6
She slipped and fell coming down a hill, getting mud on her dress and ripping a hole in her leggings, but she got up quick and kept moving. She was thinking about how brave she was, running from a monster. I tricked him, and now I’m going to escape. She could almost hear her father praising her. He often told her that if she didn’t know what to do she should listen for the little voice in her head. ‘The little voice is hardly ever wrong,’ he would say. Well sometimes the little voice isn’t so little, sometimes it’s a big voice, and sometimes it screams ‘RUN!’
She was tearing across a rocky patch of ground and almost went over a steep drop off, but turned in time and ran along the edge until she found a safe place to jump down. She took a moment to look back, but she didn’t see any sign of the monster. He’s probably still got his eyes closed, she told herself. She would be miles away before he opened his eyes. Helena was a fast runner, she would be the fastest kid in her class if it weren’t for KJ, and he was so tall that the comparison really wasn’t fair.
Even so, after an hour of running she was getting a bit tired, and the trees and bushes wouldn’t let her go in a straight line. She was constantly having to turn one way or the other, which made her worry that she might wind up going in a big circle and get nowhere. It was a thought that made her want to give in to exhaustion and stop to rest for a moment.
No, she told herself, picturing the monster’s teeth, keep running!
She started up a steep hill, and had to push herself to keep going. Soon there will be a house, she thought. Maybe on the other side of this hill I’ll see a swing-set or an above-ground pool, maybe this is all someone’s backyard. She imagined running up to a house and banging on the backdoor, ‘Hey let me in! I been kidnapped! I need help!’
But when Helena got to the top of the hill she saw how wrong she was. There was a view out into the valley, and there was nothing but trees stretching as far as she could see. There were no houses or any sign of human activity anywhere in the vast expanse of green. That was when she knew exactly where she was: nowhere.
She slumped down to the ground and began to cry. Helena knew without a doubt that that no matter what she did, she would eventually be monster food. I won’t even be a good meal, I’m too skinny. She thought. Maybe they’ll try to fatten me up first, like the witch from Hansel and Gretel.
Something about that story had always bothered Helena, but she didn’t know what it was until that moment. What bothered her was that the witch had a whole candy-house setup just to catch kids. She’d obviously put a lot of work into it, and Hansel and Gretel probably weren’t the first kids to come along. Maybe she’d fattened up and eaten hundreds of kids before Gretel and her dumb little brother came a-munching on her windowsill. Nobody told those stories, so it was like those kids never existed. That would be her. Some kid would come along later and outsmart the monsters, and everyone would hear about it, but she would just be a girl who’d disappeared. No happy ending, no story, no Helena.
Her despair was turning to anger as she pictured that kid who had her same story only with a happy ending. She was picturing a blonde boy with a nice haircut and new clothes, telling how he had pretended to be the monster’s friend so he could slip away. Helena hated him.
“That’s my story!” She shouted, standing up. She looked down into the valley again. It’s not so bad, she told herself, there’s probably houses down there that I can’t see. She began to move again, picturing that perfect blonde kid. Nice try jerk. I’m gonna keep running until I find help. I’ll keep going a week, a month, a year even. I might have to eat crickets and frogs to stay alive, but it’s still better than being a happy-meal.
She ran down the other side of the ridge, and made her way toward the valley. She was past exhaustion, and as hours went by she kept putting one foot in front of the other automatically, without thought or effort. By the evening she’d travelled almost seven miles. She hadn’t seen any sign of the monster, and she figured he would’ve gotten her by then if he knew where she was. The sun was going down and it was getting cold and Helena was thinking about how she was going to stay alive in the wilderness. She decided to look for a hiding place where she could spend the night.
And food?
She tried to put it out of her head, but her stomach kept pulling her thoughts back to the pumpkin pie filling she’d had that morning. Pumpkin pie filling is exactly what you would feed a kid if you were trying to fatten them up. Even the thought of food made Helena sleepy. Her feet were dragging and she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open.
Helena saw a large bush with branches that curved over, forming an alcove underneath. She thought she’d be hidden in there if the monster came by, so she pushed her way in. There was more space further back, so Helena moved another set of branches and kept going. There was a lot of space under the bush, and she decided to go as deep as she could. She was almost at the center when she noticed something reddish brown behind the thickest set of branches. She squinted at the shape, thinking it was a trick of the evening light, but it moved and she saw Rei’s furry face looking directly at her.
Helena screamed, startling the yeti, and scrambled back out of the bush. Before she had time to run she felt his giant hands lifting her. “You found me!” He said. “You won the game!”
“No, that’s not how you play,” Helena said. “I was supposed to hide and you were supposed to find me.”
“I’m sorry little one, I didn’t know the game took so long. We don’t have time to play anymore, I have to get to the Gather to give my report. I’ll have to find somewhere for you to wait nearby. A Gather is no place for a human.”
Helena groaned. “Why don’t you just eat me now?”
“Don’t be silly.” Rei said. He sniffed at her hair. “When we get closer I’ll take off your coverings and dress you in river mud.”
His words fought their way through her exhaustion and she tried to understand what he’d said. “You’re going to do what?”
“Take off your coverings and coat your body with river mud.”
“Why?”
“To cover your smell.” Rei said.
Helena reeled back. “MY SMELL?” She was shouting at him in English. “MY SMELL? LOOK WHO’S TALKING, YA BIG STINKY OOF!”