Shadow Of The Past Trilogy ∞ THE DISPLACED

48 ∞ progress

Note: This chapter contains a scene that might be a little disturbing, the last out of 3 scenes. [PG-13]

Day Thirteen ∞ Wednesday morning

A WARM PRESSURE ON HIS SHOULDER brought him to awareness, and he smiled slowly, placing his hand on top of the cause.

"You asked me to wake you."

Danny drew a deep breath. Then his body spasmed into a yawning stretch before he opened his eyes, meeting Mickmi's gaze. "Hey...," he croaked and cleared his throat.

Just seeing her face was the best wake-up he'd ever had. She was kneeling beside him, already dressed in her exercise clothes.

"What time is it?"

"Quarter to five."

He still held her hand and, for a while, they remained in silent communion. The only intrusion was the occasional twitter of early morning birds floating in through the open window. He could just stay like this; he wished he could.

Get up. He sighed, closing his eyes to his internal voice. He'd better get up and get used to his new routine. Get up before Mom. At least he felt rested. He patted her hand and looked up at her again. "Go ahead; I'll catch up with you."

She rose smoothly to her feet, and he sat up, watching her as she headed through the door.

If it weren't for the floodlights, it would still have been totally dark outside when he stepped down from the porch in his track shoes. The air was comfortably cool. He did some stretches and started jogging on the spot before Mickmi appeared from the left side of the house with Zorro on her heels. He joined her, matching her easy strides; she was going at a relaxed pace.

"How many laps do you do now?" he asked.

"Fifty."

So she'd increased her numbers steadily in the past week. He couldn't remember when last he'd covered that kind of a distance. He'd only done about half that in the past nights. After three laps she increased her pace, and he matched it.

They ran in silence—two pairs of steadily pounding steps and synchronized breaths circling inside the perimeter of the yard. He'd counted thirty-eight laps when she reduced the speed again—she was still breathing with deep control where he, on the other hand, was laboring. But he held on, pushing himself through the increased burning in his lungs and legs. At least, this was more enjoyable than trying to run himself to sleep...

"Did you – use to – train much?" he managed to say between hard breaths when they finally stopped in the middle of the lawn for their cooling down exercises. He bent over in his soaking T-shirt, holding his knees as he panted. He turned his head to look at her; she was just glistening, not streaming.

She met his gaze serenely and answered, "Aye." She did not elaborate as she faced eastward and spread her legs into a lunge stretch.

They continued with their respective exercises in silence as the sky slowly brightened above the trees. Mickmi ended hers with her eyes closed as her arms flowed meditatively. Danny was sitting with his legs stretched out, leaning back on his hands when she finally spoke again. "I have caused your mother's anger with you..." She mirrored his pose beside him, but Zorro crept up to her and she gave the dog a rub between its ears.

He shook his head, meeting her concerned gaze. "No, you haven't," he said quietly—he didn't want his voice to travel into the house for Mother to hear. "I was gonna start riding my bike sooner or later anyway; she can't stop me." Mother had seen when he got Mickmi's bike off the truck yesterday, and she was watching when he'd brought his own bike outside for a test run in the yard. She had not spoken to him for the rest of the evening. "She won't dare to. Did you see yesterday's paper? I left it purposely open on the classifieds."