Runaway

by Winterfelt, Helen

  Chapter Four

  We all have reasons for our actions. It used to be something that I thought about a lot more when I was younger, the reason that people get out of bed in the morning to do what they do, they reason I myself get up in front of a camera and pretend to be somebody else… The reason I do it, is… Well, I guess that I have a couple of reasons. Sometimes it’s just easier to pretend to be another person because being yourself can be so difficult. And sometimes… Well, a lot of the time… I feel like I want to work hard and get a lot done for my sister, Maria. Because she deserves that.

  But I don’t want to talk too much about that just now… Besides I had potentially just skewed my career into a direction that I wasn’t totally sure about.

  True, I had enjoyed the whole spontaneous idea of this plan, of absconding to a lakehouse hideaway for the week to relax, shop and kick back with my best friend, away from the press and the drama of this whole thing, but I was causing even more drama just by running away from it all, from Marcus…

  You freaking jerk… I thought, Why did you… No, I’m not even gonna ask myself that question. It was his fault for what he did, and not yours. Reality check, Emma.

  That said, I was still understandably messed about this whole thing. We hadn’t even been together a year, but that didn’t mean that I could just stop thinking about him, like I was flicking some kind of switch in my brain to turn off my thoughts about him… Although I wished that I could.

  We took the taxi to the airport, booking ourselves in on a last minute flight to Long Island, just a stones throw away from Watertown. we decided to hit it up first class – you only live once, right? I say this because usually I had a habit of taking economy – staying grounded was my number one rule, and it reminded me of trips with the family when I was younger. And when it comes to times like these, remembering home can be a really important thing.

  ***

  ‘Emma, do you even remember yourself where the house is?’

  ‘Hey, give me a break, I never actually anticipated myself making some kind of getaway in my life, y’know?’

  ‘All right, all right…’ It was late afternoon and we had finally touched down - now we were passing along country roads surrounded by hay fields and lone trees in the evening sun. It was a beautiful place, but we were a little caught up in figuring how to actually get to the house first.

  Casey leaned forward in her seat towards our second cab driver of the day, tapping him on the shoulder.

  ‘Excuse me,’ she asked politely, ‘How far is it to Watertown?’

  The man had a heavy city accent, clad in a cap and a worn lumberjack shirt.

  ‘You just answered your own question, Miss.’

  I watched a beleaguered expression on Casey’s face as she looked out the front window of the cab, before her eyes suddenly focused in on something and she smiled suddenly.

  ‘Hey, Emma, we’re here!’

  I looked out the front window from the backseat, seeing not your ordinary welcoming town sign – it wasn’t just a wooden marker at the side of the road, it was like something you would see on the dock of a beach carnival or fairground, a huge wooden banner that arched over the road, held up by columns on either side that framed the road. It was expertly decorated with Watertown written across it, a small, calligraphic Welcome To written just above it. It looked like it had been put up only yesterday.

  ‘Now I remember why I liked it here so much,’ I smiled, sitting back in my seat as we passed beneath it.

  ‘All right, Clarke, you haven’t got me convinced yet,’ Casey laughed, sounding like some kind noir detective.

  ‘Convinced?’ I asked, ‘Convinced about what? This was your idea.’

  ‘My idea? Who was so adamant about getting away from the press and that slimy douchebag of an ex of yours?’

  ‘Uhh…’ I started, ‘Well, technically, both of us.’

  ‘Oh, yeah…’ Casey said, looking off to the side and grinning, ‘Let’s just call it even.’

  ‘Deal.’

  At that moment the cab moved into the actual town, onto the main street, if it was big enough to be called that. It was your typical smalltown community, with shops, grocery stores and cafes lining both sides of the street. The kind of quiet town where anybody could come to disappear.

  ‘Looks like you really did make the right choice, Emma,’ Casey said, both of us smiling as we looked out of the windows, watching the people pass. ‘And I doubt anybody around here knows who you are… Or even has a TV, so there’s that.’

