the building and gave Wolfe a thumb’s up. She’d paid for us.
Then, to my amazement, she came over with an icebox and put it in the trunk of our BMW.
Why plan for trips when you could take from random women? The man was smart when he needed to be, even if he was thrifty with his words. From the size of her Winnebago, she wasn’t poor, and that made me feel better. Take from the rich, etcetera, etcetera.
It suddenly occurred to me that his ability might be better than winning the lottery, if you were him...
We drove for another hour before we went past a sign that stated we were headed into the Pine Barrens. I remembered hearing about this. An isolated yet huge nature reserve. Millions of square miles of poorly inhabited territory.
He wanted somewhere quiet to think...and to question me.
Crap. My toes curled and I let them dig into my shoes.
I wanted to click the heels together and go home and over the rainbow.
I wanted to be anywhere but with him, in the dark, in the middle of some god-forsaken forest that, I also recalled, was featured in a murder in The Sopranos .
That thing stuck to the car had better be a tracking device. If I pretended, hard, I could almost hear it ticking.
There was a rest area beside a lake and a sign that indicated camping facilities and showers. Wolfe eyed me. “We both need a shower. I’m going to let you go in. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t like. Come back in fifteen minutes.”
Towel in hand I approached the toilet block. The showers turned out to be freezing cold but the water felt good on my body. Surely, I was getting a fever. I felt so hot around Wolfe, like he gave off some sizzling energy that leached into my muscles. I stood under the shower and contemplated drawing a help message over the wash basins. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t like. Those words crawled around inside me but I brushed away the memory. Test it out . I raised my hand to write among the water dribbling down the tiled wall and couldn’t even make my shaking finger do the first stroke of the H.
Crap. I almost cried, but I washed my face again, turned off the water, and picked up the towel. I’d find a way. I would.
Fifteen minutes later, we turned onto some paltry side road made of one part dirt and one part prayer. An owl drifted past overhead, then some shadows – witches probably, given my damn luck.
* * * * *
Night fell quickly. If the sunset was pretty and purply orange, I barely noticed it for the surrounding trees, and for being more concerned with Wolfe’s slowly increasing wariness. I wouldn’t say feral, he wasn’t that bad, but I could see the change. How many hours had it been? Five? At most. He hadn’t swallowed the whole dose at my apartment.
We’d cooked sausages over the campfire, had a beer each, and were sitting on two logs that made an L shape before the fire, and still I hadn’t found a way to sneak a top-up dose of Keppra into his food or drink.
If I were too obvious, he’d know. A tight pain grew in my chest. Tell him the truth – that the drug seemed to inhibit his crazier self. He might just go, hey, yes! Give me some. He might throw it all in that lake that glinted through the trees, when the moon deigned to come out from behind the clouds.
“Lucky it’s early fall.” As the coolness had swept in, I’d added yoga pants under my dress and a light sweater. He’d been so quiet and I needed words, even from him. I took the last swig from my beer and set it aside.
We probably weren’t supposed to camp here, or park here, or make a campfire, but I’d let him deal with the angry park rangers.
“I’ve been thinking,” he began, voice all gravelly – a man’s voice added natural gravitas to anything he said. He could get a philosophy gig, if he spoke low and serious...and scary, like he just had.
His words had made my next breath stick in my throat, and all he was doing was thinking.
We were lost, metaphorically, in this immense forest, lit by the
Then, to my amazement, she came over with an icebox and put it in the trunk of our BMW.
Why plan for trips when you could take from random women? The man was smart when he needed to be, even if he was thrifty with his words. From the size of her Winnebago, she wasn’t poor, and that made me feel better. Take from the rich, etcetera, etcetera.
It suddenly occurred to me that his ability might be better than winning the lottery, if you were him...
We drove for another hour before we went past a sign that stated we were headed into the Pine Barrens. I remembered hearing about this. An isolated yet huge nature reserve. Millions of square miles of poorly inhabited territory.
He wanted somewhere quiet to think...and to question me.
Crap. My toes curled and I let them dig into my shoes.
I wanted to click the heels together and go home and over the rainbow.
I wanted to be anywhere but with him, in the dark, in the middle of some god-forsaken forest that, I also recalled, was featured in a murder in The Sopranos .
That thing stuck to the car had better be a tracking device. If I pretended, hard, I could almost hear it ticking.
There was a rest area beside a lake and a sign that indicated camping facilities and showers. Wolfe eyed me. “We both need a shower. I’m going to let you go in. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t like. Come back in fifteen minutes.”
Towel in hand I approached the toilet block. The showers turned out to be freezing cold but the water felt good on my body. Surely, I was getting a fever. I felt so hot around Wolfe, like he gave off some sizzling energy that leached into my muscles. I stood under the shower and contemplated drawing a help message over the wash basins. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t like. Those words crawled around inside me but I brushed away the memory. Test it out . I raised my hand to write among the water dribbling down the tiled wall and couldn’t even make my shaking finger do the first stroke of the H.
Crap. I almost cried, but I washed my face again, turned off the water, and picked up the towel. I’d find a way. I would.
Fifteen minutes later, we turned onto some paltry side road made of one part dirt and one part prayer. An owl drifted past overhead, then some shadows – witches probably, given my damn luck.
* * * * *
Night fell quickly. If the sunset was pretty and purply orange, I barely noticed it for the surrounding trees, and for being more concerned with Wolfe’s slowly increasing wariness. I wouldn’t say feral, he wasn’t that bad, but I could see the change. How many hours had it been? Five? At most. He hadn’t swallowed the whole dose at my apartment.
We’d cooked sausages over the campfire, had a beer each, and were sitting on two logs that made an L shape before the fire, and still I hadn’t found a way to sneak a top-up dose of Keppra into his food or drink.
If I were too obvious, he’d know. A tight pain grew in my chest. Tell him the truth – that the drug seemed to inhibit his crazier self. He might just go, hey, yes! Give me some. He might throw it all in that lake that glinted through the trees, when the moon deigned to come out from behind the clouds.
“Lucky it’s early fall.” As the coolness had swept in, I’d added yoga pants under my dress and a light sweater. He’d been so quiet and I needed words, even from him. I took the last swig from my beer and set it aside.
We probably weren’t supposed to camp here, or park here, or make a campfire, but I’d let him deal with the angry park rangers.
“I’ve been thinking,” he began, voice all gravelly – a man’s voice added natural gravitas to anything he said. He could get a philosophy gig, if he spoke low and serious...and scary, like he just had.
His words had made my next breath stick in my throat, and all he was doing was thinking.
We were lost, metaphorically, in this immense forest, lit by the
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