“ Turn right,” she said. “Let’s see what this town has to offer.”
He looked at her, but said nothing.
“ You need something to wear as soon as possible,” she said. “Oh my gosh, I think I just felt my heart slip.” She turned and locked onto his eyes. “What I’m about to say goes against everything I believe in. I’m a policeman’s daughter. I believe in the law, right and wrong. But difficult times require difficult solutions, so we’re going to see if we can’t get you some clean clothes.”
“ At this time of night?”
“ We’re going to steal them. There, I said it and lightning didn’t strike.”
He turned right and a mile from the Interstate the two lane road turned into the main street of a small town. Two blocks of small shops surrounded by a residential community of less than a thousand. The street was poorly lit, two out of three street lights out, and poorly kept, a third of the stores were vacant. Jim Monday wondered if the town had ever seen better times-was it a dream waiting to happen or a dream that died?
“ Look, there!” Glenna pointed.
He drove slowly past a men’s store called Today’s Man. It was dark, like the rest of the town. The street was bare. Doors were barred. Blinds were drawn over locked windows. A tumbleweed blew across the street in front of them.
They rolled past a used clothing store, Yesterday’s Clothes, on the right, a pharmacy, The Doctor’s Drug Store, on the left, past a shoddy Chinese restaurant, a shoddier Mexican restaurant called Francisco’s, which blared the slogan in faded yellow paint, La Comida Mas Fina, and between Francisco’s and The Handy Laundry and Dry Cleaners, was a small dirt parking lot.
“ Pull in there.” She pointed and he obeyed.
“ We have two choices, the used clothing store or the men’s shop. Me I prefer the used clothing place. Less chance of an alarm.”
“ You’ve done this before?” he asked, nervous.
“ No, never.” She sat and stared at Francisco’s fading yellow sign, like she was looking for courage. After a few seconds she found it. “Scared?” she asked.
“ A little. You?”
“ Terrified. Let’s go.”
They got out of the car, walked half a block back to the used clothing store. He scratched his head, then his side. They stopped, looked in the window, straining to see in through the dark, but all he could see was the reflection of the barren street with its ghostly shadows and it sent a tingling feeling through him.
“ Let’s go around back,” she whispered.
She led the way, squeezing between the store and the Chinese restaurant. He didn’t like being cramped between the two buildings. The weeds and loose dirt crunching under his shoes only served to remind him how tight they were and how much his feet hurt.
“ Look.” He pointed, once they were at the back entrance. “Alarm tape on the windows.”
“ Do you know how to get in without setting off the alarm?” she whispered.
“ No.”
“ Let’s try the men’s store.”
“ Let’s get out of here.” He was in enough trouble, serious trouble. It would be plain stupid to get picked up for breaking and entering in a dump like this. If they got caught, they’d probably be shot on sight. Everybody in this kind of town had a gun and knew how to use it.
“ As long as we’re back here, let’s try the men’s store.” Once again she led and once again he followed, scratching himself along the way.
He felt like he was back in Vietnam, with lice crawling around his body. He itched between his legs. He could feel the dirt underneath his nails and the sweat pouring under his arms. A hot wind blew by and he felt nauseated by his own smell.
He hurried to catch up to Glenna. She was at the back door of Today’s Man by the time he caught up to her, staring at the silver alarm tape around the back window and the sign that said, Protected by Signal Security.
“ Time to go.” This time he took the lead. “I don’t know why I let you talk me into this. We can check into a motel. You can get the rooms, so nobody has to see me, and tomorrow you can go out and simply buy me some clothes.” The answer was obvious, he should have seen it earlier.
“ Of course,” she said, obviously ignoring him, “a laundry. It was staring us straight in the face.” She took off at a slow jog and as much as he wanted to scream at her, to tell her they could get clothes and shoes tomorrow, he didn’t. He followed.
“ No alarm,” she said, panting and staring at the cleaner’s back door, “and no bars on the windows.”
It figured, he thought. Who in their right mind would break into a laundry and dry cleaners in a small town. Can’t wear anybody else’s clothes, because not only does everybody know everybody else, but everybody knows everybody’s clothes as well.
Centered in the top half of the back door was a screen covered sliding window. The screen was weatherbeaten, rusty and worn. It came apart in her hands. She lifted the window, it wasn’t locked. She reached in and unlocked the door from the inside. Not even a dead bolt. Just a simple lock.
“ Come on,” she whispered as she opened the door and went in.
He followed her inside, closing and locking the door after himself. Then the dark room started blinking on and off with the red glowing light coming through the front window from the flashing lights of the police cruiser that pulled up and parked out front.
“ Down!” he said, and they dropped to the floor, hiding behind the counter.
“ It’s that Explorer from earlier.” A not very friendly voice from outside said.
“ What’s it doing here?” A less friendlier voice answered.
“ Dunno.”
“ God that girl was something else, wasn’t she?”
“ She was, did you get a look at the other one?”
“ Couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman, but I’m thinking it was a girl.”
“ Give me a break.”
“ Coulda been.”
“ Well, we got ’em now. Where do you suppose they are?”
“ Dunno.”
“ Think they’re robbing the town?”
“ Get serious J.D. If you stole all the money in every store on this street, you might could buy a cup of coffee, if you was lucky. No, more ’an likely they’re meeting someone here in one a the homes next street over. Selling drugs, I’d guess.”
“ Then why park here?”
“ So the car won’t be right in front of the house, stupid.”
“ Oh.”
“ Sometimes I wonder about you, J.D.”
“ What’re we gonna do Mike? Wait till they come back?”
“ No, dummy, wait here. I’m gonna go and call Jeb down to the Mobil and have him tow that Explorer outta here. Ain’t no way them babes are gonna get outta this town on foot. We’ll get ’em all right.”
“ But, Mike, we don’t know for sure they done anything wrong.”
“ Anytime someone sneaks into town in the middle of the night, they’re doing something wrong.”
Jim and Glenna lay side by side on the floor, suffocating in the silence and the smell of manure. An hour later they heard the sounds of a tow truck as it pulled into the parking lot next door. It hooked up to the rented Explorer and towed it away. The police car followed, leaving them basking in the black night, huddled behind the counter, taking shallow breaths and wondering what to do next.
“ I’m going to call my father,” Glenna said after they’d gone, “and let him know I’m okay.” She pulled the phone off the counter and sat on the floor.
“ I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He sat next to her.
“ Relax, I won’t tell him where we are. I just want to let him know that I’m okay, so he doesn’t worry.”
She called information, got the number for the Harris Ranch Inn, then called it.
“ Can I have Hugh Washington’s room please?” she said in a pleasant voice. “Just a second,” she said, after a pause. She cupped her hand over the phone and said to Jim, “He’s not there. Must still be tied up with the local cops. They want to know if I want to leave a message. I want my father to know I’m with you, but I don’t want to mention your name.”