Rude Awakening by Susan Rogers Cooper

location in the clearing, he could see her driveway perfectly.
    He kept going in the direction that he was headed, down Mountain Falls Road toward Highway-5, where he turned right onto Highway-5, on to the other entrance to Mountain Falls Road and back up the mountain to his hidey-hole. He sat there in the van, shaking with anticipation. It wouldn’t be long now, he thought. Not long at all.
    DALTON
    Sarah directed Dalton to Riverbanks Park, on the banks of the Arkansas River that ran near the downtown area, and they parked his truck and walked along the newly renovated river’s edge, passing the floating stage and amphitheater in the middle of the river. Although the sun was shining and the sky was blue, it was still only mid-March and there was a chilly wind blowing off the river toward them, blowing an odor of rotting fish and decay. Neither mentioned it, concentrating instead on the flowers in neat borders along the walkway, brilliant colors reaching for the sky.
    â€˜I guess I never knew Tulsa was so pretty,’ Dalton said, looking down at Sarah and wishing he had the nerve to hold her hand. That would be really nice, he thought, walking along the river’s edge, holding hands with this pretty girl.
    â€˜The city’s been doing a lot of renovations over the years,’ Sarah said. ‘I think they’re actually getting it right.’
    Making it back to the truck, they drove to Cherry Street and then walked along admiring the small shops and checking out the menus at the many restaurants.
    â€˜Oh, look at this shop!’ Sarah said, pointing in the window of a shop that seemed to specialize in eclectic items from all over the world. ‘May we go in here?’ Sarah asked.
    Dalton felt himself preening inside. He’d never been around anyone, man or woman, who said ‘may’ instead of ‘can’. He knew the difference and knew Sarah had done it right! She is so refined, he thought. And what a great teacher she must be for little kids. He couldn’t wait for her to start teaching their children the difference between ‘may’ and ‘can’.
    They walked into the store, the smell of patchouli incense almost knocking Dalton over. The store was so crowded, Dalton worried about knocking stuff over because of his size. He tried slipping sideways through the aisles so he wouldn’t hit anything. There was stuff from the Middle East, stuff from the Orient and stuff from right there in Tulsa: home-made stuff. Candles and paintings and vases and sculpture and jewelry.
    Sarah found a scarf, a big one, made of some silky kind of material and studded with sequins and beads and other doodads Dalton didn’t recognize. It was black at one end and faded to an aqua blue at the other.
    â€˜Oh, I have to have this!’ Sarah said.
    â€˜I’ll get it for you,’ Dalton said, wondering how much something like that would cost.
    â€˜Oh, no! Never. I’ve got it.’
    Realizing it was already six thirty, they found a restaurant with a tantalizing menu (at least to Sarah) and went inside for dinner. Dalton knew how to read, but he just didn’t understand anything the menu said. Not wanting to look totally stupid, he said, ‘This is your city. Why don’t you order for both of us?’ He heard that line in a movie once. It was the girl saying it, but still . . .
    â€˜You sure?’ Sarah asked, smiling at him.
    â€˜Absolutely,’ Dalton answered, smiling back.
    And so she did. The appetizer they shared was called a ‘cauliflower latke’ when she’d ordered it, but it turned out in real life to be a potato pancake with spicy green sauce. He’d told her he liked beef so she’d ordered him a steak and mac and cheese. Except the mac and cheese had lobster in it and the carrots were spicy hot and sitting next to some green stuff that tasted like licorice, something he’d never liked. His first instinct was to