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ADALINE AND ARVIN HITCHHIKED AGAIN, but this time they were more on guard. It was only a single man driving in a bright blue sedan, so he seemed alright but they've already learned that looks can be deceiving.
It began to rain when he dropped them off at a gas station in Meade, Ohio, where they were immediately met with a man sitting on the front porch, "Howdy. You two look like you've been travelin'."
Adaline and Arvin slowed down by the man, Arvin doing the talking, "Yeah."
"Where're you headin'?"
Arvin nodded up the nearby hill, "There used to be a house and a barn up on the hill over there. Some lawyer owned it. Y'know it?"
"Sure, I do. Up in the Mitchell Flats."
"Still there?"
The man looked at Arvin in realization, "Well, I'll be damned. You're that Russell boy, ain't you?"
Arvin nodded before glancing over his and Adaline's shoulders, "I just thought, seein' as I was this way, I'd stop by and see the old place again."
The man stood up and sighed, "Son, I hate to tell you this, but that place burned some years ago. They think some kids did it. Wasn't nobody ever livin' there since you and your folks."
Arvin shrugged, "Well, heck, I come all this way. I may as well walk up there anyways."
The man nodded and pointed to his side, "Sure, just cut across Clarence's pasture. He won't say nothin'." Adaline softly smiled at the man in thanks as she began following Arvin up the hill.
Arvin suddenly stopped and faced the man again, "I never did thank you for the night my dad died." Adaline looked at Arvin empathetically. "You were awful kind to me and I just want you to know that I ain't never forgot it."
"You had that pie smeared all across your face. Damn Bodecker thought it was blood. Remember that?"
Arvin softly nodded, "Yeah, I remember everything about that night." Adaline grabbed onto Arvin's hand with both of hers.
The man continued about Sheriff Bodecker, "He ain't the lawman that I expected. Shame about his sister, though."
Adaline asked, "Why? What happened?"
"Well, his sister and her husband were found dead. Not far from Meade." Adaline and Arvin simultaneously looked down the road they came up, paranoid a bunch of cop cars would pull up at any second. "You two come back to see me. We'll sit out and drink some beer."
Arvin pulled his hat down snugger around his head as he nodded at the man, "We'll do that." He and Adaline began walking up the hill and across someone's lawn (Clarence's, Adaline assumed) before Arvin led Adaline through the woods. Neither of them spoke about the sheriff's dead sister and husband, neither of them really spoke at all aside from Arvin's "Watch your step" when they began to go down a steep hill.
