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Run for your Life

The big street with its cafés and shops and people was behind them now. They walked slowly.

It was quiet. Away from the cars and the noise, Kim was excited. She held on to ‘Dave’s hand.

They were in a narrow street of tall houses and small shops. They heard a radio through an open window. A woman singing. Kim stopped and listened, but she did not understand the words. Her Spanish was good, but not very good!

It was the fourth day of their stay in Barcelona. Kim and Dave were seventeen. They had the same Spanish teacher at school in Liverpool, a big town in England. ‘Do you want to talk Spanish,’ their teacher said. ‘Well, go to Spain!’

There were eight of them from the same school on this holiday. They went to school every morning and talked Spanish. Then, in the afternoons, they usually went out by bus and saw something in Barcelona — important buildings, famous pictures, old photographs. Something new every day.

Today, Kim and Dave were not with their school friends. Dave did not want to go by bus. He wanted to look round the old town. Not the famous buildings. Not the big shopping streets with the banks and cafés and bookshops.

He was interested in the little streets behind the old market. The ‘dangerous’ old town, people said. But Dave was not frightened. ‘There are “dangerous” streets in Liverpool, too,’ he said.

They did not try to remember the names of the streets. They did not have a street plan. At every corner they stopped and looked. Then they came to an interesting little street. It was very narrow. Very old, they thought. Dave took a photograph.

Kim looked up. The houses were very tall. The windows up there were in the sun. But down in the street it was dark.

They came to a little open place with two or three trees and sat down. It was quiet.

Suddenly, there was a noise in one of the houses. A door opened and a man in a black shirt and jeans ran out. He stood at the open door and looked back into the house. Then he ran across the street.

‘Is he coming over here,’ Kim asked. There was something frightening about the man.

Dave did not answer. The man ran to the corner and looked around. Then he ran away - he put something in the rubbish bin .

There were shouts from the house. A second man ran out into the street. He had long hair and dark glasses. He stood in the road and looked round.

‘Perhaps he’s looking for that man in the black shirt,’ said Dave. ‘And look! He’s got a gun!’

Kim looked. Dave was right! The long-haired man ran across the street and went round the corner.

‘Let’s get away from here,’ Kim said. ‘I don’t like this.’

But Dave was excited. ‘Let’s go and have a look in that rubbish bin,’ he said.

There was a brown box in the bin. Dave took it out and opened it. A small white bag fell out.

‘Drugs,’ he said. ‘We’ll take this to the police.’

Kim took the little white bag and held it in her hand. She was suddenly very frightened. She looked round. Behind them there was a man, there under the trees. Watching them.

The man moved. Kim looked at the bag in her hand.

Suddenly she knew.

‘Dave, that man — he’s back! He’s here,’ she said.

The man was very near them now. He was not very tall, with a thin, white face and dark, dangerous eyes.

‘Give it to me,’ he said in Spanish. His frightening eyes moved quickly from Kim to Dave and back to Kim.

Kim opened her mouth but the words did not come out. ‘Oh, Dave,’ she thought, ‘do something!’ But Dave did not move.

Then she saw the knife in the man’s hand. She started to run. She ran into a small street on the left.

She ran down two or three narrow streets. But she did not see any people. She heard him behind her.

‘Quick,’ she thought. ‘I can’t stop.’

But all the streets were the same. Where was she now? Suddenly, she came round a corner and her legs went cold. The street did not go through — it stopped.

There were some cars and a big old building. An old cinema, perhaps. But there was no road through.

Kim looked back. The man stood at the corner and waited. He started to walk slowly down the street.

Kim looked round. There was a door in the building.

She ran to it. It opened! She went in and shut the door behind her.

Noise. People. Women. Talking, shouting, moving their arms.

The market! She was in the market in the old town, near the big shopping street. That door was a back door to the market and the big street was very near.

