The Rescue

Suddenly Sarah realized that she had stared too long, and now the man was looking back at her. Now she had another reason to be frustrated with herself. She had gotten sloppy. Avoiding eye contact was one of her rules, part of the set of skills she had developed to keep from being noticed in places like this. She used to go to another club that was closer to her house, but one night a man there had tried to follow her home, so she had switched to this one, a remodeled warehouse called The Grind. Since then, she had worked hard at blending in, and took pride in the fact that she could slip in and out without attracting any unwanted attention. But now the stranger was looking right at her with those eyes that pierced through the music and the shadows.

And now he was walking toward her.

Sarah lowered her eyes and pretended to be watching the dancers, but it was too late. They had seen each other, and there was no sense in pretending they hadn’t. Surprisingly, as he approached, the man broke into a smile. And not just any smile. It was a smile that didn’t fit in this place. His smile was full of…she couldn’t say what. Goodwill? Sarah laughed at herself for using, even knowing, such a word. The people at work were right that she read too many old books. Still, the word fit. The look on this man’s face expressed what she imagined a good father might feel toward his daughter. Sarah’s own father rarely smiled except when there was an especially dirty comedian on the Wall late at night. But she preferred her father’s indifference to the kind of attention she got from most of the men of the city. There was something predatory about the men at work and on the streets, and if they smiled at you, you could be sure they had their own selfish reasons for doing so. This was different. Even so, she told herself to keep her guard up.

“Hi,” said the man, “I’m Justin.”

“I’m Sarah,” she said, “Wow, your name is almost as old-fashioned as mine.” What was she doing? She had intended to get out of this as quickly as possible, and now she was starting a conversation with this stranger, and insulting him at the same time. Why did she say that?

“You don’t like your name?”

“No, I do, actually, it’s just that it’s really old, and most people think it’s funny. I’m named after my great-grandmother. I guess she was this amazing lady. But sometimes I wish I could be more like everybody else.” What? What was happening? Why couldn’t she keep herself from talking? She hoped he wouldn’t take this last statement to mean any more than that she wanted a more modern name, but she knew that it came from a much deeper place. It seemed that her loneliness was working against her. The chance to connect with another human being was overruling all of her intentions to protect herself. But it was a huge risk. Most of the men she knew would have already walked away, and the others would have stayed for all the wrong reasons. How would he respond?

“Why would you want to be like everybody else? Maybe you’re right and they’re wrong.” He said this casually, innocently, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Was he just making conversation? Did he know this was one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to her, possibly the one statement that would tempt her to completely let her guard down and trust him? In any case, it was too much too quickly for Sarah. She attempted a lighthearted laugh and said, “Yeah, maybe,” and turned to watch the dancing. Obviously the conversation wasn’t over, but she had no idea where to take it from here.

Justin graciously changed the subject. “Do you dance?”

“Me? No. No, I just watch.” She said this while keeping her eyes forward, but realized that this was rude, so she turned and asked: “How about you?”

He gave a chuckle that was impossible to decipher. “Not like this.”

A moment of silence passed, and then something in Sarah wanted to get out of this situation as quickly as possible.

“Listen,” she said awkwardly, “I have to go home to…sleep. It’s been a long day. It was nice to meet you, Justin.” She turned to go.

He smiled his strange, friendly smile again. “It was nice to meet you too, Sarah.”

As she turned to walk away he reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. For a split second she was very uncomfortable, but he released her as soon as she turned around.

“Sarah, I know this might sound strange, but I might as well tell you now. You’ll be seeing me again.”

“What?” Now she was scared. “Look, you’re not my type, okay? Please leave me alone.”
Now his smile was becoming annoying. Was he amused by this? “Sarah, it’s not what you think. Please don’t take this the wrong way. You’re a beautiful young girl, but you’re not my type either. I just wanted you to know that you’ll be seeing me around, and when you do it’s nothing to worry about.”

“Are you going to follow me? If you follow me, I’ll call the Army.”
Justin took a step backwards and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “This is not going the way I wanted,” he said. “I won’t follow you, so don’t worry. But I can’t change the fact that we will see each other again, and when we do, just remember, I’m one of the good guys.”

“I didn’t know there were any good guys,” Sarah mumbled as she scanned the room for the nearest exit.

“We’re around. But these days, we’re spread pretty thin.”