Thread of Hope

SEVENTY-SEVEN

Kelly Rundles and Robert Stricker were blocking our path.

Kelly reached her hand out. “Meredith? Are you alright?”

Meredith shrank from her coach’s reach and backed into me. I guided her around to my side and she pressed into me, a shy toddler clinging to a parent.

I put an arm around her shoulders. “She’s fine.”

Megan took several steps back and was now on my other side. She wasn’t radiating the same fear that Meredith was, but her demeanor had changed and it wasn’t for the better.

Kelly’s eyes were fixed on Meredith. “Where have you been? Do your parents know you’re here?” She glanced at me. “Do they know?”

I was taken aback by Kelly’s concern because it was genuine. She seemed shocked to see Meredith and there was no anger, no animosity, no aggressiveness on Kelly’s part. After our half-time confrontation, I had pegged her as somehow being involved in the downward spiral that had become Meredith’s life. Now, looking at her face, I was fairly certain I was wrong.

“I’m taking Meredith home,” I said, my arm tightening around her shoulders. “We’re going to her home right now. Her parents know we’re on the way.”

To the girls’ credit, they didn’t blanch at my bluff.

Kelly hesitated, then stepped out of the way.

Robert Stricker did not move.

We locked eyes.

The situation crystallized for me.

And he produced a gun.