Gold Read Free

shared. Now the electricity burning out had left her burned out too.
    A second later she laughed at herself. After all, everything could befixed. She looked in the kitchen drawer until she found fuse wire, then took a torch into the understairs toilet, where the fuse box was. Sophie screamed when she left the room, so she picked her up and held her under one arm while she juggled the torch and the fuse wire in her other hand, standing on the toilet seat to reach the fuse box. Sophie wriggled and squawked and kept trying to grab the wires. After a minute of trying, Kate decided she cared about not electrocuting her daughter more than she cared about watching Zoe race.
    She put Sophie back down on the living room floor. Immediately the baby brightened up and resumed her endless quest for dangerous objects to put in her mouth. Fifteen hundred miles away the first of the best-of-three sprint rounds was over by now, and Zoe had either won or lost. It felt weird not to know. Kate clicked the TV on and off, as if some restorative element in the wiring of the house—some electronic white blood cell—might have healed the damage. No picture came. Instead she watched herself, ten pounds heavier than her racing weight, still in her nightie at three in the afternoon, leaning out of the reflection in the blank black TV screen.
    She sighed. She could fix the problems with her reflection. Some hard miles of training would put the leanness back into her face, and her blond hair wouldn’t always be scraped back into a tight bunch to keep it clear of Sophie’s sticky grip, and her blue eyes were only hidden behind her ugly glasses because she just hadn’t found the strength to get dressed and go to the shops for the cleaning fluid for her contacts. All this could be sorted.
    Even so, as she watched herself on TV, she panicked that Jack couldn’t possibly still find her attractive. It didn’t do to dwell on thoughts like that, so she slumped back down on the sofa and phoned him. Behind his voice when he picked up was the roar of five thousand people.
    “Did you see that?” he shouted. “She killed it! She won like she wasn’t even trying!”
    “Zoe did?”
    “Yeah! This place is unbelievable. Don’t tell me you weren’t watching?”
    “I couldn’t.”
    She heard him hesitate. “Come on, Kate, don’t be bitter. It’ll be you racing next time, in Beijing.”
    “No, I mean I actually couldn’t watch. The power’s gone out.”
    “Did you check the fuses?”
    “Gosh, Ken, my Barbie brain did not entertain that option.”
    “Sorry.”
    Kate sighed. “No, it’s okay. I tried to fix the fuse but Sophie wouldn’t let me.” Straightaway, she realized how sulky that sounded.
    “Our daughter is pretty strong for her age,” said Jack, “but I still reckon you should be able to kick her arse in a straight fight.”
    She laughed. “Look, I’m sorry. I’m just having a shitty time here.”
    “I know. Thank you for looking after her. I miss you.”
    Tears formed in her eyes. “Do you?”
    “Oh my God,” he said, “are you kidding? If I had to choose between flying home to you and racing for gold here tomorrow, you know I’d be right back on that plane, don’t you?”
    She sniffed, and wiped her eyes. “I’m not asking you to choose, idiot. I’m asking you to win.”
    She heard his smile down the phone. “If I win, it’s only because I’m scared of what you’ll do to me if I don’t.”
    “Come back home to me when you win gold, okay? Promise me you won’t stay out there with her.”
    “Oh Christ,” he said. “You know you don’t even have to ask me that.”
    “I know,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
    Through the phone connection, the noise of the crowd peaked again.
    “The second race is starting,” Jack shouted over the roar. “I’ll call you back, okay?”
    “You think she’ll win it?”
    “Yeah, absolutely. She made round one look like a Sunday ride.”
    “Jack?”
    “Yeah?”
    “I