I shrug. ‘You made me naked too.’
‘That was different.’
‘Really?’ I almost laugh. ‘What makes this any worse? Because I’m a woman?’ I shake my head slowly, but perhaps this isn’t the time to lecture you on the gender equality issues of being kidnapped.
‘Because you’re insane.’
‘You weren’t?’
‘I was different then,’ you say. ‘I was vulnerable.’
I snort, incredulous. ‘More vulnerable than a sixteen-year-old girl? One you kidnapped from the other side of the world? One you held against her will?’
You look at the dirt. ‘Fine. You were different too,’ you say. ‘You weren’t…this.’
I wait for more, for answers about myself. I’m not that old Gemma, you’re right, but now I don’t feel quite like the Kate back in London either. I feel infused with fire.
I changed my name,’ I tell you. ‘I’m Kate now. Perhaps you should use it.’
You shrug. You won’t.
‘You know, these past years I’ve changed for the better,’ I say. ‘I’ve tried, at least. Whereas you’ve just got worse. I’m doing you a favour this time around, bringing you here, helping you.’
But I know our crimes are different. You took a sapling and tried to turn it into a twisted tree. I’m taking a twisted tree and righting it. You hoist yourself onto your elbows, no longerflinching from pain. You see, I made you well enough for that, even if you choose not to notice.
‘I don’t understand you,’ you say. ‘You know they’ll put me back inside if they catch me with you, if I don’t report in…That what you want?’
‘No one will catch you,’ I say. ‘You’re staying here. They don’t know about this place.’
Your eyes widen as you make a strangled sort of laugh. ‘So, you don’t care about me at all now?’ you ask, holding my gaze. ‘You did once.’
And here you go with your emotional manipulation, your charm. I brace myself for more, but you stay quiet.
‘I don’t care aboutthisversion of you!’
‘But this is me.’
‘It’s not.’
You sigh and lie back down on the camp bed.
‘What do you think’ll happen when I don’t show? They’ll go looking, that’s what.’
I shake my head. ‘And they’re not going to find us out here, are they? Because you didn’t tell anyone where this place is.’
You look away, but don’t say anything to the contrary.
‘So we’re safe here,’ I say.
Alone.