I've written hundreds of short stories over the years. Paradise took second place in the Writers Weekly 24 hour short story contest and is still, ten years later, my husbands favorite.
Paradise
Katie tried to ignore
the passersby as she hurried through the unfamiliar streets of the city. A young woman, her face illuminated by a weak
street lamp, looked at her and grinned; it was obvious Katie didn’t belong
here. She tried not to draw attention to
herself, but it wasn’t easy. “I will
have to hide before daylight comes,” she whispered to herself, careful not to
let anyone hear her speak. It had only
been four hours since her escape, but she was sure they would be looking for
her by now.
She had never seen the
city before, and the unfamiliar images that surrounded her were
frightening. Her fear, however, was
outweighed by her excitement. She was
determined to find Benny’s Bookstore and inside, hopefully, the key to her
destiny. She glanced at the street sign
above her head. She was almost
there.
Katie dreamed of being
someplace where she felt she belonged.
It certainly wasn’t this city, and, although the place where she lived
was not necessarily a bad place, it wasn’t a home. Her place of existence, as she liked to call
it, was an institution: a sterile, white environment surrounded by medical
staff. She had been taken away from her
parents at a very young age and sent to live with Dr. Bailey. She had never understood why; no one had ever
told her.
Dr. Bailey was very
kind, as were the others that helped take care of her, but they were not
family. Rebellion became her way of
coping. She would not read what they
tried to give her. She played ignorant when
they wanted her to speak. If she knew
they expected her to react one way, she acted just the opposite. Her lack of cooperation had led them to
assume that she was of low intelligence, incapable of learning even the basics.
But, Katie wasn't
stupid. In fact, she was extremely
intelligent, far beyond what Dr. Bailey could ever imagine.
Katie had learned how
to exit her locked room at night without being detected. Because of her 'learning disability', no one
ever suspected that she was capable of escaping after night call, so no one
ever checked. She knew the night nurses’
routines and could easily run throughout her home without any
interference. And on her own, she learned.
She had read every
book in the library, some twice. She had
even managed to hack into Dr. Bailey’s computer and frequented the internet at
night. She often laughed at how sly she
was, and how easily Dr. Bailey and the others were fooled.
Katie’s only knowledge
of her family had come from information she had read in her own medical
chart. She didn’t remember them, being
taken away at such a young age, and she wept when she read her own
history. Her grandfather had been an
astronaut, one of the first. Her parents
worked for a major university, and after reading about them on the internet,
she found that they were well respected in their field. She had no brothers. She had no sisters. She had only Dr. Bailey, and her friend
George, who truly was ignorant.
While she rarely
pondered her dreams, Katie had been having the same one, every night, for
several weeks. She and George were on an
island surrounded by palm trees.
Majestic mountains bordered their haven and a white sandy beach separated
the land from the crystal blue of the ocean.
She was highly respected by the other inhabitants for her intelligence,
and she openly shared her knowledge with them.
Astronauts. Teachers. Doctors.
It was a different world in her dream.
It was paradise.
When she told George
about her dream, he had, as usual, quizzed her for every detail. Katie called him Curious George, although he
didn’t understand the meaning behind the nickname. George needed to be here,
Katie thought.
“It’s your treasure,”
George said. “Katie’s treasure!”
“Someday I will find
such an island,” Katie told him.
One summer afternoon,
Katie and George sat together in the dayroom.
George played with the television remote control as Katie tried to
concentrate on the various programs that appeared as the channels changed. Suddenly, she grabbed the remote from
him.
She went back several
channels, slowly, searching for something.
She glanced around to make sure no one was close enough to hear her
speak. “George,” she whispered, “Look! It’s my island. It’s on the television!” They sat together in silence and watched as
the wonders of Katie’s dream world unfolded before their eyes.
“Katie, you must find
it. You must. Then you can come back for me.” George said
as he gazed at the screen. But Katie
required no prompting. She had already
made up her mind.
She spent a week
researching before she ventured out on her quest for paradise. She searched the internet and found that
there were several books about her island, but none were in Dr. Bailey’s
library. She sent messages to every
bookstore within fifty miles of her home, looking for someone who had one of
the books. Three nights into her search,
she received a response.
“Yes, I have one of
the books you are inquiring about, but no one has asked for it in years. I would be happy to reserve it for you.” It was signed “Benny” from Benny’s
Bookstore. Katie wrote down the address
and decided that her journey must begin there.
Late the following
night, after everyone was in bed, Katie dressed in the dark and left her tiny
room for the last time. She stole to the
kitchen and collected provisions for her journey. She went back to the area where she lived,
opened George’s door, and kissed her sleeping friend goodbye. “I will come back for you, I promise,” she whispered. Then with one last look around, she escaped
into the darkness, into the concrete jungle that she had only seen in books and
on television.
Katie didn’t like the
idea of breaking into the bookstore any more than she liked the thought of
stealing the book. But, as she stood in
front of Benny’s she felt drawn to the dusty shelves inside. She found a window in the back that had been
left slightly ajar. She was small and
extremely agile and she managed to enter without a sound.
In the darkness of the
old store, she relied on her night vision, which was exceptional. She searched the shelves, reading the cover
of each book. After hours of searching,
she was exhausted, both mentally and physically. She sat on the floor beginning to feel as if
her journey may have been in vain. Some
of the titles on the bottom shelves were difficult to read due to months,
possibly years of neglect. She began to
wipe the covers gently, her last hope.
And there it was. What George had called her treasure.
She pulled the dusty
volume from the shelf and quickly made her way to the antique cash register at
the front of the store. She had seen one
similar to it before, and had no difficulty opening the drawer. Forty dollars. She grabbed the money quickly, thinking she
may need funds for the next leg of her adventure. She made a promise to herself that she would
someday pay Benny back, and then darted out of sight, as a young man walked by
the front window.
She was anxious to
begin the next leg of her journey, but knew once she started reading, she
wouldn’t be able to stop. She didn’t
dare open the book. Not yet. Not here.
Holding the book tightly, she headed back into the night.
***
“Dr. Bailey? Officer Scopes, here, NYPD. I’m calling about the escapee you reported
last night.”
“Her name is
Katie. Do you have her?” Dr. Bailey had been up most of the night,
worried about her alone in a strange world.
“No, no, I was
just told to call you if I heard anything.
Actually, I doubt this is anything at all.” Dr. Bailey noticed an aloof, almost jovial
tone in the officer’s voice, which irritated him.
“I’ll be the judge of
that,” he replied.
“Well,” the officer
began, “Didn’t you say she was stupid? I
mean, she can’t read, right?"
“No, Officer, Katie
cannot read. Please, don’t waste my
time. Do you have a lead on her whereabouts or not?”
“Like I said, probably
not. I picked up a drunk in the park
this morning that swears he saw a monkey that matches her description.” He paused. “He said she was sitting under a
tree reading a book.”
“A book?” Dr. Bailey
said. “What kind of a book?”
Officer Scopes words
were barely audible through his laughter. “Planet of the Apes. What
else?”
