I couldn't see her expression through the curtains, but Arlene's body language was different. It was like she suddenly didn't know what to do with her hands. She waited nervously for a minute and then crossed the street after a couple of cars passed.
This wasn't a town large enough for a stop light and only 5 streets crossed the main drive through town. There weren't that many people out on the street this time of day, and the man in the plaid over shirt and jeans had to find things to do to delay his speed to match Arlene. He looked in empty store windows and checked his phone. His intent was obvious to me but Arlene didn't look around so she didn't see him.
I wanted to scream out, call her or text her to warn her somehow.
He crossed the street after she went into the little local library. He glanced in the window as he walked past and leaned up against the wall just past the library. He made a short phone call and then stood there looking slightly nervous and chain smoking American Spirit cigarettes.
The tribal police chief came out of the station with his deputy, they both cast a long meaningful look down the street at the man smoking next to the library. Plaid shirt nodded at them.
Satisfied, the tribal police got into the cruiser and drove away.
I was so nervous I was shaking. I'd been sitting here watching, just quivering with anticipation. I was filled with this feeling of foreboding that something terrible was going to happen. I couldn't stop going through all of the scenarios in my mind. But I couldn't see anything that should have me freaking out like this...
Apoc whined. I glanced at him and he locked onto me with those eyes. I blinked, but I couldn't look away. I couldn't explain it, but I breathed once, then again. And slowly I started to relax.
I needed to be ready to move, but not wound so tightly that I would move without thinking or erratically. I had to keep thinking. Calm settled over me like cool water of a lake on a hot day. I had to keep my head in the game.
He stepped closer and licked me right on the nose. I almost laughed out loud. I felt a warm wave of affection wash up and over my forehead and down my spine.
I guess I needed that.
I glanced back out the window. The guy was still there glancing in the window of the library and lighting another cigarette from the last one. His phone rang and he answered with a hand over his mouth.
The Sheriff's office door opened and boots crunched. A well tanned man in a Sheriff's uniform walked weirdly slow up the street and he was also talking on a cell phone. He was as obvious as the one hanging out next to the library. He stopped short, turned abruptly, and walked back to his car. He reached to shut his door.
And then he did something that stopped my heart.
He stared right at me. As if he could see through the curtains. He slowly turned his eyes on the pavement, slipped his phone into his pocket and got into his cruiser. He backed out and drove up the street made a U-turn and sat in his car.
He was just waiting.
Waiting for what I wondered.
Plaid shirt who was standing by the library watched him nonchalantly for a long moment in his cruiser. Then he walked back up the street and went on past the RV. I couldn't see where he was anymore and it was freaking me out. But I could still hear his boots on the loose gravel of the sidewalk.
