“Fine, then I’ll just follow you to make sure you’re safe.”
She kept her eyes ahead and ignored me.
“Doesn’t it seem silly to you that you’re running while I’m right here with a bike?”
“I like running.”
“Me too. But not in the middle of the night. You could trip and fall.”
“I wish you had roads.”
“Roads? What would we need roads for? We fly everywhere on hoverbikes or in drones.”
“Don’t you ever just go out for a run?”
“Sure, but I prefer to run in the forest. We made a trail that loops back to our house.”
She ran another five minutes without us talking and then we passed a house and it made me furrow my brow.
“Is this the way you came?”
“Yes.”
“Why would you get this close to houses? You could have been seen.”
“Everyone is sleeping.”
“You can’t know that for sure. The men in that house are old grumpy assholes.”
She didn’t answer me, so I pushed harder. “Just promise that if you ever decide to come and visit us again…”
“I didn’t come to visityou. Only Wilma.”
“Yeah, well, still. If you ever decide to come visit again, let me know and I’ll pick you up. It’s too dangerous for you to run around by yourself.”
“Is that why you told Wilma to run inside and lock her door? Is she in danger here?”
“Ah, so you heard that.” Turning my head to look at Devina, I considered my words. “We have two women in the house and that makes us a target for crazy people.”
“What crazy people?”
“There will always be people with a disregard for rules and laws. About thirty-five years ago a family was killed when a sick man believed himself in love with the unmarried daughter.”
“That’s horrible.”
“Which is why we lock our doors and react strongly when we see anyone lurking outside our house.”
She was so slow to answer that at first, I didn’t think she would respond, but then she said. “Don’t worry. I have no plans of coming back.”
“That’s probably for the best. We don’t want your people to accuse us of kidnapping you.”
By the time we reached the beach, Devina was panting hard and raising her hands above her head. It made me suspect that she had run faster than she would have if I hadn’t been there.
When I wanted to get off my bike, she held out a hand to stop me, her voice still out of breath. “You can go back now.”
“But…”
“I don’t want you to watch me swim back.”
