky remains unrelentingly gray, and Marc has finally given up hope that the clouds will break and allow him to get a decent shot. The hell with it, he thinks, and he begins to unscrew his camera from the tripod. What a waste of time... "I think that's Jill Kendal," one of the volunteers says excitedly. Marc glances down the road. Two women, a blonde and a redhead, are running toward the aid station, they're maybe a quarter of a mile away and closing fast. They're running down the middle of Commonwealth Avenue, one on either side of the double yellow line. Although it's hard to tell for sure, the redhead appears to be slightly ahead. It seems to Marc that the women are sprinting unusually hard for this point in the race. If he sets up his camera right in the center of the road, he just might be able to get a few interesting shots of the women as they race toward him. Given the quality of the light, the photos will probably be kind of drab, but he can always digitize them and brighten them up on his computer. Maybe this day won't turn out to be a complete disaster after all. He frantically moves his tripod to the middle of the road, its spindly aluminum legs straddling the center line. He sticks the camera on the tripod, tightens the screw, glances at his light meter, and lines up his subjects as quickly as he can. He fires off a half-dozen shots in rapid succession as the two women hurtle toward him. He watches as slowly, nearly imperceptibly, the gap between the women closes... Marc Oglesby lines up a shot ©2006 David Kessel Next: Chapter 7 (Newton) [ Transition Home Page | Transition Blog ] Transition: The OnLine Triathlon Adventure Novel ©2005-2006 Hank Mishkoff