Walking home from Becca’s house, I went over the whole last week in my head. Was it only a week ago that I’d gone to the concert with Nareem? That was hard to believe.
It should have been the greatest week of my life.
But instead it turned into one of the worst.
How could it have gone so wrong?
I was trying to figure that out when I looked around and realized something.
It was getting late.
Then I realized something else.
I wasn’t going to make it home before dark.
I started running, which considering my general state of fitness, is not necessarily a good idea. After about five minutes, I started breathing so hard I thought I was going to keel over.
Then I did something pretty hilarious.
I reached into my pocket to call my mom.
Oh, right. NO CELL PHONE.
Which is when I got a little scared.
It’s not like I’m a baby: I actually even like horror movies. But I’d never been far from home at nighttime with no way to get in touch with anyone before. It wasn’t a good feeling.
I remembered what Charlie Joe said earlier in the week, when he held up his phone and said there was a call for me.
What if something bad actually happened?
I tried to put that out of my head.
I was on a busy road, with a very thin sidewalk. Cars whizzed by me, the fumes from their exhaust pipes blasting stinky heat up my nose.
Oh, and did I mention it started to rain?
I walked for a few minutes, then jogged for a few minutes, and realized I still had about two miles to go. And there wasn’t even a gas station or anything between here and there.
I was trying to decide if maybe I should just go up to a random house and ask to use the phone when a car pulled up beside me. The window went down, and I heard a male voice.
“Do you need a ride?”
I didn’t turn and look, because people say never make eye contact with a stranger. I just shook my head. “No, thank you.”
“It’s getting dark out here, young lady,” the voice said. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” For a minute I was tempted to ask this person for their cellphone, but I resisted.
“Okay,” the man said, and off he went.
I started to cry a little bit, and started getting mad at myself. How could I ever have thought giving up my cell phone was a good idea? What was wrong with me?!
Another car pulled up. I started to run. The car was right behind me. I tried to run faster, but I couldn’t. I was wet, and tired, and defeated. I stopped and turned. I would accept their ride, whoever it was. I would just have to hope that the person driving wasn’t an escaped criminal.
The car window rolled down.
“Katie? Oh my God, there you are! We’ve been looking all over for you!”
It was Becca and her father.
I started to cry for real.
I’d never been so happy to see someone in my whole life.
With the possible exception of Jane Plantero.