Your Protector

We got downtown at about one o’clock and drove around the parking garage to the Galleria for ten minutes. When Alex finally found a spot in the dark cave-like place to park his giant truck we climbed out and walked to the elevators of the garage. We walked silently hand in hand to the elevator and went in, never saying a word. I don’t know why we were so quiet we just were and it was kind of scaring me. I looked over at Alex who was rocking side to side, gaining speed slowly. I realized what he was doing and grabbed the silver rail before the elevator began to shake. It shook violently as Alex rocked back and forth, trying to scare me. “Alex! Stop! Please? You know I hate elevators you don’t have to make it worse!” I yelled almost in tears. If there was one thing I hated it was shaking elevators because they made me nervous. Ever since I was little I’ve always avoided taking elevators and used stairs instead. I have seen to many movies where people fall or get stuck in elevators and they convinced me that I would fall anytime I went in one.

Alex stopped abruptly and looked at me apologetically. “Sorry…I forgot. I was just trying to entertain myself because you were being quiet and I didn’t want to interrupt your thinking.” Alex walked over to me and pulled me into him. “I really am sorry.”

The tears that were about to fall from my eyes dried up and went away. “It’s fine. Let’s talk so you don’t have to entertain yourself.” I said laughing and letting go of Alex.
He smiled and asked, “What do you wanna’ talk about?”

“Well let’s see.” The elevator doors opened and made a dinging noise, causing me to jump almost two feet.

Alex laughed and pulled me out of the elevator then I looked up through the glass roof of the Galleria and smiled. I remembered my mom bringing my brother and me here for skating lessons every week. We would come and skate our hearts out then we would wait for Alex’s class to finish once we were done. After we all met up my mom would bring us to the food court and buy us all an ice cream to reward us for working so hard. I remember she always waited in the stands for us to finish, watching us the whole time, and there was not one day that she didn’t buy us ice cream after our lesson. I really miss that.

“Ally, come on! Let’s get out skates.” Alex said, looking back at me. He had walked away, thinking I would follow.

I jogged to catch up with him and grabbed his hand. “Sorry. Lost in thought.” I said distantly.

“It’s fine.” Alex started walking and I stayed still. “You okay?”

“Yeah just thinking about my mom is all. I really miss her bringing us here and buying ice cream.”

“I miss her too. But hey, it’s going to be okay. How about we get ice cream when we are done skating?” He said with a soft smile.

“Sounds good.” I smiled back and walked with Alex to the rink.

We went down the stairs to the locker room and rented a locker for our shoes. Alex told me to sit on the gray bench and start pulling off my shoes so he could rent the skates. I obeyed and pulled off my black and blue Vans leaving only my green socks on then I looked over at Alex and saw him talking with Devin at the shoe counter. Devin looked over at me and waved with a smile then turned back to Alex and gave him our shoes.

Alex and I came here so much when we were younger so we knew Devin really well. He wasn’t just the guy who gave out shoes. He used to be a skater so he taught us how to know if our shoes were right for us or not. He skated with us every now and then but he got older and stopped because his ankles became weak. Alex, Jason, and I asked him if he’d be our coach one day because he was a lot nicer than Mr. Toll and he told us that wasn’t a nice thing to say about his friend. We apologized and never asked again. He eventually started to substitute when Mr. Toll was sick and we learned a lot more from him than Mr. Toll ever taught us.

Alex walked over to the bench I was on and sat next to me, handing me my blue and black skates. He pulled of his shoes then put his skates on and I did the same. Alex picked up our shoes and locked them in our locker then walked back to me. “Ready?”

“Yep. You’re going to help me up the stairs right?” I asked. I had never been good at walking up stairs with skates but Alex could run up them if he wanted to.

“Of course.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. He helped me walk up the stairs and we went through the stands and into the ice covered rink.

Alex and I started skating around the rink following the traffic slowly then got tired of it. We moved away from the wall on the edge of the rink and closer to the middle where people didn’t really skate because they held the wall for support. We started skating slow and picked up speed as we went around the rink. The cool air blew at my face and I smiled, remembering how much I missed skating. I starting laughing with joy and Alex looked at me with a smile. “Having fun?”

“Yes! Thank you!” I said excitedly.

“No problem.” Alex smiled bigger and slowed down as I kept going.

I kept skating then turned around to see Alex skating right at me. He got close to me then turned slightly and came to an abrupt stop, making little pieces of ice fly at me. I started laughing and looked at him. He smiled easily and said, “I guess I’ve still got it.”

When Alex and I were little we would play ice tag-a game we made up- and always get in trouble for it. The rules were who ever was ‘it’ had to catch up to the other people and make a fast stop by them, causing ice to shoot at them. Alex was the best at the game and when he only stayed ‘it’ for a little while because he was so good.

I shook my head and smiled. “Maybe. Let’s play and find out.”

Alex and I played ice tag for a while then got tired and left the skating rink. We walked over to the food court and Alex bought ice cream for us. We sat and ate our ice cream slowly while talking about what to do next. “I have to pee really bad!” Alex said loudly, squirming in his seat which made people look at us.

“Then go to the restroom smart one.”

“But I don’t want to leave you alone. You know who might show up.” Alex looked thoughtful for a minute then smiled, showing he had an idea.

“I am not going with you!” I said already knowing what he was thinking.

The smile turned to a frown and he looked thoughtful again. “Fine. Just don’t move. If you see Zane or if anyone tries to mess with you scream. It’s a big place people will help you.”

“Kay.”

Alex walked away and I laid my head on my arms. I felt the presence of someone behind me and turned around to see Zane towering over my chair.

“Hello love.”

It took my mind a minute to convince itself that it was really Zane in front of me and I screamed, “Help!”

Zane put his arms around me and started poking my stomach making me laugh even though I wanted to scream again. A few people turned around at my scream and ignored it once they saw me laughing. I have to give Zane credit, that was pretty smart.

Zane grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the chair and started pulling me toward the exit. “Zane! Let go of her!” A familiar voice screamed. Zane started running and I turned to see Alex trailing behind him. I looked at him and shook my head no. I knew he would get hurt if he tried to stop Zane and I didn’t want that.After Zane got to far he stopped running and blew me a kiss, mouthing, ‘I’ll find you.’

I caught what he said and mouthed back, ‘Hurry.’

Zane dragged me out the exit door and Alex slowly got smaller and smaller. When Zane turned the corner to get to his blue sports car I lost sight of Alex and a tear rolled down my face. Zane roughly pushed me into the back seat of his car and two guys grabbed me. A broad, blond man put a blindfold on me and handed me to the other guy. “Where are you taking me?” I screamed.

A hand went over my mouth and I heard Zane say from the front, “We, my dear, are going to my fun house.” Zane laughed evilly. Even though he called it his fun house, I didn’t think it would be too fun.