  ‘We haven’t gone back in time, Casey,’ I laughed, ‘I just doubt that there’s a Cineplex or something around here… Which is fine by me.’

  ‘Me too.’

  ‘So where can I drop you two ladies off?’ The cab driver asked, slowing down a little as he drove up the quiet street.

  ‘Uhh…’ Casey stammered, looking over at me and shrugging her shoulders.

  ‘Is there a lake around here?’ I asked, leaning towards the front seat, ‘Like a kind of main lake in town?’

  ‘You must mean Lake Wilverston,’ he said.

  ‘Yeah, that’s the one!’ I said, ‘Could you take us there? Not into the lake, I mean, but to the road, I guess, around it?’

  ‘Sure thing,’ he laughed, shaking his head before setting off again.

  ‘What are we gonna do? Set up a tent?’ Casey said.

  ‘I told you, it’s a lakehouse. Although I’m not exactly sure which one…’

  ***

  We both thanked the cab driver as he got back into his car after helping us with the bags, before watching him take off back up the road until we couldn’t hear the engine at all, and there we were; two women in their mid-twenties, an actress and her agent, dressed in city clothes with city bags and city presences, out in a remote town in the North.

  Casey and I looked at each other before taking in our surroundings, a lake fifty or sixty yards down from the road we stood on, surrounded in it’s roughly circular shape by lakehouses and high reaching, lone trees.

  ‘Be honest,’ Casey finally said, ‘On a scale of one to tourist, how out of place do we look right now?’

  ‘Please,’ I laughed, ‘This isn’t Legally Blonde or something. You know that neither of us are that clueless.’

  ‘Except for which is your house,’ Casey smiled.

  ‘I do… Kind of.’

  ‘I can’t believe you came to see it without me,’ she said in her mock-offended manner, shaking her head and squinting at me. ‘I’m your best friend.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I grinned, ‘But I wanted it to be top secret.’

  ‘Don’t worry, honey, I’ll forgive you… Eventually,’ Casey winked at me. ‘But that still doesn’t help us with figuring out where it is.’

  ‘I know which one it is,’ I said confidently, ‘It has a marker on it.’

  ‘What do you mean a marker?’

  ‘I left a mailbox outside of it with my name on it.’

  ‘You put your name on the mailbox of your hideout?’

  ‘Well, no, it’s not my name,’ I said, ‘How stupid d’you think I am?’

  ‘Whose name is on it, then?’

  ‘You’ll see when we get there.’

  ‘What?’ Casey asked, as I pulled up the handle on my bag and set off down the rough road. I heard her pick hers up promptly before running after me. ‘I don’t like surprises, you know that. Just tell me.’

  ‘No,’ I laughed, ‘Wait till we get there, and you’ll see.’

  ‘You’re such a spoilsport…’ Casey sighed, walking by my side as we both laughed easily in the late afternoon sun.

  ***

  But, as it turned out, she didn’t have to wait long at all. The road we walked circled around the whole lake, giving onto the driveways every one of the luxurious cabins that surrounded it.

  And it was the first house that we came to.

  I was a little ahead of Casey, intent on checking the mailbox, my face lighting up as I r
ead the name on it.

  ‘This is it!’ I shouted back to her, taking in the sight of the house before me.

  I hadn’t been here in years, but I wished that I had.

  It was like something out of an old painting, an oak-coated, wooden building with two windows either side, a porch and a slanted, panelled roof. We couldn’t see it right now, but a dock led from the back out onto the lake, and with the sun hitting it… Well, I was feeling happier than I had since last night, back when everything had been fine and simple…

  ‘This is the place?’ Casey asked, panting deeply after having caught up with me. ‘How did you have such good taste without me consulting you? And anyway, what’s this name?’

  She pandered past me to the mailbox, leaning over and peering at it. The weather had worn it down over the last few years, but it was still pretty visible.

  ‘My name?! You used my freaking name to buy this place?’

  ‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘They put me on the spot when I signed the lease, and I didn’t want to put mine because it kind of defeats the purpose of it being a secret, so I just put down the first one that came to mind.’

