SEVENTEEN years to Live

9 ●○► JANINE'S SITUATION

CHAPTER NINE

●○► JANINE’S SITUATION

Bryan smiles at me abruptly. I see his jaw tremble and he tries to say a word. I stop a yard away from him. He scratches an itch on his head and begins to look nervous.

“Y-yes,” he stammers, his hands shaking as he beckons me to go beside him. “Where do you want to go?”

“Away from this town,” I suggest, and he looks at me in wonder.

“Away from Town Redlight?”

Redlight? The word echoes inside my head. Does he mean the name of our town?

Mostly, there are only a few people who knows the name of our town. It changes whenever they want to change. The last time I knew this town’s name was when I was thirteen years old. Its former name was Town Kingz. I don’t know how many names it had been since now. But I heard people talk that they named our town Roop, which means we are poor. That fact is true until now.

“They change it again?” I ask Bryan, knitting my eyebrows at him. “Town Redlight?”

“You are not updated, are you?” He tilted his head on one side. I give him a shake of my head. “You should know, Mary. Every time.”

We begin to walk again. I look behind me and the house zooms away from view.

I glance at Bryan again, spotting his eyes staring at me, a huge smile spreading across his face.

“When did they change the name?” I ask him.

“It’s about a month, I think.”

“A month?” I insist. “I didn’t know they changed the name of this town.”

“Me, too,” he said.

We continue to walk. But there is silence between us as we get far the house. The sun is already setting over the trees. The road we are taking seems to go forever. It wounds toward north, south and west. East is behind us. And the house is too far.

“Are you sure you want to go away from this town?” Bryan asks. I nod in reply.

“Have we gotten far?” I say, the moment after he asked his question.

He nods silently. “Very far.”

My feet halt. Bryan advances a few steps and turns to look at me. “What’s wrong?” he demands, walks toward me, and puts a hand on my shoulder. “Are you tired? Our house is near here. You can stay inside.”

I shake my head to refuse his invitation. But I don’t mean to embarrass Bryan. “No, thanks,” I say.

“Okay,” he agrees. “You need some water?”

His voice is very gentle. I can feel that he was really love at first sight at me a while. His eyes look at me sympathetically. As if he is nervous about what would happen to me.

“I’m fine,” I tell him.

“If you need something, just ask me.”

I stretch my lips to smile at him. He smiles at me back.

We start to walk again. Maybe we have taken a few hundred meters before I see the end of our town. It is represented by an arch that has glowing letters. It says TOWN REDLIGHT. COME AGAIN.

“Bryan,” I say, catching his attention.

“What?” he answers, his voice must be tired from walking a mile.