Unseen

Chapter 3

For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality." (Romans 9:28)

Jem pulled on his runners.  They were dark blue with black stripes.  He stood up from the bench and walked over to the changing room mirror.

"Track pants?"  He looked down.  "Check. T-shirt? Check. Old falling apart runners?"  Jem looked down and sighed.  "Check."

Jem looked around the boys changing room.  Most of the boys had shiny, brand new runners. Not Jem, his runners were centuries old.  Well, maybe not centuries, but they were at least a couple years old.

Jem sighed again.  It wasn't that he couldn't afford new shoes.  His foster parents just didn't want to spend the money when he had "perfectly good runners".

Jem scoffed at the thought.  "Perfectly good runners."

Jem walked out of the changing room and found his twin sister, Milly, impatiently waiting for him.

"What took you so long?" she frowned.  "We're gonna be late!"

Milly wore track pants and a t-shirt too, and she had pulled her black hair with "electric blue highlights" into a high ponytail.

Jem's hair was blue too.  When they were little, they got the silly notion that if they looked more like twins, they would get adopted together.  Since Jem's hair was lighter than Milly's, she bought blue hair dye and they both dyed their hair blue.  It was a ridiculous idea, but both of them liked the look so they kept the color.

The kids met Coach Auggie at the racetrack and he led them in some warm ups.

Tweeeeet!  He blew his whistle.  All the kids winced.  Coach Auggie's whistle was very loud.

"Alright everyone!  Warm up race!  5 laps around the track!  Shouldn't be hard!"

The kids lined up at the starting line.  Tweeeeet!  Coach Auggie loved to use his whistle.

Jem usually started out at a steady pace during the first few laps and then ran as fast as he could during the last lap.  He had barely made it a few paces before he tripped over a rock on the track.   He fell flat on his face.

"Oww...." Jem picked himself up.  "It must be these shoes," he said to himself.

"Ha! What a fall!"

Jem turned around and saw Gabe, a tall Grade 10 boy, run past him.

"What's wrong?" he mocked.  "Your daddy can't afford to buy you new shoes?"

Jem shrugged the comment off, but the words still stung.  He struggled to keep up with the group, as his shoes kept tripping him.  He ended up being the last to finish the race.

Gabe sneered.  It took all of Jem's patience to keep down the boiling rage inside of him.

Tweet!  Coach Auggie blew his whistle again.

"First race everyone!  Let's see how fast you can run!"

Everyone started running, but Jem kept tripping over his shoes.

"See ya later slow poke!" Gabe taunted as he passed by.

Jem stopped, his frustration building up inside of him.  He tore off his shoes and started running in his socks.  He ran as fast as he could, and all of a sudden, he was running like the wind.  Jem ran faster than he had ever run in his life.  He passed the first kid, the second kid, and the third kid.  Before long, Jem had passed all of the runners, even Gabe.  He kept running faster and faster, he never stopped, he didn't even feel tired.  Finally, Jem finished the race... way ahead of the others.

All the kids gathered around him.

"That was amazing!"

"How fast were you running?"

"I didn't know you could do that!"

Coach Auggie just stood still with his mouth wide open.

"Class... dismissed???" he stuttered.

The kids cheered.  Jem beamed and walked over to the track where he left his shoes.

As he picked them up, he noticed a dark creature sitting in the bleachers.  It was almost like a shadow, the kind he had seen in scary movies.  Suddenly, a pair of red glowing eyes appeared. Jem stood as still as a statue, scared out of his mind.

"Jem!" Milly walked up behind him, her voice snapping Jem back into reality.  "How did you do that?"

"What?"

"You run as fast as the Flash in the comics and all you say is what?  That was crazy!"

Jem shrugged.  "I just started running, and I kept going."

"Seriously?"  Milly rolled her eyes.  "Come on, let's go."

Jem turned around to look back at the bleachers.

The shadow was gone.