He spun around and fled, sprinting past telephone
poles and around parked cars. He could hear the men
begin to pursue him. Threats and curses followed,
and he could almost feel their hot, malodorous
breath on the back of his neck. Everything in front of
him swam into one big pool of darkness and he felt
himself crash into something or someone and fall
to his knees. He was up in an instant and running
again, blinking fiercely to keep his vision clear. Soon
the noise of the pursuers died out, but he didn’t
notice it. He didn’t stop until he was physically
incapable of taking another step. Then he dropped
onto the rough ground in an alley and buried his
face in his hands.
He couldn’t think; he could barely breathe. Sleep
mercifully overtook him.
*****
He awoke to a small man in a chef’s attire yelling at
him.
“Get out! This is a restaurant, not a homeless
shelter! You’re blocking the way to the dumpster!”
Nick stood up quickly. Too quickly, it would seem,
for he reeled and put a hand to his head. The
unsympathetic chef threatened to call the police, so
Nick staggered out of the alley and into the street.
He tried to remember what had happened the night
before, but only little bits and pieces came back in a
confused order. He had run away from the gang, and
they were chasing him. Wait, why had he run away
from the gang? Jade’s voice. That’s right, Jade had
told him to run. But why would she tell him to run?
Then suddenly everything came back to him. He
remembered his heartbreak, the broken bottle, and
the wandering. He recalled the church and Jade’s
voice in his head.
“I need to go back,” he muttered to himself,
directing his step toward the bar from which he had
run. “I need to come up with some excuse for last
night. They won’t care as long as I’m back.”
But even as he said it, he caught sight of a plain girl
with a brilliant smile walking with a young man
on the opposite side of the street. She had her arm
slipped through his and her attitude of trust and
affection made Nick wince. He and Jade had once
had that, before he had ruined everything.
“No,” he said aloud, spinning around on his heel
and heading in the opposite direction. An old man
getting out of a taxi peered at him curiously, but
Nick didn’t care. He wasn’t going back. He might
have no chance of winning Jade back, and she might
never know what he was doing, but if she did, he
knew she would be proud of him. Things got around
in his apartment complex. Maybe she would hear
from someone that he had left. The faint hope that
she would understand his desperate wish for her
It’s Not Cowardly to Run | Katelyn Daniels | Grade 12
9
BAYLEY BULLETIN, MAR-MAY 2016
