Bull Running For Girlsl Read Online Free

before?” Michael asked her.
    “No, but I believe that I can do it, even though the days are hotter than I thought they’d be,” Elise replied.
    “It’s been too hot for me,” he stated. “What brings you on the Camino—travelling alone?”
    Elise looked thoughtful for a moment. “I can look after myself. Besides, it is rare to hear about robbery, or worse, on the pilgrimage.”
    “Sure, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.”
    Elise merely smiled.
    “You still haven’t said why you are doing it?”
    “Why does anyone? I’m here looking for something.”
    “You’ll find it on the Camino—everyone finds what they are looking for on the Camino,” Frantz added.
    “Even sinners like you, Frantz?” Michael gave him a friendly nudge on the arm and then took a swig from a water bottle.
    “But why are you going in this direction? You are supposed to finish in Santiago, aren’t you?” asked Elise.
    “We were, but now we are going to get a bus to Pamplona.”
    “Why?”
    “To run with the bulls. We’ve been thinking about it after reading Hemingway and, well, it seems like fun.”
    Michael rummaged about in his rucksack, pulled a book out and passed it to Elise. She noted that his brown hair was too long over his blue eyes. He kept sweeping it away with a shake of his head.
    “Ah right— The Sun Also Rises . I’ve read it,” said Elise. “It’s about desire.”
    “It’s about bull fighting and sex,” replied Michael.
    “Both dangerous.”
    “We’re young. We’re meant to face danger occasionally.”
    “Putting aside the camaraderie, bravado, and Hemingway’s book, bull running is dangerous,” she repeated.
    “And fun,” he replied. “Why don’t you come with us?”
    “To watch?”
    “Of course to watch. As you say, it would be far too dangerous….” Michael hesitated.
    “…for a girl, you meant to say,” she finished.
    “Well, yes.”
    “No—I won’t go to watch.” With total conviction, Elise suddenly knew what she wanted to do. “I will run with the bulls too.”
    She took off her sunglasses and for a moment a ray of evening sunlight broke through the trees and Michael caught sight of some strange reflection in her eyes. He blinked, and then there was nothing there, just the beautiful, hazel eyes of a stunning Spanish girl.
     
    That night, whilst the boys slept in their tent (they had offered it to Elise but she had refused), Elise lay on top of her sleeping bag, thankful for the slight breeze, and gazed heavenwards. She marvelled at the brightness of the nearest stars and wondered about the strong compulsion she now had—to go to Pamplona. She wasn’t entirely unhappy that she seemed to be guided by impulse and not determination. It wasn’t long before Michael joined her. But soon all she could think about, amid the fumbling, was how beautiful the stars were and that there were so many constellations out there, though most of them she could never quite identify. Taurus would be visible to someone tonight.
    It was the kind of sex that young men do, when they sense the girl isn’t really interested. After he was finished he mumbled an apology, which—in her distraction—she didn’t hear. She said nothing. He went back inside the tent. Later she heard Michael swearing in his sleep, fighting off creatures in his nightmares, and she supposed one of them might be her.
    In the morning nothing was said. Michael smiled sheepishly as she packed her rucksack and she smiled warmly in return—the incident filed under impulse, opportunity, and youth.
     
    They chose a hostel on the outskirts of Pamplona, the other hostels being full of eager, young people there for the next day’s bull running, and they ate outside at a café. Elise enjoyed the evening, in the company of the two young men who flirted in turn for her attention.
    As she raised her wine glass to her lips she could hear the blunt sound of something chipping on stone. The noise grew louder and a