Saviors 101

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

“Okay, running wasn’t the best answer you’ve ever come up with. But what else was I supposed to do?” Dana hurried down a sidewalk, alone, that might have been next to the deli or a mile away. It was all such a blur; nothing would focus properly.

“I mean, Anne had to be joking right. She must have been joking.”

A grade school kid and his mom huddled in the doorway of a closed clothing store until she was past.

“Oh, God, Dana. You’ve become one of those crazy people who walks around talking to herself. Like the Finger Lady, walking around downtown Seattle with her snarled gray hair and her ratty old overcoat. Shopping cart spilling over with plastic bags. Forever poking her finger at the world and shouting at them about the justice and the injustice and the general lack of justi…”

Dana froze.

Standing in front of her, on the cracked sidewalk in front of a used bookstore that wouldn’t open for hours, not three paces away, was Sam. Blond hair back in a ponytail, jeans jacket loosely open over a t-shirt that declared in jaggedly iridescent pop colors, “I Liked Ike.”

She stood like a Greek discus thrower after releasing her missile. Body braced, arm raised, and finger pointed like a Neanderthal cavewoman who had just spotted her first 747 jet.

She was the Finger Lady.

“Having a hard day, Murphy?”

She held her pose while her mind groped for a reasonable response.

“I’m trafficking with angels.” No, that wouldn’t do.

Perhaps, “My Aunt and Uncle, who aren’t really my Aunt and Uncle, are either making merciless fun of me, or they’re insane, or they are Gods who are new running a Jewish deli in a yuppie neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, U.S. of A., Earth.”

She looked into his blue eyes and lowered her pointing arm, though she could neither return the finger to her fist nor stretch out the other fingers to join it. At least it was no longer pointing at the sky.

She cleared her throat, “I’ve had better days.”

He looked down at his red converse sneakers and scuffed the cracked sidewalk.

“Yea, I’ve been there. Someone slip you something yesterday?”

It would be an easy out. Drugged out of her mind would be a comfortable excuse to herself as well.

“I had a chicken salad sandwich at the HUB on campus. On whole wheat.” She winced. There would come a time when she’d shut up before she’d run out of things to say. “And some baked potato chips. With a can of apple juice.” But today wasn’t the day.

“A cookie afterward?” a smile tugged the left corner of his mouth.

“Chocolate chip.” Her forefinger finally rejoined its mates in something akin to a normal gesture.

He nodded sagely for a moment. “Yea, you better promise to watch those chicken salad sandwiches in the future. They can be vicious.”

She raised her right hand and gave the three-fingered Girl Scout salute.

“On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout Law.” Where did that come from? She’d been kicked out of Scouts at sixteen. Theresa, her best friend from daycare days, had decided that running away to become a bad-ass, sexy, racecar driver beat the living daylights out of being a chirpy, cookie salesgirl. And it had all been blamed on Dana for reasons she could never ascertain, with the result that she’d been tossed out on her Space Exploration honor badge. The only badge she’d cared about, or ever managed to get.

Sam scuffed the sidewalk with his sneaker again. He appeared to be pretty self-absorbed, maybe he hadn’t noticed that she was channeling for a 1912 Girl Guide.

“Yea, last night…”

Christ, how was she supposed to explain last night. How could you apologize for leaping from his arms to yell at an angel he couldn’t see? That was a guaranteed trip to Hell all on its own anyway, wasn’t it? But Henrietta said she’d been sent by the Devil herself.

“I’m sorry I bugged out on you.” Sam stopped with the sneaker thing and shrugged a little helplessly. “Came from a family that wasn’t much for, you know, listening. Didn’t mean to be like them, hate that I was last night. I’m sure you could have explained it.”

Not a chance. She had to blink before he came back into focus. He was apologizing to her? Well, that was unexpected. She was so relieved at not having to explain her own actions that she could kiss him.

Which actually sounded like a really good idea. She grabbed him and kissed him as hard as she knew how. After the initial shock, he leaned in and gave back every bit as good as he got.

When they pulled apart, there was a small round of applause from people who’d gathered at the sight.

She hid her face against his shoulder for a moment. She’d never been demonstrative before, most definitely not a public kisser. But her knees were quite convinced that she should try it again. Soon.

“Hey, are you hungry?”

A nod was all she could manage. So, Sam was going to give her another chance. Even if it was just so that he could get into her pants, well, she wasn’t going to argue with that either.

He smiled.

“I know it’s a bit weird for breakfast, but there’s this great deli just up the street. They serve the most incredible pastrami sandwiches on rye. They have kosher pickles, a soda fountain, the whole bit.”

Dana’s first class wasn’t until ten. She looked back the way she had come. She wasn’t ready to go back to the deli just yet.

“How about take-out?”