Mari & Ilna-you're the best.
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All the Information Is On the Task (1/?)
"The decorations look great, Grace," Chelsea Cuzzi said as everyone began to take their seats. "I've seen pictures of other parties you designed but this is my first chance to see your work up close. No wonder Ko Olina snapped you up so fast after graduation."
Grace blushed. "Thanks."
"I want a front row seat," Danny said as he moved past them. "I've been waiting for this for months."
"Thank you all for coming to the First Annual SEAL Taskmaster party," Annie said as she addressed friends and family gathered on the beach around a large video screen. "I'm sure by now most of you understand how this works so I'll just give you a quick overview.
"Over the last several months our five willing participants …"
"Willing might be a stretch," Cuzzi called out playfully. "I was forced into it by my daughter."
"Don't let him fool you." Annie chuckled. "He wanted to do this every bit as much as me."
"Stop trying to act like you aren't dying to win that trophy," Hoss said.
"I said I had to be talked into participating," Cuzzi pointed out. "Once the competition starts I'm in it to win it."
Annie mock glared at her father. "May I continue, please?"
He nodded. "Go ahead, sweetie. You're doing great."
She rolled her eyes. "As I was saying….over the last several months these five former SEALS have completed a series of tasks. None of them know how the others did. They'll find out tonight as we watch the videos.
"Once we've seen them all, they'll be scored by our completely impartial taskmaster." She pointed to Joseph. "Captain Rollins has graciously agreed to step into that role."
Al Cuzzi raised a hand, prepared to point out that Steve's father in law might not be able to be completely neutral, but Joseph cut him off before he could speak.
"Do you have a problem believing I can be objective, Commander?" he asked with a pointed look.
"No, Sir." Cuzzi straightened a little in his chair. "Not at all."
"So, are we ready to get started?" Annie asked.
The assembled guests cheered and turned to face the screen as the first images came up.
"This was actually the last task we filmed but I decided to start with it because …well, you'll see. First up, let's watch my dad."
All eyes turned to the screen.
"Deliver this pizza to your wife," Al read. "You may not walk on the sand. You may not use any sort of boat or flotation apparatus. You must remain in contact with the pizza at all times. The pizza in the best condition, delivered to your partner quickest, wins. Your time starts now."
"I can't walk on the sand but that doesn't mean I can't belly crawl, right?"
"All the information is on the task," Annie told him.
"She said that every time I asked a question," Cuzzi groused.'
"Being as this was the last task you'd think you'd have known by this point," she chuckled.
They all watched as Al dropped to his stomach and maneuvered the pizza onto his back. "I got this."
Twenty feet later the pizza somehow managed to flip off his back and land upside down in the sand.
As everyone laughed Jack Radicz called out in his best narrator voice, "He did not, in fact, have it."
Cuzzi smiled good-naturedly.
By the time he made it to the dinghy the pizza box was soaked, half of the pieces had disappeared under the water, and what was left was a soggy mess. As he reached what he thought was his destination, his expression changed to a mixture of surprise and frustration.
"You're not my wife," he said, the entire conversation caught by a camera attached to the raft.
"No, I'm not," the stand-in smiled.
"Do you know where my wife is?" Cuzzi asked.
The woman on the raft shook her head.
He gathered up what was left of the pizza and headed back towards shore. Once he was back on the mat he addressed Annie's image.
"That's not your mother."
Her eyes sparkled. "Excellent observation."
"Where's your mother?" he asked.
"That's what you're supposed to be figuring out," she told him.
His eyes scanned the beach until they settled on a very familiar looking silhouette about 50 feet away, sitting under an umbrella reading a book. He walked up with an embarrassed smile and handed Chelsea the remnants of the box and 2 inedible slices of pizza.
"I didn't see you there," he chuckled.
She grinned. "Apparently not."
"Would you like some pizza?" he teased.
The assembled friends chuckled as the video ended.
"Uncle Al!" Angie's hand flew up to her mouth. "You were walkin' on the sand and you weren't supposed to."
"I kinda got caught up and forgot that rule," Al said.
"That's ok," Angie said. "We just learn so we do better next time."
"Next up," Annie said. "Let's watch Hoss's attempt."
"Let me guess," Cuzzi called out. "He ate the pizza before he got to the raft."
"Closest I ever came to losing a hand was when I reached for a donut he had his eye on," Jack Radicz said.
Hoss flexed. "And yet somehow I still manage to look like this."
"I've met your parents," Steve said. "It's just good genetics."
Unlike his friend, Hoss actually managed to make it to the dinghy with the pizza slightly soggy but still mostly intact. Once he realized it wasn't his wife Victoria on the small boat, he headed back towards shore, eyes scanning the sand as he swam. When he was about 30 feet from shore he spotted her.
As he stood up and started to walk towards her something caught his eye. He sat the pizza down without thinking and rushed to help a small sea turtle that had flipped over and was having trouble getting back on its feet.
