THE NEXT DAY. PUEBLO, COLORADO. 3:20 PM MST. SUNDAY, JULY 20, 2025.
James Hendrix was
lost in Great Expectations; Miss
Havisham had just gone up in flames, and he was considering whether
it might be worth opening the ice box for some cold roast chicken,
and contemplating his tight waistband, trying not to let the idea
prey on his mind. Can’t stay under fifty years
old, much as I’d like to, but I’d sure like to stay under a hundred
kilograms.
He was far ahead of
his students in the literacy class that he taught most nights of
the week. But conditions were perfect for reading: on this bright,
sunny day, opening one set of drapes and laying a mirror on the
floor to reflect up to his white ceiling made lovely indirect
reading light where he lay sprawled on his comfortable couch.
Besides, he would rather be doing this than anything else in the
world. Perhaps some cold water would help him ignore his stomach?
He could—
The knock at the door
was followed at once by scratching, so he knew it had to be Leslie
Antonowicz and Wonder. He pretended to sigh at the interruption,
but three seconds later as he opened the door, he was
grinning.
“Come on, old man,”
Leslie said. “It’s beautiful outside but I had radio room crypto
duty all morning, so I couldn’t get out to the fun part of the
woods.” By “fun part,” he knew the tall, slim blonde woman meant
some mixture of “scary” and “exhausting.” She was beaming at him.
“I saw that one window open and knew you were lying here in the
dark turning into a library fossil. Now come on, you and Wonder
both need a walk.” Wonder, hearing his name, woofed once; he was a
shepherd-husky cross—James always said, crossed with a moose.
“Just so you don’t
expect us to use the same trees,” James said, pulling his boots
on.
The morning’s rain
had left the air damp and cool, and the sunlight since hadn’t
warmed things much; down by the rain-swollen Arkansas River, they
followed the trail away from town, watching Wonder run back and
forth and smell everything. Friends from long before Daybreak, they
didn’t have to talk; James knew that Leslie usually didn’t want to
spend her weekends in his indolent company, so there must be
something on her mind, and she knew she could take as long as she
wanted about getting around to it.
He wanted to watch
for the moment when she’d say something, but that was too much like
watching her all the time, and he didn’t feel free to do that:
years ago he’d let himself get fascinated by her grace, by the big
eyes and high cheekbones, and by her lithe, muscular body, until
awkwardly, angrily, she’d told him it was creepy. So he looked at
the sky and the river and enjoyed her nearness.
After a while, she
said, “Last night, when I was walking home from Dell’s Brew,
something just slightly weird happened.” After a few more steps she
said, “Arnie Yang asked me to walk him home.”
He fought down the
twinge of jealousy; Arnie was their boss and close to Leslie’s age.
Word had it that the girl he was courting at Mota Elliptica had
died in the tribal raid there. He’d long suspected Leslie told him
more about her love life than she really wanted to, just to keep
him from developing hopes again, and was sorry she had to do
that.
She still hadn’t
spoken, and he was calm now. Keep it
light. “It’s not that unusual
for a man to ask you to go home with him.”
“No, it’s not, you
dirty old man, but what was really unusual was, he just wanted me
to walk with him. Expressed no interest
in having me come inside. Really didn’t talk much, either. Now,
since I always take Wonder when I go to Dell’s, it wasn’t
unreasonably dangerous—after we dropped Arnie off we went on home,
me and the mutt, no problems on the way and for part of it we
walked along with the watch, anyway. But . . . well, everyone’s
heard how brave Arnie was in the battle at Mota Elliptica, and
everyone knows he’s pretty good with those double knives he
carries. If anything, I should’ve been asking him to walk
me home.”
“Maybe he’s just shy
or got cold feet.”
“No, I’m sure he
wasn’t trying to hit on me, James, because I have a pretty good
sense of that, and because he didn’t hang around me at the bar
before, and he didn’t ask like a guy who was trying to find company
for the night.”
“Hunh. What did he
ask like?”
“Well, that’s the
weird part I wanted to talk to you about. He asked like a guy who
was really scared. At least that was my first impression. But if
you’re bringing along backup because you’re afraid of something,
don’t you tell the backup what it is?”
“Well, I would. Maybe
Arnie is weird.”
“Definitely Arnie is
weird. I’ve just never seen him weird this way before—really, he
was terrified. But he didn’t tell me what of. Do you know anything
about him?”
“Just what I know
from working with him. I archived his report on the Battle of Mota
Elliptica yesterday afternoon, but it was more or less a normal
action report. It’s a mystery to me, too.”
They walked for
another hour and a half, and then James fixed them a light supper
before Leslie went home, well before sundown because she had early
morning duties. He watched the tall, strong girl and the big dog
till they went out of sight around a building, then adjusted his
mirror to catch the last hour of sunlight, and returned to
Great Expectations.