The Sudden Star by Pamela Sargent Page A

back."
    "We'll get in trouble." He was terrified now. He heard leaves rustle and crackle and thought of wild beasts. You're safe in a crowd, he thought frantically. It's when you're alone you're in trouble. He heard a twig snap; then he froze. Only ten feet away, someone, or something, was standing, outlined by the moonlight.
    Juan shrank against the tree. His legs wouldn't move. He wanted to scream. The figure moved closer to them. Maybe it couldn't see them in the darkness. The dark figure raised its right arm, pointing it at them, and Juan realized they were finished.
    "Come out of there," a soft voice said. "Be very slow and very careful about how you move."
    It was a man, and he had a gun.
     
    He motioned them through the woods and down a small hill until they reached a brook banked by slabs of stone. He told them to sit on a stone and they did, careful not to move too quickly.
    He was a slender man. In the moonlight, Juan could see a lean face covered with a short dark beard. The stranger threw a piece of rope to Aisha. "Tie the boy up." She tied his hands, then his feet. She was doing her best, he knew, to make him comfortable; the rope was not too tight. He sat there, hands between his legs, wrists tied to ankles, and was not grateful. If it hadn't been for her, he thought angrily, I wouldn't be here.
    The man checked the rope, took Juan's knife from his belt, then tied Aisha's hands behind her back. "Now I need some answers very fast," the man said softly. "How many people are up there and what are they doing?"
    "There's an old man, a girl, twelve guards, rifles, machine guns," Juan answered as quickly as possible. "And the guards check all the time. They could be coming here right now." He was sure the man wouldn't believe the lie even as he spoke. The guards were probably sitting on the dirt road sharing a butt. If I get out of this, he thought, I'll never help anyone again.
    "I know you," Aisha said to the man. Juan's heart sank. "You didn't have a beard then." Juan prayed that Aisha would shut up. "You're the doctor. I was there when they took you away. I thought you were in prison."
    "Why don't you just shoot us and get it over with?" Juan whispered despairingly, hoping the stories he'd heard about heaven were true. But if they were, he thought sadly, he wouldn't go there anyway. And the man wouldn't shoot; it was too noisy. He'd cut their throats and leave them for the animals. Juan huddled on the rock, hoping at least that the man killed Aisha first so he could watch her bleed; it was all her fault.
    "I escaped," the man was saying. "They were supposed to hang me, but they never do that until they work you to death on Thruway repair first."
    "How'd you get away?" Aisha, Juan thought, was brave or crazy. He felt calmer. If she could keep him talking, they might have a chance; the guards might notice their empty blankets.
    "Ten of us made the break. We had outside help. We were supposed to meet near here and pick up new clothes and papers. Only two of us made it. I wound up with five sets of papers, these clothes, and a gun."
    "What kind of papers?"
    "Migrant worker. You're mighty inquisitive." The man peered at Aisha's face. "You're the girl who was with René, aren't you. Who's up there, one of René's gangs?"
    "René's up there," Aisha said.
    The man stepped back. "Is he, now? He could have saved me, he had enough pull." He put his gun in his belt. "I don't have time to stand here talking." His hand was on his knife hilt.
    "Wait," Aisha said. "Take me with you."
    "You're crazy. Why should I?"
    "You've got extra papers. And if you have a kid with you, it'll throw them off. It'll help you."
    "Didn't the old man treat you right?"
    "I was trying to get away," she replied. "I just didn't have a chance before. Please, I can help you."
    The man looked around nervously. The woods were quiet. "I don't have time to argue," he said at last. He untied Aisha. She got up, rubbing her wrists. "Do one wrong thing, and it's a