I was thirteen years old, a skinny guy in 7th grade, doing okay in school but more interested in soccer and track than academics. Four of us were walking home from school about three in the afternoon and one by one we gradually veered off and headed to our own home. I was within a block from home when I heard a whimpering noise. I figured a dog or cat must be hurt. It was coming from behind a big bush. Whoever built all the homes in my neighborhood put a big wall around the whole place. A nice wall, cement block but fancier. There were rocks through it, sort of a rough finish. And at several places there was an indentation or nook that would have a tree or bush in it. This was one of those niches. I went around behind the bush, pushing it out of the way, to see what was hurt and making the sobbing noise.
It was a girl. A young girl, maybe my age. She was curled up tight, holding herself and whimpering, seemed as scared as anything. "What's wrong?" I asked.
She never even looked at me, held herself tight and sobbed some more. "Bad people are after me," she said really quietly.
Well, thirteen is young but old enough to know something. This girl is really scared, maybe even hurt, and needed help. So I sat down next to her, both of us behind the bush where nobody would see us. "I can help," I said, "I just live a block from here. We can go there." She didn't even look at me, just held herself tight and made little noises. "What kind of bad people?" I asked.
"They came in my bedroom when I was asleep," she said and turned her head to look at me. "They grabbed me and taped my mouth and tied me up and carried me out the window. I was in the trunk of a car and then they carried me into a house and tied me to a chair. I figured I was going to die or something. I was there a long time, more than a day. I worked on the ropes and realized I could get loose. So when I was alone and I knew at least one of them was gone, I got loose, climbed out the window and ran until I found this place and hid. I think I've been here for hours."
I put my arm around her and she came uncurled some and almost jumped on me and put her arms around me and held on tight. "Just stay here with me," she said, "I know they're looking for me."
We held each other for a while. "Sooner or later we need to get out of here and to my house where you'll be safe."
"But I can't let them see me and catch me again. I just can't!"
I just held her for awhile. Her whole body was shaking. I tried to think. "When I can, I can get up and go out and look and see. When there's no one in sight and no cars going by, we can climb this wall and drop down the other side in a couple seconds, real quick. I've climbed it a lot. It's easy, just use the rocks where they stick out."
"Don't go, stay with me."
"I'm staying. Hey watch me for a moment." I got her off me, stood up and climbed up the wall. It's only about six feet tall, not hard to do, just get two or three places to grab hold of. I got to the top and looked down, she was watching me. I climbed back down and sat next to her. She hugged me again. "Think you can do that? If you could untie yourself you ought to be able to climb the wall." She nodded a yes. I stood up and worked around the bush. The street was quiet, no one in sight, no cars. I pushed back behind the bush. "Now's the time, stand up and climb up and I'll follow." She did it. She got a foot up on a rock and pushed up and grabbed another one. I reached up and pushed on her butt when she moved her foot up and found another rock. I could see she had hold of the top of the wall so I climbed up next to her and in another couple seconds we both went over the top of the wall and dropped down on someone's yard.
"Come on," I said and grabbed her hand and started to run, she came along . I think she could run even faster than me. We only had to get by a half dozen houses to get to mine. We ran around back, I took out my key and opened the door and we both ducked inside and I closed the door behind us. "Made it!" I exclaimed. She put her arms around me and held me close and just held on. It was sort of weird. I realized that she was still scared and probably a little traumatized from everything. So I put my arms around her and we just stood there holding each other for several minutes. It seemed a long time.
Now what should I do? "Can I call your parents? Do you know your home phone number?"
She loosened her hold a little. "Yes," she said. She paused a long time but I could tell she was thinking. "Could we just stay here for a little while? Make sure those people aren't around anywhere?
"Sure. But you're safe here. My sister is in high school, at cheerleader practice and won't be home for a couple hours and my parents are both at work and won't be home for a couple hours, either. So we can just stay here as long as you want."
Talking to her, we parted a little bit and I realized she had almost nothing on. She had on some thin, brief nighty that was both short and also ripped a little. She was almost naked. I also realized her bare feet were dirty and maybe cut a little and she had some red marks on her arms. "I can find some clothes that you can put on," I tell her,"and maybe we can clean your feet and put something on the cuts."
She grabbed me tight again and said, "Okay, just don't leave me." I pushed her off a little and took her hand and started leading her. The whole house is only one floor. I also began to realize that she must be around my age and is maybe three or four inches shorter than me, She's also fairly thin and actually very nice looking. I'd never been on a date but if I was going to, I would probably be happy to ask her.
In my bedroom I looked through some drawers and found an old T-shirt and old sweat pants that were too small for me but should fit her. "See if you can fit in these," I said and hand them to her. She surprised me. She pulls off her nighty and stands there naked. I'd never seen a girl naked before. Well, I didn't see this one long, either, because she stepped into the sweat pants quickly and then put the T-shirt on. "It's not perfect," I tell her, "but better than that night shirt. You look very good." She grinned.
Now, I was thirteen. I had probably had some beginning thoughts of sex by then but I remember that while I was old enough to know she was a girl and all that, right at the time I had no thoughts of sex. I was only interested in calming her and making her feel better. I took her to the bathroom, looked through the medicine cabinet and found some antibacterial cream. I had her sit on the edge of the tub, started some hot water running and had her wash her feet. She dried them and then I smeared some of the cream over the little cuts. By then I knew her name was Dana and she knew mine was Brian.
We went back to the living room. She pretty much kept hold of me a lot. Then I dialed the number she gave me. A man answered and I asked if I could speak to Dana's mother. The woman who answered seemed out of breath. "Hi," I said, "My name is Brian and on my way home from school I found Dana hiding behind a bush and I've brought her to my house where you can come and pick her up."