I would only have seconds—literally, seconds—if he was following my scent. I jumped out the automatic doors, nearly smacking into the glass when they opened too slowly.
I catapulted out into the heat like a cannonball being flung from a catapult, landing in an elegant somersault along the crowded curb where there wasn't a cab in sight.
I had no time. Alice and Jasper were either about to realize I was gone, or they already had. It was an either/or situation and they would find me in a heartbeat.
A shuttle to the Hyatt Hotel was just closing its doors a few feet behind me when I finally noticed it.
"Wait!" I called, running, waving both arms at the driver, jumping up and down and kicking my feet from side to side.
"This is the shuttle to the Hyatt!" the driver said in utter confusion as he opened the doors.
"Yes," I huffed, "that's where I'm going." I hurried up the steps.
"You?" He demanded mockingly. "You?!" He was positively bewildered. "You don't look like you just got off a plane. You don't even have any luggage!"
I pushed past him without making eye contact. Most of the seats were empty. I sat as far from the other travelers as possible, and watched out the window as first the sidewalk and then the airport drifted away. I couldn't help imagining Fredward, where he would stand at the edge of the road when he found the end of my trail. I couldn't cry yet, I told myself. I still had a long way to go before it would be time to cry.
My luck held. In front of the Hyatt, a tired-looking couple was getting their last suitcase out of the trunk of a cab. A cab I wanted to get into, immediately! I jumped out of the shuttle and ran to the cab, sliding into the seat, real smooth, behind the driver. The tired couple and the shuttle driver stared at me. "Fuck off!" I exclaimed, laughing, shutting the cab door.
I told the surprised cabbie my mother's address. "I need to get there as soon as possible."

440

Chapter 22

←

→

main contents contact