Chapter 12
I Always Get My Man
Curled in the back seat of his car, Charley slept restlessly, his fingers twitching like those of a Texas gunslinger at sundown.
At 4:15 A.M., he was awakened, shivering and disoriented. A couple moments passed before he regained his bearings. For over sixteen hours, he’d been cooped up in the cramped quarters of his Hyundai.
His ears zoned in on the tapping that had wakened him. Somebody was knocking on the garage door. She’d come for him. The thought went through him like an injection of adrenaline.
Springing from the car, he raced to the door. As he was about to lift the door, a dreadful thought occurred to him. What if it was the cops? If it were, he was trapped.
His fears--at least those that concerned the cops--were washed away when he saw her. His instinct was to rush toward her and wrap his arms around her, but he restrained his impulse and offered nothing more than a vague smile. She wore a blue Cubs cap and a matching nylon jacket--and the same sad eyes he’d seen in the courtroom the day before.
“Come on,” she said, benignly. “We’d better go.”
He followed her, leaving his car behind, afraid to ask where she was leading him.
They walked in silence for a block, until they came to a white Volkswagen Beetle. Lizzy glanced Charley’s way, careful not to reveal her feelings. Out of her jacket, she removed the car keys and unlocked the passenger door. She left the door closed and walked in silence to the other side of the car.
Driving in the darkness of morning, she kept her eyes glued to the road. Truth be told, she wanted to hurt him. She wanted him to know what it felt like. She wanted…
“I had a dream,” Charley said, breaking the painful silence.
Lizzy turned her head and glanced at Charley, then returned her gaze to the road.
“When I was wakened, by your knocking … I had been dreaming. I remember being at a computer terminal. I couldn’t see my face. In fact, all I saw were my hands, on the keyboard, and my fingers pecking away at the keys, and then I looked up at the monitor and saw what I’d typed.”
Lizzy shot another glance Charley’s way.
“Grandstroke. The same name … it was all across the screen. Nothing else. Just that.”
Lizzy swerved the car to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes. The upper torsos of both jolted forward before the seat belt restraints caught and threw them back.
All of her feelings, simmering for so long, boiled over. “Charley, what the hell does this … this … this crazy dream have to do with anything? Why do you tell me this? I mean, really, it would seem that you should have a lot of things to explain to me … and all you do is talk about this crazy dream. What the--” Exasperated, she threw her hands up.
There were so many things to apologize for. He’d caused so much hurt and now had gotten her involved in his troubles. Charley didn’t say he was sorry, though. Instead, he told her she was right.
There was so much for him to explain, and he’d started to do just that. She just didn’t know it yet--and maybe he didn’t, either.
Copyright © 2002-2005, Randy Richardson. All rights reserved.
