Rachel Moore maneuvered her car out of
its hiding place and started up the road towards town. No need to
hide the car away now that she, herself, had been discovered. She
wondered what ramifications would come about from staying, now that
she had indeed decided to stay, well at least for awhile. A part of
her wanted to see where and how this would play itself out. She
rubbed her forehead lost in her own imaginings and felt a pang of
heartache overwhelm her. She shook it off
A few minutes later, she pulled into
the small seaside town and located the local grocery store. She
parked her red ford in the parking lot and got out. Leaning on a
wall near the post office nearby, she saw a young man with a dark
appearance matching hers. His gaze met hers as she passed by into
the store. As she made her way through the aisles, she found it
difficult to focus on what she needed, the budget she need to keep in
order to maximize the full 500, now 450 dollars she had acquired from
this “gig” because her thoughts kept straying to this mysterious
man at the post office. She laughed to herself at that description.
Maybe, she thought, it had been too long since she'd had a fling, a
little temporary distracting romance, as it were, but still to this
day, serious love affairs were a frightening concept, both in theory
and practice.
Lost in thought, she turned out of the
aisle she was in and was about to turn into the cereal aisle when she
was shocked out of her revelry by a loud “Hi there.” Looking up,
there he was, the mysterious post office man, or rather the man she
had seen at the post office a few minutes before.
“Um, yeah, hi,” was her response.
He had shaggy black hair and piercing green eyes, a slight yet
attractive build. It was the green eyes that drew her in and made
her heart flutter.
“I'm Jesse,” he introduced
himself. His voice was moderately low, a soft tenor-like quality,
slightly soft-spoken as if apart of him was afraid to speak or had
forgotten the power of words.
“Um, I'm Rebecca, you can call me
Becca,” she smiled nervously at him, then bit her lip in
anticipation.
“You aren't from around here, are
you?” was his response.
“Um, no, does it show?” came her
witty comeback.
“Well, for starters, you are talking
to me,” he explained.
“Is there a problem with you?” she
wanted to know, unknowingly pulling the cart closer to herself, as if
preparing herself to fire it into him if he should try anything here
and now in a grocery store cereal aisle entrance.
“Well, some folks around here think
I'm kind of weird,” he let her know. She shook her head and
laughed aloud, maybe too loud. A few other store patrons eyed her
suspiciously as she walked by. He winced and looked her over, almost
frightened, like a little baby bird. “What's wrong?”
“Weird! Is that it?” she asked,
still laughing hard.
“Well, yeah, pretty much,” was his
timid response.
“I'm a fond of weird, used to it in
small towns,” she started to explain.
“How used to it?” he blurted out
before she had a chance to detract.
“Um, where I'm from, I'm kind of an
oddity,” she said. Why did she tell him this, why did she feel so
comfortable sharing herself with him, too much, so comfortable here,
in this random place?
“Where you from?” he asked
insistingly.
“Um, back east,” she looked him
over, searching for a way to change the subject. “I'm, uh,
house-sitting at the Jones' place, you want to hang out sometime? You
should come over.”
“Seriously?” he seemed way too
taken aback by her request.
“Yeah, sure,” she thought
lustfully. “Maybe this evening.”
“Um, yeah, what time?”
“6:00 pm, no, wait, I got that thing
at the neighbor's house, its gonna be a drag, uh, real interesting,
you should come with me,” she finally stumbled through.
“No, I don't think I should,” he
stated matter of factually.
“Why not?” she cocked her head to
the side.
“Folks don't really like me all that
much, is all,” he replied.
“Because you are weird,” she
concluded. “Well, so am I. Let's go be weird together.”
He smiled at her, broadly and warmly.
Then, he nodded in enthusiastic agreement. She smiled back, she
liked this sweet awkward guy.
“Come over around 5?” she asked.
He nodded. “I should finish the shopping, okay?”
He turned to let her pass and then
stopped. Turning back to her, he asked, “And then what?”
“Excuse me?” she said confusedly.
“What are you doing after the
shopping?” he asked invitingly.
“Um, not sure, take the food home, I
guess,” she responded automatically.
“Home?” he asked, catching her use
of that word. It struck her as odd as well.
“Um, well, back to the house, um,
why?”
“You want to hang out? I could show
you around a bit until the thing at the neighbor's,” he said
tentatively.
She thought a minute and realized she
had nothing else to do that afternoon. She nodded and smiled
brightly.
“Yeah, sounds great,” she began.
“Just wait for me outside at my car, its the red ford.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said and she
recalled their earlier encounter.
“I'll just have to drop off the
food and then we'll go wherever you want,” she informed him and he
nodded, walking off with a new found spring in his step.
No comments:
Post a Comment