Run. Just Run.

Chapter 18

"Ash...Asher. Asher Greene." Ashley spurts out. What kind of a name is Asher?!? She thinks.

James cocks an eyebrow. Whew, good save, Ashley. Oh no. Now the woman was looking at him. He's gotta tell his name.

"And I'm Jacob.....Jacob.....Jackson." He says. Really. Of all the last names, the first one that came to mind was Jackson. Well that's gonna be interesting.

"Well I'm Mrs Sanders, and Mr Sanders is right here." She says as an elderly man with a full head of white hair walks in the room. She turns to him. "Honey, these two kids are traveling across the states by themselves. Isn't that wonderful? They're gonna stay here for the night."

Mr Sanders brightens up. "Well that's a courageous thing to do! Most kids nowadays just sit at home, playing on their me-phones or whatever you call them, and never get out and see the world!"

Ashley and James chuckle. This night was going to be very entertaining!

Mrs Sanders speaks up. "Well, let me show you kids the spare room, and then you two can get washed up while I whip us up some beef stew! You must be starved!"

James and Ashley follow her to a flight of stairs.

"The room is straight up the stairs." She says. "I'd take you up there, but upstairs is so small you can't get lost anyways." She says with a chuckle. "Go on up, there's a bathroom up there too. I'll call up when the food is ready."

"Thanks again for letting us stay here!" James says with a smile.

"Yeah, thanks!" Ashley echoes.

"No trouble at all! Now you kids get up there and relax and let me get to cooking!" She says adamantly.

Ashley grabs James' hand and jumps up the stairs. James follows her as she opens a door at the top of the stairs. The door opens into a room, not big, but just big enough, and it had two twin beds, one on either side of the room. Right outside the window there was a giant old oak tree. The room was cozy, like the others in the house, cozy, comfy, felt like a good old country home. And with the old couple to match!

Ashley looked at James. "I don't know about you, but I'm gonna take a shower real quick." She says as she walks over to the bathroom. "Who knows the next time I'll have one."

James walks over to Ashley and puts his arm around her shoulders.

"It won't be that long." He says reassuringly. "The police will find the people who did this, and we can go back home."

Ashley gets a sly grin on her face. "Speaking of home..." She says as she looks up at him. "Jacob Jackson? Where'd that last name come from?" She asked with a smirk. "Why'd you pick my last name?"

James turns bright red. "I...I...I don't know." He stammers. "It was just the first name that popped into my mind."

"Well I barely kept it together down there when you said that was your name." Ashley laughed. "If you don't mind, I'm gonna go take a shower now, Mr Jackson." She says as she walks to the door and glances over her shoulder and winks at James. Then she laughs as she turns and shuts the door.