  ‘Well…’ Casey breathed, looking up at the house. ‘Seeing as how nice it is, I’ll let you off. I wouldn’t mind living somewhere like this, anyway… Well, as long as there are a few bars around…’

  ‘Here? I doubt it,’ I laughed, ‘Come on, let’s get inside. I wanna see the damage.’

  ***

  For all the years of it being uninhabited, the house wasn’t actually that bad. I mean, sure, the place was a little musty, and we had to dust down a couple of spaces, but other than that we were pretty much set; we had a furnished living room, a working flat screen that had been untouched for ages, a kitchen that was pretty much good to go, and three bedrooms that we could choose between. Once we had set our bags out in our rooms, kicked our shoes off and sat back on the cushioned sofa in the living room, the quiet background noise of the TV that had started up without trouble for company, we were pretty much set.

  Well, that and the seven year old bottle of merlot Casey had found in the kitchen – ‘Emma, you won’t believe what I just found!’ - the only thing that had been in any of the cupboards, aside from dishware, glasses and cutlery.

  So we sat there, our shoes and socks off, our feet up on the coffee table half-watching a local early evening news show.

  ‘I still don’t know if this was a good idea,’ I said, fiddling with the base of my wine glass. ‘Now that we’re here… I don’t know, it just feels a little odd.’

  ‘Of course it’s gonna feel odd, Emma. You’ve been living in the city for years, millions of people know your name and you were with a guy most women would cut their freaking legs off to be with…’ Casey said, shrugging, ‘Unfortunately for them, they still probably think he’s some kind of hero and no the total sleazebag that we know him to be.’

  ‘I know…’ I said, feeling a sudden sadness begin to overwhelm me as the thought of Marcus came back to me, ‘I just… I really thought that things were gonna be different with him… I thought that we really had something special…’

  I couldn’t help myself from how I felt… I should have been done with him, I wanted to be… But that wasn’t how I felt. It’s a pity that we can’t just turn off our feelings for those around us, like flicking a switch…

  ‘I just don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about all this…’ I said, a tear running down my cheek as I felt my eyes begin to sting, sniffling through it quietly.

  ‘Oh, honey, come on, don’t cry,’ Casey said comfortingly, setting down her wine glass and giving me a hug, ‘No woman should ever shed a tear over a man, unless you’re mourning him or something, you especially. Don’t waste your time on it for one minute. You’re Emma Clarke, you’re a superstar, you shouldn’t have to worry about that stuff…’

  ‘It doesn’t matter what I am,’ I said, calming myself down, ‘It still happened. I still got cheated on…’

  ‘But that isn’t your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong, he did. I told you, guys like that don’t change. In a way it’s kind of good that it happened this early on… Can you imagine being with him for years and then this kind of thing happening, after all that time? It’d be devastating…’

  ‘You’re right…’ I said, breathing deeply before taking a big swig of my wine. ‘I’ll be okay, I just need to get my mind off it.’

  ‘Well, that’s what we’re here for,’ Casey smiled taking a drink of her wine and sitting back in her seat. ‘And that’s also what this wine is for.’

  I giggled and took another sip. I held up my glass and eyed it with a frown, seeing just how much of the large glasses we had gotten through.

  ‘It’s a pity that we don’t have more of it, though…’ I lamented, looking over at the almost empty bottle on the table. ‘Saying that, we really do need to head into town to get some food…’

  ‘Or…’ Casey said, that look coming to her face that meant she had another brilliant idea in mind, ‘we could just get some food at a diner or a bar or something in town, see what local beverages they have to offer, and worry about the food shopping tomorrow! Who knows, there might be a cute bartender to take your mind off things…’

  ‘I can’t just go for a meal in town, people will recognise me. We came here to get away, remember?’

  ‘Nobody’s gonna know who you are, we’re in the middle of nowhere. I’ve totally given up phone signal for you, I hope you realise that.’

