Runner

Without thinking I was lost. I had gone for miles further than I had meant to and didn’t know where I was. This part of the country was unknown to me and there were few people around. The lines of trees were a blur as I sped along the cycle track on my bike. From the look of the landscape, I guessed I was nearing the outskirts of the neighbouring town of Sinke and to get my bearings I stopped where the track widened. I drank from the half-empty water bottle, letting some of the icy cold water spill down my shirt as I looked around. There were runners ahead and a small group of them behind, cyclists came in ones and twos and in the distance, through the thick barrage of verdant green I could see the old fashioned steam train slowly chugging along taking day-trippers up and down its line.

Checking around me I saw the not unusual sight of an exhausted runner leaning against a tree, trying to get a breath. On her front and on her back were numbers, I didn’t see what they were, as my eyes didn’t take it in. It was a woman and she was bent over, facing the ground. She was wearing retro headphones and large sunglasses that somehow made her head look small. Even though I couldn’t see her face, somehow, she looked familiar and so as curiosity got the better of me, I cautiously wheeled my bike over to her and held out the bottle not saying anything. I shook the bottle, making the water splosh about. She slid the oversized headphones off with the music still playing, it blared out loudly until she turned it off.

‘Oh,’ she looked up, panting and dripping with sweat, her body shaking. As she looked at me her mouth half opened in surprise, but she stopped herself from gasping and slowly breathed in. She knew me. Slowly and thoughtfully she took the bottle. She put her sunglasses up on her head and then I realised it was Sadie, my cousin’s wife. ‘Tha-anks,’ she gasped, breaking into a smile from her serious look. She drank a couple of mouthfuls of water and wiped the nozzle on her black sports shirt.

‘You’re welcome,’ I said. She handed back the plastic bottle and continued on her run without saying anything more, heading towards Sinke. I started off again and soon caught her up, as I went by her I rang my rusty old bell, that was older than the bike itself and she managed a short and awkward wave. As I pedalled on, I couldn’t get the image of her out of my head and found myself looking back at her, she was a long way off, but was keeping a steady pace. I saw her body moving in a gentle sway, her hair bobbing neatly behind her and her calm face gripped in determination. She ignored me or hadn’t seen me as I looked. I went onto to the end of the cycle track, where it met the edge of the town of Sinke. There was a large circular turnaround area there with stone seats around its edge, I used it to check the bike over. Further on there was a cafe and a narrower path to the shops that eventually led to the centre of Sinke. There were a lot of cyclists, runners and people out walking and milling around. I checked the brake pads, front and back. I looked out for her and then checked the tension of the chain. The sun was high and had gone over noon, it shone brightly on the silver spokes, making them gleam.

Behind me I heard deep panting, it was her, she was breathing hard and had gone red. Again, I handed her the water bottle, but she didn’t take it this time, she stood by me with her hands on her knees, her head down with drips of perspiration smattering on the ground. ‘I’d better go or people will start to talk, Frank,’ she said with the faintest of mischievous smiles. ‘I need to stay away from you,’ On her right ankle a black rubber bracelet double-flashed an electronic blue light, which made me remember more of her story.

‘To be honest, I didn’t know you came out this way,’ I said holding up my palms to the clear blue sky, as if they were indisputable proof of my innocence. Her husband was dead, so what did it matter?

’I didn’t know you did,′ she said as she walked off towards the car park, not looking back. There was a confidence and also a look of defeat about her.

‘Bye,’ I said slowly turning my bike around, but found myself looking at her until she went out of sight behind a wall. Her ankle bracelet flashed blue again and I wondered if she had to wear it all the time. I stared at the wall for a while in the space where she had been and found myself looking at bricks. There was light on them. The sun had hit them intensely, making some shine a ruddy red, others a dull red, almost orange and others a deep brown. The blanched white cement between shone too. The bricks were rough stone and hard, but each gave their own unique reflection, one or two were black, but they had a gleam to them as well. They were a beautiful forgotten pattern, but every wall of every street had them, I don’t know why I saw them like that at that moment.