The bag smelled of rotten potatoes. The hands were rough and grabbed her in places she’d never let anyone touch her before. Screaming had been met with a mouth full of dust and cobwebs, so she’d quickly shut her mouth. She decided instead to try kicking out blindly, which she hoped would give her a chance of fighting them off. She was satisfied when she heard a loud grunt as her foot connected with something solid.
She was thrown down on the rocky ground and when she landed on her backpack, her head snapped back and hit a rock. She could taste blood in her mouth. Someone was sitting on her chest and she found it hard to breath. Her hands were yanked above her head while someone tried to tie her feet with something, possibly a rope. She kicked out with renewed energy, making sure to never put her legs too close together so they couldn’t get a rope around them. The man above her had slipped something cold over her hands. Were those handcuffs? When she heard the small click of them sliding into place, she knew she was in trouble.
The cold metal dug into her wrists and she was finding it harder to breathe through the dusty bag. She kept her eyes closed because grit was getting into them, causing them to tear up. She was panicked, and she could feel her heart beat so hard that she could hear it in her ears.
Suddenly the man’s weight was lifted and her hands were freed from above her head. She could hear grunting and shouting, but didn’t stop to figure out what was happening. Removing the bag with her cuffed hands, she threw it on the ground. Sitting on the cool ground, she could see three figures fighting. One man stood in the middle and was kicking out at two larger men. She got up and started to run towards the lights, screaming at the top of her lungs.
She made it several feet when arms came around her from behind, grabbing hold of her shoulders and spinning her around. She didn’t have to think, she spun around and struck out. Catching the man off guard, she watched as he stepped back a full step, holding his chin in his hands. Then he stared at her with the lightest blue eyes she’d ever seen.
“Damn it, Katie,” he rubbed his jaw and stared at her.
“J – Jason?”
He recovered quickly and grabbed her hands, then started pulling her towards a darkened side street.
“We need to get away from those two men. Damn it, Katie, pick up your feet and run.”
Several people had come out of their small houses on the outskirts of town to see what was going on. Katie just stared at them as he pulled her down a dark alley.
“I am!” At least she was trying to. It must have been the lack of oxygen that was causing her head to swim. She felt like she couldn’t really focus on anything. It seemed to her that they had been running for miles through the streets and she started having a hard time keeping up. They had passed all the houses and entered the main part of the city. Here the buildings were taller and closer together, and the street lights lit up the darkness. She looked at Jason’s back as he pulled her down street after street. His hair was longer and it looked like he’d gained a little muscle since the last time she’d seen him. He had always been skinny, but now he looked like he was built.
Finally, after they had gone over a dozen more blocks, she pulled her hands free of his hold. They were standing a few feet away from the corner of two streets in a busier section of town. Cars zipped by and she noticed people walking all around them. The night life of Alimos was busier here.
“Jason, stop! W-what are you doing in Greece?” She looked down and realized she still wore the shiny pair of handcuffs.
“It appears as though I’m saving your ass, again,” he said, smiling down at her.
A memory flashed in her mind. It had all started the summer when she turned eight and had gone to the country club swimming pool with her mother and brother, Ric, something they did almost daily during the hot summer days in Boston. This particular day, she’d been stuck swimming in the kiddie pool because her mother was too preoccupied to watch her in the larger pool.
If her mother would just let her take swimming lessons like her brother had, she could enjoy the large green slide that twisted in loops and sat on the large side of the deep pool.
The slide was something Katie had always wanted to try out. Ric was constantly going down it or jumping off the diving board. That day it had been easy to escape her mother’s attention. She was flirting with the lifeguard and wasn’t keeping a close eye on Katie.
She remembered focusing on the large slide as she walked over to it. She can’t remember making it up the stairs or what she had thought about while sitting at the top. But she did remember the thrill of falling and spinning as she jetted down the slick surface towards the cool, clear water.
Jason hadn’t been much older or bigger than her, but he had been an avid swimmer already. His light blue eyes had been the first thing she had seen as she lay on the side of the pool.
Her mother and the lifeguard had also hovered over her, but she paid them no attention and just looked at the boy who had saved her. His worried eyes focused on her and when he noticed she was okay, he smiled the nicest smile Katie had ever seen. His sandy dark hair was slicked back away from his tan face, and he had the cutest dimple right above his mouth on the right side.
Jason’s mother had rushed through the growing crowd at that point and a dramatic scene had ensued. Everyone pawed and oohed over Katie, but her mind was totally focused on Jason, much like it had been focused on the slide just a few minutes earlier.
Finally, everyone had settled down, and Katie was forced to sit in the shade the rest of the day while her brother played in the cool water and her mother went back to socializing. Jason had sat next to her for a while, and she had fallen in love right there, under a large oak tree by the kiddie pool at the country club.
For the remainder of the summer Katie trailed Jason around at the pool. She spent every moment of her time at the club hunting him down and following him, until finally, instead of trying to ditch her like he’d been doing, one day he started looking for her instead. He taught her to swim and she enjoyed the game of sneaking away from her mother to be with him.
After that summer, Katie didn’t go anywhere without Jason; they were inseparable. It was the same all throughout school as slowly they became best friends. If anyone dared hint that they were anything but friends, they would set them straight quickly. And for years and years, Katie had kept her infatuation to herself.
“Not that again.” She blinked her mind clear and frantically started to pull at her wrists, trying to get the tight cuffs off. “I’ve told you a million times, I was swimming just fine. If you hadn’t jumped on top of me, I would have made it to the side of the pool all by myself.” It was an old argument that no one ever won.
He grabbed her wrists and quickly unlocked the handcuffs, then dropped them and the key on the ground. Katie wiped her face and eyes clear, but she felt like she was covered with dirt and was beginning to feel as if she was in shock. Her mind was foggy, almost like she’d spent the whole day running. Her breath was still shaky and she tried to level it by taking deep breathes.
“Where did you get the key?” She walked over to retrieve the keys and cuffs, looking at them with wonder. She was trying to keep her mind off the fact that she’d almost been kidnapped.
“Leave them, Kat.” He reached for her hand again. “We better keep moving.”
“No, I’m not going anywhere until I get some answers.” She pulled her hand out of his warm fingers as she started to shake. “Why are you in Greece? Have you been following me? How did you get this?” She held up the key and looked at it.
She watched him look around and then he shook his head in frustration. She finally got a good look at him. His face was scruffy with a few day’s growth, giving him a more dangerous, mysterious look, something she had never thought about him before. He was almost unrecognizable.
His faded jeans hung low on his hips and his dark jacket had sand all over it. He had a dark pair of running shoes on and she noticed the dark straps of a backpack hanging on
his broad shoulders.
She hadn’t seen him in a year and looking at him now was like seeing heaven. She’d missed him, but looking at him also stirred questions deep inside her. She wondered how their relationship would be now. Would it be changed? Had she changed too much? Had he changed too much for her to recognize?
When he ran his hands through his hair in frustration, she saw her old Jason and was very glad.
She was relieved that he had come along when he had. She’d been in trouble, a lot more than just getting in too deep at the swimming pool. She dumped the handcuffs and key and waited until he focused on her face again, thinking about what could have happened if he hadn’t come along.