Running Shoes (The Shades of Northwood) (6 page)

“Yes, miss. Can
I help yer?”

“Um, does this
track belong to the college?”

“Partly. The
town owns half of it too to hold meets and things. It’s open to the
public for the holidays if yer wanting to go down?”

“Oh, no, I’m
starting at the academy soon. I just wondered.”

“Well, of
course it’s free for stew-dents. It’s pretty busy today
though.”

Katie
understood why. The last few days, whilst not exactly too hot to
run in, had been uncomfortable and exercising in the hot and sticky
British sun was not fun. But today the weather was much cooler and
the rain of the morning had helped no end. “I can hear them.”

“What sport do
you do, miss? I’m too nosey, I know, but humour an old man.”

“I got in on a
running scholarship. Cross-country.”

“Oh,” said the
old man, sounding honestly interested. His name seemed to be Roy
from the letter Katie could just see on his table. “I likes to come
see the sport on my nights off with my Bernice.”

“That must be
fun,” Katie pretended. She couldn’t see why anyone would want to
spend their down time back at work but she had no intention of
saying that to Roy and making him worry about his use of free time.
“I’ve never seen anyone from here but I hear they’re good.” But she
had heard nothing like that. She had never even heard of Northwood
let alone the school before she had gotten her place but she
supposed any college team had to have a certain degree of quality.
Maybe if she was good enough she could be an athlete on the academy
team rather than just studying and training here. Somebody must
have thought Katie was promising on a college or maybe a county
level – sports scholarships for anywhere were few and far
between.

“So, you’ll be
wanting to go down and take a look at the place. Public property
and the public don’t hardly use it. I’ve worked here all my life
and there’s some right talent runs down there.”

“Let’s just
hope I can keep up.” Katie quickly scribbled her name in his book
and noted the entire page was full of students using the track.
Then she wandered past him and stopped and stared at a full size
running track, complete with field for throwing events, pits for
jumps and everything else an athlete might want. So it wasn’t quite
as high tech as the ones on TV but it was still good. A few dozen
people were practising their chosen events. One or two older people
seemed to be coaching their younger charges. As Katie grew closer,
she told herself again that she needed to run, just once before
term began. It was safe here. There was still a few hours of
daylight left, if it was darkened quite a bit by the cloud. There
must be close on a hundred people within shouting distance. It was
as safe as she was ever likely to get.

She felt the
first drop of rainfall on her stubby little nose so she ducked
under the sheltered section of the spectator seating and found a
bench a few rows up. It gave a good view from here. The rain was
coming a drip here and a drip there but no-one seemed to be
bothered by it. The teenagers jumping and throwing faded into the
background and the runners – the sprinters and hurdler sand
distance runners fizzed into sharp focus. They all looked so…
happy. Even the ones she had watched running four or five long laps
or covering the same hundred metres over and over were still
smiling. She watched and asked herself when she would ever run
miles across fields and at the sides of roads and be able to smile?
The runners faded away, just as their stadium mates had, and the
world was just a steady
thump thump
of training shoes on the
asphalt track. It had been so long… Katie ached to get the running
gear she’d bought new a couple of months ago and join in the
training session down there but it was too hard. The new running
outfit had been her Dad’s idea when her usual stuff had got torn
and stained and then forensically tested. It had been stuffed in
her bag when she headed off to the park a few times but it had only
ever been through the wash two or three time, completely clean and
unworn. No-one had figured out it out though Dan had wondered why
there was still food in the fridge when she came home – raiding the
fridge for the junkiest food possible after a run was Katie’s one
real vice. Today, she could eat all the rubbish she wanted at home.
Home.
No-one had asked her if she did sports so there was no
pressure to do so. But not doing tit would end up getting her
kicked out of here, sent back home and then her secret would be
out. So, just run already. There was nowhere safer, better
equipped, more protected than this private oval. And, still, a tiny
voice demanded, “What if?”

“It won’t.”