  ‘You’re a terrible influence,’ I laughed, downing the last of my wine, ‘Fine. We get some food, have one drink, and then we’ll head back. I’m pretty tired, anyways.’

  ‘Deal,’ Casey said, drinking the last of her wine too. But a deal with Casey was a lenient one at best.

  Especially when it came to drinking.

  Chapter Five

  It turned out that Watertown wasn’t so quiet after all, even if it was Sunday night.

  The warm summer afternoon had turned into a warm summer’s evening, and Main Street was only a ten minute walk from the lake. I had changed into a different pair of jeans, casual shoes and a blouse, my hair tied up in a ponytail and my makeup a little more toned down than usual – that was a compromise I wasn’t so crazy about, but the less chance of looking the way I did on screen, the better.

  We stopped off at a place called Tracy’s café, I feeling positively terrified about anybody’s eyes lingering on me in that expression I so grown to know – it came in stages.

  First there was a look. Then a double take that turned into a lingering stare. And then a huge grin, possibly accompanied by red cheeks and ‘can I have your autograph?’

  I know, it sounds terrible, me saying all of this stuff. A lot of people would love this kind of attention, and I feel like a total asshole being so entitled about it all… Honestly, I did enjoy it when it happened. Having total strangers come up and take pictures with you is awesome, and I felt very privileged to have such a life.

  But right now, I was loving the thought of a week away from it all.

  Lucky for me, nobody noticed. There wasn’t a second glance other than to smile at me politely in that awesome smalltown way, and Casey and I enjoyed a quiet dinner, laughing and talking in our usual way.

  But things were about to change in the most unexpected of ways. And it was all thanks to my best friend’s ability to convince me to have a drink.

  ‘Come on, Emma,’ Casey said, as we left the diner, sauntering in the slowest of manner down the sidewalk, ‘Just one drink won’t do any harm.’

  ‘I’m not so sure anymore…’

  ‘What do you mean? You’ll be fine.’

  ‘I’m not worried about me, I’m worried about you. I don’t want you taking one shot of whisky and declaring to the world who I am.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Casey laughed. ‘I promise I won’t.’

  ‘Fine…’ I sighed, ‘One.’

  We moved up the sidewalk, finding the place a
few doors down. It was a cosy, warm-looking place called The Woodsman, a fitting name for a local pub in a town right next to a logging community. From within we heard voices and laughter, and all of a sudden I felt a little more at ease.

  ‘It looks pretty cool, let’s check it out,’ Casey said, pushing the door open and going inside as I followed her in. And she was actually right.

  We were in a spacious, cosy area, filled with warm, orange light and patrons drinking at tables in groups. On the far side of the room was a bar that covered the whole wall, the back end lined with all manner of drinks and bottles. And on top of it all, nobody gave either of us a second glance.

  Casey and I smiled at each other, pleasantly surprised by how warm and greeting the place was as we headed over to the bar. We were greeted by a friendly, middle-aged greying bartender, who slung a towel over his shoulder as he turned to smile at us.

  ‘Evening, ladies, what can I get for you?’

  ‘One drink,’ I said to Casey, ‘You decide.’

  ‘You’re gonna regret saying that,’ she winked at me, brushing her hair over her ear before turning to the bartender. ‘We’ll take two double Johnnie Walker Black’s. Neat.’

  ‘Coming up!’

  I bit my lip at the sound of her words, watching as the bartender pulled some glasses out of nowhere and snatched up the bottle from behind the counter.

  ‘Are you kidding me?’ I said, ‘I’d like to be able to walk back on my own feet, y’know?’

  ‘Shut up and drink,’ she laughed, sweeping up her glass the moment the liquid had finished filling it. I smiled at her, eyeing my glass on the counter as the bartender took the bottle away. I picked it up, watching Casey raise her glass and I bringing up to meet hers with a smile…

  And the way I remember it, that was when everything seemed to slow down tenfold.

  As our glasses chinked together I looked over her shoulder, further down the bar. I had seen a couple of people leaning against the bartop, but I hadn’t care to notice them.