'Tis confusion!

meeting Barbara

As we continued driving, the sky gradually became an inky purple, dotted with a few stars here and there. The air had grown even colder. It was truly a beautiful night. We drove on in relative silence, and after awhile, came upon two cars on the side of the road. Sure enough, Sal was sitting in the grass (on top of his hoodie, of course). Perched next to him was a pretty blonde girl. They were talking about pets, from what I could hear.

"Yeah, my mom is allergic to cats, but I have a dog, and a ferret, " the girl was saying. "This is actually really embarrassing to admit, but I kind of named my dog after you. He's Salvatore, and the ferret is James. I have, like, four friends who understand why." Sal laughed. "Oh, that's too funny. Wait until I tell James about this."

Q stepped up. "Not unless I tell him first." The blonde girl's eyes widened. She looked from Q to Sal, and back to Q. "You didn't tell me that's who you called! This is awesome!"

"Q, Mara, this is Barbara" Sal said, motioning to the girl. "In case you couldn't tell, she's a small fan of the show. She's really cool."

"Today does seem to be the day for events like this" Q said. 

Barbara and I smiled at each other. "It's nice to meet another Jokers fan." She said to me.

"Likewise" I said, as we shook hands. 

Q shook his head. "I can't believe you got Sal to sit on the ground. Are you sure this is really Sal?"

Sal rolled his eyes. "I told you," he said to Barbara. "Q thinks he's the funniest thing on this planet." He then turned to Q. "Seriously, though, thank you guys for coming to the rescue. You know I couldn't just leave this poor girl stranded." "Hey, don't mention it buddy. You know I'm always down to help you out."

Sal took the gas can from Q's hands and started filling Barbara's tank. She watched him, a small smile on her face.

"Sal, I don't know how I can ever thank you and Q," Barbara said. She pulled out her wallet. "Let me pay you back for the gas." Q waved it away. "It's nothing honey, don't worry about it. Least we can do to help a fan."

Sal straightened up and turned to Barbara. "So, you mentioned before that you live not too far from here. Would you like me to follow you home? Wait, that sounds creepy. Let me try again. Would you like me to follow you..ok, there's really no good way to say this without sounding like a stalker."

Barbara was blushing hardcore. "I know what you mean, and yes, I'd love for you to follow me home. This is an older car, and you never know what might happen."

Q nudged me and dropped his voice. " look at them. You can practically see the hearts pouring out of Sal's ears. I think he might be a bit taken with this girl."

"Well, maybe now that he's talked to her and realized she's probably not a murderer,  his mind is at ease." I suggested.

"Well, I don't know that Sal's mind is every truly at ease, but I get where you're coming from. But it's getting later. Ready to head on?"

I nodded. "Don't think I've forgotten about this mysterious plan you mentioned before we found Sal. Let's go."

We said our goodbyes and took off again. I watched Sal and Barbara get into their cars and drive away. Q flipped the radio back on and away we went.