'The Race' by Ursula Hoult

“Run!”

 He said. So I did. Far away I ran. To where the snow began.

I hoped here I was safe. That I might take a new name. That I might become blonde and hide away.

I looked around at the lay of the land. And decided that now my name would be new - Agnetha.

Agnetha, and blonde, I smiled at the man in the bar. The woman beside him did not smile back, so I turned away. And caught the bartender's eye - “a dry white wine” seemed the sophisticated thing. I struggled however with the wine, as I have always had a sweet tooth. And new person or not, some things don’t change, no matter how blonde you are.

Putting the wine aside, I thought of whether I should contact Dave who told me “run”. We had been together a long time and had many successful capers together before his final shout. I needed to think about what had gone wrong and why the police had been waiting for us.

Or whether that was wasted thought and energy, and what I really needed to do was hide the money. The money was technically ‘ours’, but in Dave’s absence I needed to keep it safe and hidden from prying eyes.

What would Agnetha do that Katie wouldn’t, I mused, as I tried to solve the problem of what to do next. She would get a job and work on being a model citizen of whom the police would show no interest, I thought. I saw a small poster beside the bar advertising for staff, and I considered if I knew enough to work as a bartender.

My name is Agnetha, a bartender in the land where snow begins, and each day I wait for the man who told me “run”.