The Travel Column

Enter: Nathaniel

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Thanks to AshleyP for a cover. I also have a title, 'The Travel Column'

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"Need help?" I whipped my head around. A teenager about my height, wearing a purple sweatshirt and khakis, stared up at me. "You looked in a hurry when you got off." I knew this kind of person from Seattle, a street kid. I remember them hanging around Post Alley in Pike Market, aking for 'a little something', for lack of better word. I knew a few to be not right in the head, some to be very kind. I took my chances, being desperate to get away from Carson.

"Yeah..I need to get away from here, wherever I am." I muttered. I recognized the hedge maze from my visit to Tenino, but this didn't look a thing like it.

"I wish I could answer your question Ma'am," The teenager pushed aside his blond hair, and wiped his brow. "I started far, far away from here. Took cars, buses, trains, and a seaplane. I'm a runaway, Ma'am." This guy was very polite, but that goton my nerves sometimes.

"Call me Sto..." I murmured. "Sto Trston."

"What do you do for a living, 'Sto Triston?'"

"I'm a journalist....who are you?" I smiled a smirk of a smile, my usual. I pulled my coat tighter around my shoulders, straightened my scarf.

"Nathaniel Sokomore. I'm from Cannon Beach." Cannon Beach, the name alone brought back so much, from the friendly pancake man at the log-cabin resturant, to the mist in which I walked through to reach the ocean. What a breath-taking day that was. 

"Oregon, I love it there. I live in a stone cottage on Samish Island, half an hour past Anacortes." I loved my small home there, a crosswalk away from a cliff with a path to the water, an old swing in the yard between two hemlocks.  If I swung high enough, I could see the beach behind the blackberry bushes. "I need to get through the maze, Nathaniel. Do you know a way out?" 

"Perhaps you could go through the city center," Nathaniel suggested.

"I want my pursuer to think I went in the maze, I want him to get lost." I removed my hairband, and a reciept before taking Nathaniel's hand and leading him into the maze. He ran ahead, I followed his trail.

The clear day quickly turned dark, clouds appeared above me. I pulled my hood up just as the raindrops began to fall. Nathaniel copied. He stopped near what seemed to be the center.

"Can we stop? You look tired," He asked. I smiled, found a bench meant for tourists, and took a seat before it got wet from the rain. Nathaniel sat down next to me, it looked like we would wait it out. 

Believe it or not, Nathaniel and I sat there, on the lone bench, smack dab in the middle of a hedge maze, smack dab in the middle of an unknown city, in complete silence. Not a word was spoken, we just watched the rain fall, and eventually soak through our hoodies. Nathaniel stood up, and gestured me to walk further. I kept a steady pace, until I could hear the roar of car engines, when I broke into a run. 

"Come on!!" I yelled. The street was welcoming, even though most people were cowering under newspapers or running for shelter in stores. 

"You come on, I know a place to stay." Nathaniel ran through the streets and towards a tall building with a stained glass dome. My first guess was a church, but inside I soon learned that it was a gargantuan library, I was in love at first sight. I, a journalist, was surrounded by books. I was at peace at once. 

I quickly found a book to read, and flipped it open. I plopped down on a settee and began reading. 

After fourteen pages, Nathaniel slammed my book shut.

"Sto, we have to get out of here."