“Daniel, wake up!” she demanded and reached through the bars to nudge him. Still he didn’t move. Suddenly she pulled her hand back, was he. . .dead? Had their search been in vain? Had she lost her best friend? Shocked, she leaned against the cell bars and just sat there. She started to sniffle, and then tears began to stream down her cheeks. Daniel was gone and nothing could be done to save him now. She started weeping. “Daniel, oh Daniel!” she exclaimed in between sobs. She realized that she had loved him more than any other friend she had ever known. Then, she heard a soft sound that made her stop crying. It was like a gentle whisper, eager, but weak like someone who has just awakened.
“Eileen?”
A sob caught in her throat and her heart jumped. She was too stunned to even move. Then it came again, stronger this time. “Eileen?” realization hit her like a brick she swung around, not believing her ears, or her eyes. “Daniel!” she exclaimed to her great surprise. He was sitting up looking at her. For a split second the two stared at each other too jubilant for words. For all of those days and weeks Eileen had been hoping and praying that she would see him again, and here she was looking straight into his rich brown eyes, that now glittered with excitement and hope. He was the same Daniel, except a bit slimmer.
“I never thought I would see you again,” he said not really knowing what else to say.
Hearing his voice again for the first time in so long, especially after she had thought that he was dead, was like music to her ears.
“I never thought I would see you again either,” she simply stated, thinking of nothing better to say. Hearing noise outdoors she realized that if they didn’t get out of there soon she also might be taken prisoner.
“I’ve got to get you out of here!” she said. After examining the lock on his cell door, she came to the conclusion that it was old and rusty, thus easy to pick if she had something to slip into it.
“The guards carry the only set of keys. But maybe you could pick it with something,” Daniel said hopefully.
“I was thinking the same thing. Do you remember the time I got locked out of my bedchambers?”
“Yes, I remember. You got in somehow.”
“Now what was it?” she asked, scratching her head thoughtfully. “Ouch!” she cried out in pain.
Daniel looked concerned. “What is it?”
Eileen removed the thing that had stuck her. “A hair pin. Wait a minute! That’s it!”
“What’s it?”
“A hair pin!” she replied excitedly. “I unlocked the door with a hair pin!”
“Great! Let’s try it!”
She inserted the pin into the bolt an after much turning and rattling, the lock that had imprisoned him, fell to the ground. Daniel was free! He stepped out of his prison and stood in front of Eileen. To her he seemed to have grown taller since she had last seen him.
“Eileen, I can never thank you enough for what you have done. I am eternally in your debt. I have never known a truer friend,” with that he embraced her.
After he hugged her she felt a bit bashful, but full of joy.
“Now to get out of this appalling place for good!” he leaned out of the window that Eileen had come from. “How did you get up here? There is no rope? And the door is locked with a deadbolt.”
“I didn’t use the door, or a rope.”
“Don’t tell me you climbed up here!”
“Yes, I did.”