Katie glimpsed
a shadow standing off to her side. She had been so lost in her own
thoughts that she had not seen him, even with her eyes wide open
but evidently blind to everything, walking up to her although some
dark corner of her consciousness recalled footsteps on the ground.
She hadn’t seen the day turn into a threatening looking evening and
all users of the training ground drift off to other places. Now it
was just Katie, the growing darkness and this boy with the cowboy
hat and fabulous green eyes. “You don’t even know what I was
talking about.”

He shrugged.
“Maybe not. But a girl like you shouldn’t be thinkin’ about what
ifs and what nots.”

“A girl like
me.”

“Young, pretty,
clever.”

“How do you
work that out? I mean the no girl’s going to argue a compliment
like that but you can’t tell if I’m smart by looking at me?”

“Look at
me.”

Katie did for
roughly a nano-second but couldn’t quite bring herself to meet his
gaze in case she got lost into those raw green seas. He put a hand
on her cheek, a touch so light and cool she shivered. The boy
laughed; a sound like rippling silk. He guided her face and
frowned. It took a second or two of holding her there before she
locked eyes and then, when Katie finally looked away, she
discovered she wanted to keep returning to his face.

“Yeah, you got
clever eyes. And something else. You’re sad.”

“Not me,
uh-uh.” Overall, Katie thought she was pretty happy. There were so
many reasons she should be cheerful but tonight, this boy was
right. She had stopped running, something she had always loved, and
let the sadness take over – the loneliness, the fear. “There’s not
much to be sad about. I’m a runner and there’s all this on my
doorstep.”

“So why aren’t
you usin’ it?”

Good question.
“No reason, I guess. I should.”

“Is that why
you’re sad?”

“I told you,
I’m not sad. Maybe a little in shock.”

The boy with
the green eyes got up and held a hand out to Katie. She didn’t take
it. Couldn’t. While she knew with every inch of her being that this
young meant her no harm – how could she know that about a perfect
stranger? It was illogical but there it was – she didn’t take it.
“You’re new around here. You got that look like you’re sizin’
everything, taking it all in.”

“Just moved
here yesterday. It’s way, way out of my comfort zone and everyone’s
older than me and more mature and it’s like they’re also sure of
themselves. And I am… I just am.”

“So? Nothing
wrong with that?”

“There’s so
much wrong with who I am you couldn’t even begin to understand. I’m
Katie by the way.” She held her hand out to the boy. He leaned down
to shake it and his eyes grabbed hers once more.

“Jack.” He
brushed her hand with his and although their fingers barely seemed
to touch, a grip circled Katie’s palm and pulled her up. She
followed him down the steps and out into the open, where rain was
falling in lazy, fat drops. Right at the edge, he turned back to
her, bright eyes cutting their own paths through the gloom.
“Northwood can be a scary place but you’ll be okay. Brave people,
strong ones, that’s what the town’s always needed. There are a few
around and you’re one.” Katie raised her eyebrows at him, doubting
he would be able to see the movement. There had been nothing brave
about taking the place at Levenson Academy or leaving home; it was
just about escaping her home city. “Trust me, Katie. You’re here
because you’re supposed to be. And there’s no reason to be afraid
of any of those things I can see in that pretty little face. Not
while I’m around.” And suddenly she realised she was in the middle
of the red running track and walking down it at Jacks side. Alarm
bells rang a symphony in her ears. It was almost night time; she
was walking along a deserted track with a strange young man whose
name was the only thing she knew.

Then all that
took a back sea as she noticed that the thick rain was not falling
on either of them. She held out a hand and watched rain drops fall
onto it, tepid and surprisingly heavy. Jack stretched out his right
arm and covered her palm. They stopped and watched together as drop
after drop fell
through
them. “You’re not scared?”

“You said I
didn’t need to be.”

“I did.”

“Call me insane
but I believe you.”

