“Hurry up! We’re gunna miss it!” he shouted.

I willed my legs to run faster, following the dark figure ahead of me.

He leaped, high and gracefully, onto the cargo box, and quickly faced me again.

“Jump now!” he pleaded, reaching his arm to me.

I leaped as high as my short legs allowed me and flew through the air, almost as in slow motion.

Finally, the terror was over. We both lay out sprawled on the floor, gasping for air.

“We did it!” he said after a while.

I smiled and turned around, laying my head on his chest. We both looked out at the dark landscape flying past us, and the magical unmoving stars above.

“Where’s this train takin’ us again?” I asked quietly.

“Who knows? We’ll be fine as long as we’re together.” He kissed the top of my head.

“What if they call the police?”

“Don’t worry, baby, I’ll keep us safe. Soon we’ll be too far away from that crappy place we used to call home, for them to ever find us.”

“Will they take you to jail for kidnapping me?”

“You’re not a kid and I didn’t forcefully take you away. You wanted to come with me.”

“Well, what other choice did I have?” I laughed, squeezing him tighter. “I wasn’t gunna live without you, ya know.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

The next thing I knew, I was being shaken awake. It was still dark and Derek’s frantic face showed clearly in the moonlight.

“Mandy, baby. Wake up, we gotta hide!” he whispered vigorously, pulling me into a sitting position. “Stay low and get in one of those boxes.”

“What’s going on?” I mumbled. Then I heard them; men with flashlights shouting at each other. I quickly followed Derek’s order, trying to pull him with me.

“No babe, I can’t afford them finding both of us. I’ll be right on the other side,” he gave me a quick kiss on the lips and began to turn away. I pulled him back for more.

He ripped away again and gently pushed me back saying, “Hurry, go!”

I raced to where he had pointed toward and quickly hid in a large box. I sneezed as the powdered coal tickled my nose, then held my breath.

I grabbed my pocked knife and silently made a small hole in the cardboard, big enough for my little eye to peek through. And that was the last time I saw him.


“Mandy! Clear up Table Five!” I snapped back to the present and looked around the restaurant. It was the dinner rush and my co-workers were bustling all over the place. I hurried back to work, clearing tables.

“Excuse me, Miss?”

I turned around to the table behind me. “Yes, sir?”

“It is you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Mandy.”

I froze. It can’t be him… could it? It’s been five years since our
escape. I ended up in New York. I waited for him to find me. I stayed in homeless shelters and searched for work waitressing. I started in the crappy burger joints and slowly made my way up. Eventually, I could afford my own apartment.

I now was a waitress at a popular, classy 5-star restaurant in the heart of New York. I had just about given up waiting for him.

The man starting up at me in awe now couldn’t be him. But yet, there were the eyes, the perfectly shaped nose, and there, half hidden in his hair, the long thing scar peeking from behind his ear to the beginning of his jaw.

“Derek.”