She started to walk through the market. She was in a slow-moving river of people with heavy shopping bags. She moved with the river. Every time one person stopped and looked at some fruit or fish, all of them stopped. Kim wanted to go quickly, but it was not easy. All these women with bags of food for the family!

Then, in the sea of faces, Kim saw those same dark eyes again. Watching her. He was here in the market!

Kim started to run. There were shopping bags under her feet. She fell and got up again. People shouted at her. One woman tried to catch hold of her, but Kim did not stop.

Then she looked back. The man was not behind her now. Perhaps she was wrong. Those eyes — perhaps it was not the same man. She saw the big street now. She saw the sun and the trees.

Suddenly, a hand came down on her arm and held on to her. ‘Are you Kim Steele,’ the woman asked. She was tall, about thirty. She had a friendly look.

Kim did not understand. ‘Yes,’ she started to say, ‘but how do you?

Then, in the woman’s hand, she saw a photo and, in Spanish, the word POLICE.

The policewoman smiled. ‘Your friend Dave found us. He’s in the car. Come with me.’

Kim sat in the car with Dave. There was a man with Ana. He had long hair and dark glasses. Now Kim understood: he was a policeman, too.

She gave Ana the little white bag and asked about the man with the knife. ‘He sells drugs, is that it?’

‘That’s right,’ Ana said. She looked at the long-haired man. ‘Nacho here nearly caught him in his house. You saw that. Vidal — that’s his name — was lucky. He got away. But we want him, and you can do something for us.

Nacho smiled. ‘Y-y-yes,’ Kim said slowly, ‘but–’

Kim said ‘yes’ and Nacho talked on the car radio.

Then they drove round behind the market. Kim got out and shut the car door. She walked to the corner, then she looked back. Ana smiled at her. Dave’s face was very white.

Kim was frightened. These things were exciting in the cinema, but this was not a game. Ana and Nacho were there — she knew that. But this Vidal was clever. Perhaps he knew about their little plan. And he was dangerous.

She was back in the same street now. There was the house. The door was shut. And there was the rubbish bin. Two or three people came down the street. Kim walked slowly across the road. She looked round, then up at the windows of the houses. She waited.

Then she saw him. The black shirt, the thin face, those eyes — it was Vidal. He was very near her.

Kim looked across the street. She was ready to run, then she heard Vidal. He said something, the same thing again and again.

‘What’s he saying,’ Kim thought. ‘Is he talking to me looked at him. He did not move. Only his mouth moved. This time she understood the words.

‘Give it to me or you’re dead,’ he said.

A car drove round the corner very quickly and stopped. Ana and Nacho jumped out. They held guns. Ana shouted.

Vidal suddenly jumped at Kim and caught her. Kim tried to hit him, to get away, but he held on to her hair. He was thin, but strong.

Then she saw the knife. ‘You’ll be sorry, Vidal,’ Nacho shouted. ‘You can’t get out of here. Think, man!’

But Vidal held on to Kim. He shouted to the police. ‘Get back in the car, or I’ll do it!’

He held the knife near Kim’s face. She shut her eyes.

Time moved very slowly. She saw a face at the window of one of the houses across the road.

Ana and Nacho moved back to the car. Their guns were ready, but Vidal stood behind Kim.

Suddenly, There were excited shouts from behind the police car. It was Dave. He ran across the street.

‘What’s he doing,’ Kim thought. ‘Does he want to see me dead?’

Ana tried to stop him. ‘Come back - This man is dangerous,’ she shouted. Dave ran to the rubbish bin.

He stopped, took the bin in his hands and held it up over his head. Then he threw it.

The rubbish bin went over Kim’s head and hit Vidal.

Rubbish fell round his feet. He fell. Kim quickly took the knife from his hand and threw it away.

There were excited shouts. Kim looked up. It was Ana and Nacho.

‘He’s all yours, now,’ said Dave.

Nacho held Vidal’s hands behind his back and took him away. Kim fell into Ana’s arms.

Later, they drove back to the hotel in a police car. Kim looked at Dave.