Part 3. Catori
Jim and the olive-skinned woman moved steadily towards the mountains. She had given him water and told him what berries to eat. She was otherwise quiet and if she noticed him watching her from across the small fire she made for them at the end of the day, she did not seem interested.
‘Where are we going Catori,’ He finally asked awkwardlyafter sitting in the dark for a long time, forcing himself to watch the dancing fire.
Catori pointed to the mountains.
‘They are farther than I thought.’ Jim was ashamed of how tired his voice sounded and the way his face sagged, reflected in the Original woman’s bright eyes.
‘Closer than yesterday,’ Catori shrugged and raised her eyebrows, ‘What did you plan on doing?’
‘Plan?’ Jim looked around him, ‘I didn’t have a plan.’
Catori chuckled quietly but he loved the sound too much to be upset.
‘It. . . it was either run or die,’ Jim tried to make her understand, ‘Everyday it got harder and harder to . . .’
His voice trailed off when she took his callused hands in her own rough palms.
‘I know,’ she said simply, ‘I shouldn’t laugh.’
He held his breath, aware of her hand in his.
She released his hand and pointed at the shadow of the mountains in the distance,
‘We should be there in two days. If you are able to keep up.’ She said the last part with a teasing smirk and Jim returned her smile.
‘Why are you helping me?’ His hand felt colder without hers.
‘The runaways pay,’ she said simply, ‘Usually they pay to help with those who they know will be running but they pay for any that I help get to them.’
Jim looked over at Catori. She was slender and graceful. Her dark hair, tied in an elaborate knot.
‘Why else would a woman be in the forest helping runaways Jim?’ She emphasized his name in a way that made his heart burn.
‘I didn’t know those women existed,’ Jim confessed. She was laughing softly again so he stared out into the night.
‘Be happy,’ She said and he saw her stretching from the corner of his eye, ‘You could have found anyone out here. You found me. And I have made the journey to the mountains many times.’
‘You’re right,’ Jim allowed himself to look at her again, ‘Thank you.’
‘You should sleep,’ She returned his gaze for a second and then lay flat on her back, ‘Tomorrow will be hard.’
Jim rested against a nearby tree and closed his eyes. His body felt the strain of the past day immediately. Still it was Catori’s eyes and playful smile that danced before his eyes as he drifted off to sleep,
‘‘You could have found anyone out here. You found me. . .’
Her face was inches away from his when he woke up. The pain of her hand around his mouth told him that he was not dreaming. Strangely unafraid, he could not help but look at her — she was so close.
She was young, like him. She was slender but the muscles in her arm let him know that she was not weak. Her strangely familiar, dark eyes were almost brown but not a color that Jim could name. Jim knew she was pretty the moment he saw her in the forest, but now he realized that she was beautiful. Not like his owner’s wife, with her white dresses and clean hair. Not even like the midnight-skinned, fiery eyed slave women he had known. Jim thought she was beautiful like freedom because the young runaway could not think of anything else.
She was looking at him too and he was suddenly very aware of himself. The scars on his back that were thicker than his shirt. The red veins in his eyes from a life under an unforgiving sun. His tangled beard.
The looking only lasted a second before it was interrupted by the snapping and barking of the dogs.
Catori had already smothered the fire with dirt but Jim could tell that the dogs were getting closer. She removed her hand and pulled him to his feet. Shaking his head to clear it, Jim followed as she started to run.