"Thank you for helping that turtle," Kaitlyn said as she watched. "It looked really young and probably wouldn't have been able to get turned over by itself."
"It was my pleasure," Hoss said sincerely.
On the screen, as he watched to make sure the turtle got back to the water safely, several small waves lapped over the pizza box, destroying the contents.
"It's a little soggy," he said apologetically as he handed what remained of the pizza to his wife.
"No worries. At least the turtle is ok." She stood up and kissed his cheek eliciting a round of awwwwwws from everyone watching.
"You walked on the sand too," DJ pointed out gently.
"I did." Hoss nodded. "But at least Cuzzi screwed up first so I didn't look stupid."
"It seemed like the sand rule slipped their minds as soon as they got into the water," Elizabeth said.
Annie nodded her agreement. "Next up, let's watch Jack."
Jack's attempt at the task followed a very similar pattern to Cuzzi and Hoss until the moment he exited the water and began looking for his wife, Anna. He walked 100 yards in each direction scanning the people on the beach. It was a cool, cloudy day so the crowd was light.
He retraced his steps a second time.
Then a third.
On the fourth trip down the beach he dropped his chin to his chest and approached his wife with a sheepish expression.
"Have you been there this whole time?" he asked.
She grinned. "I have."
He shook his head. "How did I keep missing you?"
"I'll bet there were flowers coming your way that night, Anna," Carrie teased.
"Speaking of flowers…." Annie said in a sing-song voice. "Let's watch John's attempt. You'll all notice that for Steve and John's attempts we needed to make one small tweak. Since there were less people out on this beach we actually hid both women … well. You'll see."
John dropped his arm around Carrie as the video started to play.
"That was a great idea with the paper plates," she said supportively as he got underway.
Several minutes later he made it back from the dinghy and out of the water with the pizza in surprisingly good shape. After a few minutes of appearing uncertain what to do next, he began to search for Carrie.
He ran around the entire perimeter of the house.
Nothing.
He checked the garage.
Nothing.
He checked behind the counter in the outdoor kitchen.
Nothing.
Suddenly he stepped off the deck and began searching through the flower beds. Looking under and behind every plant. He carefully moved back the thorny branch of Nonna's rosebush and peered underneath.
"Did you think I'd turned into some kind of garden fairy?" Carrie asked.
John laughed. "I have no idea what I was thinking by that point."
After several more minutes it finally dawned on him to check inside the house, where he found Carrie sitting on the couch in the living room.
"The pizza is cold," he chuckled.
"That's ok." She grinned. "I feel like Chinese anyway."
"We'll go over the specifics later but I'll just say for now that John took the longest to find his wife," Annie said. "But his pizza was intact. Cold … but intact. So now we just have one left. Let's see Steve."
"I'll bet this is gonna be good," Grace said as Steve's image filled the screen.
"Deliver this pizza to your wife. You may not walk on the sand. You may not use any sort of boat or flotation apparatus. You must remain in contact with the pizza at all times. The pizza in the best condition, delivered to your partner quickest, wins. Your time starts now," Steve read.
The other four contestants groaned in unison as, without preamble, Steve picked up the pizza and headed towards the house.
"Where are you going?" Elizabeth asked.
"To find Catherine," He said matter of factly. He pointed to the person floating offshore. "That's not her."
"I coulda called that," Danny whispered to Gabby.
"I knew it!" Cuzzi slapped his leg with his hand. "That's not fair, He has some freaky kind of radar when it comes to Catherine's location. He has since the day I met him. That's an unfair advantage."
Steve grinned. "Did you notice I didn't step on the sand either?"
"Did you notice I didn't step on the sand," Cuzzi mocked good-naturedly, then took a long sip of beer.
The final shot of the video was Steve and Catherine sitting side by side on the couch laughing and eating pizza.
"Now that we've seen them all, what are the stats?" Joseph asked.
"In terms of time, John took the longest but only by 8 seconds, then Jack, then Hoss, then Cuzzi, then Steve. In terms of the condition of the pizza, Steve and John's were in perfect condition, the other three were total losses. Steve is the only one who didn't walk on the sand."
"Ok, here is my decision. Jack, you get one point," Joseph said. "You walked past Anna three times without noticing it was her."
"I deserve it," Jack chuckled.
"John, you get two points," Joseph said. "The pizza was in good shape but your little foray into the flower bed really hurt you."
John nodded.
"Cuzzi, you get three points." Joseph chuckled. "You really put that pizza through a lot."
"How come Hoss beat me?" Cuzzi asked. "His pizza was in bad shape too."
"It was," Joseph acknowledged. "But he gets a bonus point for stopping to help the turtle. Hoss, four points. So that means five points for Steve who, let's face it. Made the rest of you look bad on this one."
"Just wait," Cuzzi said. "We're just getting started."
TBC
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