Twenty-six: Race

"Katja, not again!" I humphed in exasperation. She had arrived ready for our daily race wearing her rollerblades. Her interview had been a day or so ago, so who knew when she was going to leave. This might very well be my last race with her. "That's cheating, you cheat skater!"

"But you can make use of the shortcuts," Katja shrugged and grinned. "You'll be able to climb and cut across the Compound but I won't. Haven't you been bragging about some new shortcut you'd found? Dare you to prove to me how good a shortcut it is."

"Fine," I turned my nose up at her. "Don't blame me if I win this time then. I might just succeed."

"In your dreams," Katja snorted.

"Bring it on," I bared my teeth, picking up a leaf and tossing it in the air.

The two of us watched the leaf drift in the air and slowly float its way down with gravity. It spun, floated and the stem touched the concrete first.

"Go!" we both shouted in unison and sped off.

Katja took the lead but I wasn't worried. I raced onto a slightly different footpath from her. After all, she had challenged me to make use of all the shortcuts and still beat her.

I swung myself up a tree to land onto a balcony. It was a public balcony of an apartment and I used the rail of the balcony to leap across to the external fire escape stairs of the next building. I half slid and half ran down the stairs to an overpass. Ignoring the 'no running, skating, skateboards or bicycles' sign, I flew down the ramp and threw myself off the end of the open balcony on the other side into the arms of a tree. While I slid down the tree, I recognised Eleanor's little red car driving by.

Her car had been a frequent sight these days, picking people and their things up and taking them out of the Compound. I wondered who the lucky people were this time. Maybe it was finally Katja's turn. Cutting through the corridors of two consecutive buildings and vaulting over a low garden wall, I ran past Katja's unit. Eleanor's car was parked there. The boot was already open with several bags loaded into it.

So there was more than one person leaving today. I didn't stay to satisfy my curiosity. I had a race to win. I dashed through a maze of both high and low buildings, cutting through or over some of them where possible. Sliding down a pillar to the ground, I rounded the corner past a lamp post with a deflated looking red balloon bobbing limply in the wind. Two men in suits were talking outside the entrance of an apartment. Their more expensive suits didn't match the types of suits most people in the Compound wore. One of them was hunched in the upper back and shoulders like a vulture. The other gave the impression of a sharp faced ermine type animal with floppy hair.

I couldn't hear what they were discussing for the wind in my ears. They barely gave me a glance.

Rounding the building corner, I saw a couple run out the back of the apartment building and take the footpath not too far in front of me. The couple glanced at me and continued running. I would have thought they were out for exercise but they were both carrying backpacks and the woman limped as if she had a sprained ankle. They seemed in a nervous hurry.

She wore a cute and fluffy hoodie that made me think of getting one myself. A hoodie would be comfortable and warm to wear, especially during the cold nights that blew icy wind through the cracks around my door. The toilet block I lived in didn't have any heating.

They kept glancing back at me with strange and curious looks as if they wanted to say something but were holding back. Since they were slower with the woman's limping ankle, I overtook them and caught the whiff of a pineapple fragrance. Maybe it was her deodorant or something. It was quite a nice fruity smell that made me long for the days where I could buy almost anything I wanted.

Their faces were unfamiliar. I'd never seen them before. The man reminded me of a flattened string bean with a pea sized face. The woman had curly hair with bleached honey coloured tips tinged with pink. The way she ran and was dressed made me think that she was probably the cutesy type of girl that liked baby pandas and fluffy unicorns. Honestly, she'd do better resting that ankle and running with a shorter stride but those weren't the sorts of things a person can say to a complete stranger they have never met.

Climbing the tree at the T-junction at the end of the footpath, I jumped the wall. I more heard than saw the couple copy my movements and jump down onto the footpath that encircled the worn and crumbling Compound walls. Glancing back, I saw the couple also throw a look at me over their shoulders. Again, it looked like they wanted to say something to me but then decided not to.

Nevermind that. I had to speed up if I were to win the last leg of this race. If my calculations were correct, Katja ought to be coming up just behind me or be just in front of me. I strained my ears for the sound of her skates but only heard the wind blowing through the trees. That was strange. Had she already beat me to the finish line? Or was I that far ahead of her?

The home stretch was where most races were won or lost and so just in case she was racing to catch up behind me, I continued to push my speed until I flew into the gates of the Compounds past the security guards who didn't even blink, having become familiar with both Katja and my routines.

Honestly, I wondered why they bothered to guard this gate so closely when the walls were so easy to climb, jump or knock down in different areas. I stood aside under the shadow of one of the big trees near the gate, walking to and fro to cool down and to get my breath back.