Running
I remember I used to run, when I was a child. I would run around and around in circles and with my arms held out like a bird for hours. I wanted to fly so badly. My dresses would billow behind me and my hair would whip back and lick my neck. It was mostly in the summers, when I was at my grandmother’s and the sun would beat down forever and the grass would grow tall. I could hear the ocean from her house and I would pretend that I was flying over the ocean. I would run with my eyes closed and when I opened them I wouldn’t know where I was. But I was never lost. I never got tired because when I was running I was free.
It drove my parents insane. My mother would always complain about how I got my dress dirty and tell me no boy would ever like me if I didn’t act like a lady. My father said it was just a phase that I would get over. Every grown up I had ever know tried to keep me from running.
It was the summer that I turned sixteen that someone slowed me down. That was the summer that I met Johnny Young. His parents moved in to the house next door, they didn’t send Johnny away for the summer like mine did. I was still a child the first day I saw him, I was still in summer dresses and my hair was still long and flew behind me like a cape when I ran. I didn’t know what the world was then.
I had only been at Grandma’s for a week when Johnny came. I woke up and started running, I closed my eyes and let my feet carry me to the place they always did. I fell down in the grass when I got there and opened my eyes to see a figure standing over me. Johnny was older than me, about two or three years. My chest was rising and falling quickly with my breathing and I squinted up at him unable to see his face because of the bright sun. It was particularly hot that day and a bead of sweat ran down my forehead.
“Did you follow me all the way here?” I asked him trying to cover up my southern accent and sound older. Johnny dug the toe of his shoe into the dirt and looked down at me.
“You run pretty fast,” was all he said. I sat up as my breathing started to calm. Johnny offered me his hand and I took it standing up.
“I like running,” I answered brushing off my dress. Now that I was standing I could see Johnny’s face. He was taller than me, but so was most everyone. He had dark hair and dark eyes. The way he looked at me scared me at first. It was like he could know what I was thinking, like he could tell that he made me nervous. He took a step closer to me.
“I’m Johnny,” he said.
“Hannah,” I answered sticking my hand out. He didn’t shake my hand; he just looked down at it and shoved his own hands in his pockets. He talked funny, but then again so did I. He didn’t sound like he was from anywhere even close to around here. He didn’t dress like it either. Then again, neither did I. I decided not to ask where he was from, “Do you like California so far?” I asked.
“I’ve only been here one day,” he replied not taking his eye off me, actually barely moving at all. I wrapped my arms around myself and looked down at my bare feet. My feet were dirty from running, my toe nails weren’t painted like all the girls back home in Texas. I wasn’t much like anyone back home in Texas.
“Welcome to Apple Valley,” I offered lamely.
“Thanks,” he looked away from me for the first time in ten minutes and stared across the grass that turned into desert, “You want to go for a swim? I know where we can find a pool.”
“I don’t have a swimsuit,” I said looking down at my dress.
“No one will be around,” He answered looking back at me with those eyes, “Just us.”
“Okay.” Johnny smiled and motioned for me to follow him. Johnny liked to walk. He walked with his hands in his pockets and his eyes fixed forward on where he was going. But occasionally he looked over at me. We didn’t talk while we walked and I itched every second to break out and run. Suddenly an old house appeared on the horizon, not far from where we were.
“Is that it?” I asked.
“Yeah, the people who lived there just moved out, but the pool is still full,” Johnny answered.
“I’ll race you,” I said not waiting for his answer before I broke out in a run.
Johnny ran after me, he was fast and he caught up to me. He grabbed me around the waist and picked me up still running and I laughed. He didn’t put me down until we were in front of the house. It looked so out of place in the desert. It was a big empty black mansion. You couldn’t hear the ocean anymore there. I stopped in front of the steps and looked up at the house hesitantly.
“Come on, its okay,” Johnny said reaching his hand out to me. I took his hand and followed him up the stairs and into the house. All of the furniture was covered in white cloth that made the house even more eerie. Johnny held my hand the whole way through until we got to the pool, then he let go to open the door.
I followed Johnny into the pool room. He pulled off his shirt and shoes and jumped into the glistening water. I dipped my toe in and felt the cool water that was so welcoming after being out in the sun all day. As I walked down the steps further into the pool my dress floated up around me at the top of the pool. I pushed it down under the water only to have it float back up. I never knew why I wore those dresses, I hated them. They were always ugly colors and had flowers all over them. But I had always worn them, all my life actually.
I looked up at Johnny to find him watching me. I smiled nervously and took a deep breath before going under the water. When I came back up I shook my hair and it whipped around and stuck to my neck now. Johnny was closer to me now. He pulled the hair from my plastered neck and ran his fingertips down my bare skin. I closed my eyes like I was running, and it really felt like I was even though I was standing still. I felt his warm lips on my neck.
I was shaking now, whether it was from the cool pool water or the kiss I couldn’t know. I opened my eyes and looked up at Johnny; he stared back at me for a moment before he leaned down to kiss me on the lips. Our lips touched for only a moment before I pushed him away and began to climb out of the pool. The door to the pool room was open but my wet dress weighed me down. I made it out of the house with Johnny trailing me, calling after me, “Hannah wait!” When I got outside it had started to rain. I ran with my eyes open now.
The cold wind hit my face and my dress stuck to my skin, but I ran with all the speed I could find. I could see the place where the tall grass grew and I wanted to get there, I wanted to get back to where it was safe. My childhood was washing away with the rain and it scared me, I wanted it back. No one had ever kissed me before, no one had ever looked at me the way Johnny did.
My parents had insisted on treating me like a child my whole life. I was comfortable there. In the land of childhood I didn’t have to worry about grown up things. I didn’t have to think about how I really felt. I could just run.
Thunder clapped and lightning struck overhead. I tore at the buttons of my ugly flower dress and let it fly off of me leaving me in my slip. The rain fell harder on me. This time when Johnny caught up and grabbed me around the waist I didn’t laugh, I screamed, “Let me go!” Johnny turned me to face him and I pulled as hard as I could to escape. Johnny was strong.
“Hannah stop, what’s wrong?” His eyes were concerned. I kept pulling and my screams of protest were drowned out by thunder.
“I won’t do it Johnny!” I screamed after the thunder, “I won’t fall in love with you!”
“Why not!” I could have sworn he smiled then. I just shook my head and kept pulling against his grip, “I won’t let you go Hannah!” he yelled over the crashing rain and pulled me against him wrapping his strong arms around me.
I told Johnny I would never fall in love with him but the thing was we had been in love our whole lives, we just never knew it. Johnny would always let me run and I would always run home to him. We spent the rest of that summer laying in the tall grass and running together. We never went back to that black mansion or that swimming pool. I still didn’t know the world at the end of it all, but I did know I loved Johnny. I grew up a little and finally made decisions for myself. I learned a little bit about a lot and stopped wearing those dresses.
Johnny and I loved each other our whole lives, and we ran.
They've been in love their whole lives? And didn't know it? They just met! Though I know what you're trying to achieve, this whole story is too short for you suddenly to jump in with pledges of lifelong commitment. I'm not partial to that kind of soulmate romance, unless it's in fantasy, because that's what it is - fantasy, and what celebrities say a year before their umpteenth divorce. You could possibly get away with it if you had a proper build-up, but this comes completely out of the blue.