“You’re insane.
Nothing can really hurt you here. Nothing you can’t come back
from.” Jack froze for a moment. Katie twisted her hand out of his
and tried to find his eyes that were just inches away but it
suddenly seemed so incredibly far. “I’m here and you’re safe. I
know why you came here. So go.” Jack made a shooing motion with his
hands and Katie started walking down the track, adding in a few
jogging steps every few yards. It was dark enough now that she
could barely see the track in front of her. Tiny footlights set
into the edges of the seating threw up just enough of a glow to
keep her in a straight line. As she went through her lap, Katie
kept glancing back to Jack to make sure he was still there. As she
reached the edge of the first bend, he stopped being Jack anymore
and started being just a dark shape that was watching her. And then
the shape started to move. She saw it move, just slightly, as
though it was simply shaking itself, it freaked her out. The
movement was familiar and sinister. A moving shape could be totally
innocuous. Still… Katie fixed her gaze on the track ahead of her,
not quite ready to run, when she heard Jack coming up beside her.
Even without looking she knew it was him. Footsteps cracked down
like whips on the asphalt – boots – cowboy boots she thought.
Something with a bit of a heel. She vaguely wondered about the
damage he was doing to both the track and his ankles. Katie
wouldn’t dream of even walking fast in heels, but then her own legs
were pretty much her meal ticket.

“It’s my first
run in a long time.”

“You’re
skippin’ more than anything.”

“Jack? Why are
you here?”

“Because you
needed a friend. I’m a friendly person. Therefore,” he waved a hand
between then, “friends.”

“At school, I
ran every evening, morning every weekend and trained once a week
with the school athletics team. Back then, this was so easy.”

“And now it’s
not?”

“And now it’s
not. Something changed and suddenly, cross country wasn’t fun any
more. Miles and miles of countryside on your own got harder and
more like work. I was doing it just to get to the end.” Katie
grinned despite herself. She remembered this feeling. Running
endless ovals, albeit much smaller ones on the school Astroturf,
and circuits of the park, felt good, right, natural. But she knew
that the minute this beautiful and gentle Jack went away she would
be running scared and running for her life once more. “If – when -
they find out I don’t run, it’s all over for me. I’m doing lots of
ordinary classes so I can get the best education I can while I’m
still here.”

“You’ll do
great.”

Katie wanted to
believe that as easily as she had believed everything he told her.
“Maybe. I just feel like… I think I’m not ready yet. Everything’s
changing and I’m trying to keep up with it all the time.”

“I think you’re
doing fine.”

As they neared
the finishing grids, Katie snatched Jack’s Stetson off his head and
placed it on hers. It smelt old and well-worn; it fitted perfectly
because the material had softened with years of use. It was far too
dark to know that that perfectly round mark dead centre of his
forehead was anything other than a blemish. She pouted and twirled
in front of him. “How’m I looking cowboy?”

Jack laughed at
her. Katie was more beautiful and way braver than any of them had
imagined. It took a special girl to be so unafraid, so unashamed
about doing something most teenage girls would balk at in case it
made them look foolish. Katie knew she was being impulsive.
Something about this boy with the green eyes made her trust him
with her gut actions. Plus, she had grown up in an athlete’s world
were privacy and self-consciousness were far behind communal
showers and drug testing. With parental permission even minors had
to do them beyond school level competitions.

“I am a proper
Southern lady sir. You should fight for my honour.” She had a
feeling he would do it if she really asked him to.

“No, no
fightin’ tonight. But you do look mighty purty, lady.” He pretended
to tip his hat to her. “Lady Katie. That suits you. Honestly,” he
said, his face getting serious again and dropping the Deep South
accent “You look beautiful.”

“Uh-huh.
Perhaps I was a cowgirl in a previous life or something. Do you
believe in past lives?”

She saw him
consider his answer. His eyes flickered for just a split second.
Jack only seemed a little older than Katie so maybe he had not
quite decided exactly what he believed in either. Only, just like
the students she had seen earlier, he seemed so confident and sure
of himself with everything else. Why did she just think
everything else
? How much everything else could a man she
hardly knew have?