Chapter Five — Alex
“All right, can we go over it once more so I’m sure I have the rules right?”
Callum nods. “Be my guest.”
“Okay, so I get a ten-minute head start.”
He nods. “Correct.”
“And you’ll get a ping of my location every five minutes.”
“Yep.”
“No cars?”
“Or vehicles,” he adds.
“All right. One-kilometer radius. Forty-five minutes. You have forty-five minutes to find me. And I have to stay outdoors. No hiding in bathrooms.”
“Correct.”
“Alright, let’s do this.”
“I like that you dressed for the occasion, by the way,” he says, gesturing to my all-camo outfit.
I badly want to tell him my strategy, but I just smile. “Thank you,” I say.
“Alright, your ten minutes start now.”
I start jogging down the street. As soon as he’s out of eyesight, I stop and reach into my backpack. I pull on a long black wig, a red trench coat, and black glasses.
I make my way to the nearest park and once I’m there, slip on a pair of heeled boots. You can’t see the heel given how long my trench coat is. They add a few inches to my height.
With the wig and the glasses, I’m unrecognizable. Then I sit on a bench and pull out a book and start reading. I check my clock. Seven minutes until he starts tracking me.
I’m getting really into Crime and Punishment when he texts. See you soon. I reply with a sleepy-face emoji. You wish. Then I close my phone.
I glance up every few seconds, checking my surroundings. Then I see him jogging through the park. He doesn’t get my location until the first five minutes are up. Naturally, he’ll have assumed I went further, which is exactly why I didn’t. As soon as he’s out of view, I begin my next outfit change.
I replace my wig with a new blonde one and swap the red trench coat for a long black fur coat. I slip off my boots and walk to the other end of the park. I’m banking on him coming back to the park, scanning it briefly, and then leaving. He’ll assume I’ve moved, but nope. I’ll be right here.
I sit on a different bench and open a different book. This time, Being and Nothingness.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, there he is, jogging through the park. My phone buzzes, but I don’t dare look at it. Once he’s out of view, I open it.
Didn’t go far on your first round. Did you get tired, little girl? I text him back after checking he isn’t in my line of vision. You wish.
He’s out of the park now. Two minutes to the next ping. I quickly stash all my extra clothes in a bush and start sprinting in the opposite direction. I want to get as far as I can within two minutes so that my next ping will place me somewhere else.
The two minutes is up and the ping goes out. Now I’m going to loop around in the opposite direction. I think he’ll come back through the park to get me, so I’m going to go back to the park but loop around so I don’t run into him.
I jog for a while in my athletic clothes, but when I start getting close to the park again, I stop and grab a new outfit from the stash I hid by the bushes an hour ago. I look through everything. Damn, the wig is gone. I knew this was a risk. Oh well.
I put on the oversized parka, brown sunglasses, and put up the hood. It looks a bit odd to be wearing the hood, but whatever. I’m hoping he won’t be paying too much attention.
I play the same trick for the next few rounds, recycling my costumes and alternating between hiding in the park and getting as far as I can within two minutes in either direction. It’s been thirty minutes now, though, and I feel like he’s on to me.
My phone buzzes. I know what you’re doing, he says. I’ll see you soon.
This is exactly what I was expecting. I knew at some point he’d figure out my strategy. So now it’s time to run.
I shed my coat and get in my athletic gear and start running.
After a few minutes, I throw a navy beanie on that I’ve been hiding in my pocket and a pair of round tinted glasses.
I get in line at a hot dog stand and pull out my phone.
I make sure it’s on silent as I start swiping my finger up and down.
I’m trying to look busy, like someone on their phone. Blend in. That’s the strategy.
When I was thinking about how I’d approach this game, I realized the way I would lose would be by being conspicuous. I’d win by being inconspicuous.
As stressful as it is, I’m sticking to my plan. It’s worked so far, and there’s only fifteen minutes left.
As badly as I want to look around, I don’t. I have no idea where he is when the next ping goes off. Only ten more minutes. Now’s the moment of truth. Do I move or not?
On one hand, I think he might be onto my strategy of not moving around much. On the other hand, any sudden movement might draw attention to myself. My disguise right now isn’t great. I mean, I have a hat on and glasses, but I’m not that well hidden.
Then I get an idea.
“Excuse me,” I say to the hot dog vendor.
“Yes?”
“If I pay you twenty dollars, will you let me come inside the stand with you?”
“Why?” he says.
“I don’t have time to explain. It’s nothing weird. Just for the next ten minutes. Please?”
I fish twenty dollars out of my purse and hand it to him.
“Please?” I say.
“All right,” he says.
“Thanks,” I say.
Inside the stand, I hang out. I pretend to look busy, shuffling around ingredients. He tells me not to touch anything, so I just pretend like I’m doing stuff.
Is this cheating? I ask myself. I mean, technically, I’m not inside a building. I’m still outside. The stand is a little cart. In a way, it’s kind of a vehicle, which would be against the rules. But it’s not moving. Damn. I’m not sure. Now isn’t the time to ask for a rules clarification, though.