Chapter 10 - THE SHADOW IN THE REARVIEW
I finished my simple breakfast quickly,
paying with some crumbled dollar bills,
then I went back to the street,
the sun was high in the sky now,
warming up the cold concrete paths,
I felt a strange sensation suddenly,
like someone was watching my back,
I turned around very fast,
but the sidewalk was almost empty,
only an old man walking a dog,
and a black SUV parked down,
parked near the street corner,
the windows were darkly tinted,
I could not see the driver inside,
but the car looked familiar to me,
it looked like Chad's vehicle,
Logan's best friend and drinking partner,
Chad was a dangerous man too,
he had a record for assault,
and he always defended my brother,
no matter what terrible thing he did,
my heart skipped a beat in fear,
was he following me right now,
did my mother call him to track,
to track me down in the city,
I accelerated my pace immediately,
turning corners without a plan,
trying to lose the black shadow,
my head began to throb violently,
the pain was returning with force,
making my vision go dark at edges,
I needed to find a safe place,
somewhere with lots of people,
somewhere where he couldn't grab me,
I ran into the public library,
the large glass doors shut behind,
cutting off the street noise completely,
the air inside was cool and quiet,
smelling of old paper and books,
I hurried to the back rows,
hiding between the tall wooden shelves,
sitting on the carpeted floor,
pulling my knees to my chest,
praying that he didn't see me,
May you like
praying that I was truly safe,
inside this house of words.
