THE SWEET SMELL OF ESCAPE by Kathi Harris


I closed the door and stepped away from it, but it stubbornly squeaked open again. Turning back to it, I could suddenly feel a breeze behind me. Looking towards its source, l saw the partly open drapes move. Was that an open window?

Could I dare to hope that this room was on the second or even the third floor so we would have easy access to the ground? Even if we were higher, perhaps there was a tree we could jump into and from there we could climb to the ground.

As I quickly walked to the drapes, my mind was assaulted by these questions and ponderings. My nose was under siege by the smells of trees and sap and grass and flowers – roses. Aahhh! Sweet, wonderful smelling roses! The smell of freedom!

My foot kicked something. I glanced down, momentarily distracted from my quest. It was the gun. Following the path it made on the dusty floor, I picked it up from where it had spun.

It was a strange looking piece, with stranger markings on it. But then what did I know of guns. I walked back to Jill with it, intending to point out the odd markings to her, but she was having none of it.

“Put it away! Put it away!” She said almost hysterically. I knew she had a deathly fear of guns because when they were children one of her cousins had accidentally killed his brother while playing with their father’s gun. She had been present and saw that awful incident. And all these years later, still was not entirely over it. So I resisted my urge to ignore her request and argue with her. Instead, I put the gun carefully in a deep pocket of my jeans jacket.

Then I heard something. “Sshh! Sshh!” I said putting a finger to my lips.

“What? What?” Jill whispered.

“Don’t you hear it?” She shook her head mutely, eyes wide. “Listen!”

“Yes! Yes! I hear it. What is it?”

I quickly put some duct tape over our trussed up detainee’s mouth and we laboriously dragged him out of line of sight from the door and into a dark corner. Then creeping silently back to the door, we put our eyes to the crack. There were shadows moving on the wall – huge shadows.

My heart beat fast and faster still. Had we been discovered again already? Were we never to get a break? How had we displeased God to find ourselves in this predicament? Was this our punishment? What had we done to deserve this? And who or what were those giants coming to get us? My heartbeat ratcheted up another notch; it did not feel as if it would stay much longer in my chest. Perhaps, it would burst forth shortly taking a major portion of my chest wall with it.

I signaled Jill to go back to her hiding place behind the door. She attempted to pick up her trusty umbrella, but I grabbed it first. For a couple of seconds we silently vied for this prize.

“Get your own!” She said annoyed as she finally wrest it from my grasp.

I took up my position on the other side of the door. In my hand I held what was left of the roll of duct tape. Talk about irony. Before I had almost laughed at her umbrella defense, now here I was fighting her for it. Not having been successful, I was now armed with this pathetic excuse for a weapon. I looked around desperately hoping to find something that could really do some damage. Nothing. I cursed under my breath.

I could hear them breathing right on the other side of that door. I could smell their sweat. The door squeaked open, inch by slow inch. I tensed, waiting. Then the door was flung wide.


- copyrighted by Kathi Harris


- sponsored by Willow at http://www.magpietales.blogspot.com/