Or he might be hideously dangerous in a way she couldn’t fathom. As an innocent fourteen-year-old girl, she definitely ought to get quickly away from him and phone the police. They could handle it, whether he was a diplomat or a criminal. That was the only proper course.
Colene felt the thrill of danger, and knew she was about to do something monumentally stupid.
She leaned close to his ear. “You must come with me. I will help you. I will help. Do you understand?”
His hand slid across the ground, toward the sound of her voice, the fingers twitching.
Maybe he was dehydrated. The day had been hot, though the night would be cold; that was the way fall was in Oklahoma.
“I’ll be right back,” she said.
She straightened up, paused as dizziness took her because of the sudden change of position, then walked quickly back to her house. She went to the messy kitchen and fetched a plastic glass. She filled it water from the tap, and carried it out.
The man had not moved. She sat down beside his head, set the water down in a snug depression, and reached for him. “I’m back,” she said. “I brought you water. Can you drink it?”
He tried to raise his head again. She put her hands on it and lifted; then she scooted on her bottom so that she could set his head in her lap. She held it tilted up, then reached for the glass. It was a stretch, and she had to lean over his head. Her bosom actually touched his hair. He did not seem to notice, but the contact sent new waves of speculation through her. Wasn’t this the way the Little Mermaid had rescued the drowning prince? Holding him close, helping him survive—until he recovered and married somebody else, never realizing what he owed to the mermaid. The tragedy of not even knowing!
She got the glass and brought it to his face, which was now propped against her front. “Water,” she murmured. “Water. Drink. Water.” She touched his mouth and tilted the glass.
Suddenly he realized what it was. Eagerly he sipped. She tilted further, spilling some, but he managed to drink most of it. She had been right!
“More?” she asked, still holding his head and feeling very maternal. “More water?”
His hand came up, questing for something. He seemed to have more strength than before, but that wasn’t saying much.
She set aside the empty glass and caught his hand with her free one. His fingers were cold. She squeezed them with her warm ones. His squeezed back.
She was thrilled again. Communication!
Then she decided that she had better get away from him before he recovered too much. She had already taken a phenomenal chance; it was time to stop pushing her luck to the brink. “More water,” she said firmly, and pulled herself away. She set his head back on the ground, scrambled up, got the glass, and hurried back to the house.
When she returned with the next glassful of water, the man was struggling to his hands and knees. He was definitely gaining strength. It would be absolutely crazy to get near him again. Anything could happen.
She brought the glass to him. But he had now recovered to the point where he might walk, and he was trying to get to his feet. He was a good deal larger than she was, and surely stronger, which meant yet again that it was time for her to get away from him. So she dropped the glass and stepped in and helped him stand.
She put her arms around his body and heaved, and he lurched to his feet. They staggered toward her house.
At which point Colene thought things through just a bit further. It didn’t matter whether she was being sensible or foolish—as if there were any question!—because once the man got to her house, and her parents came home, the game would be over. They would call the police, and the police would take the man away, and both parents would bawl her out for her stupidity before settling into their usual pursuits for the evening. Her father would head off for his date with his current liaison, and her mother would settle down to serious drinking. Things would be back to normal.
“No!” she gasped. “Not there—there!” She shoved him away from the house and toward her shed. This was a solid structure, larger than a dollhouse but considerably smaller than a real house, perhaps originally intended for storage, but she had taken it over and made it her own private place. Her parents had learned not to bother her there. It was often enough her main link with sanity. Sometimes she spent the full night there, rather than watching her mother drink. She called it Dogwood Bumshed, because a small dogwood tree grew beside it. It wasn’t a great tree, and it wouldn’t survive at all if she didn’t water it, but it did flower nicely in the spring, its moment of glory.
The man moved in that direction, yielding to her shove.
She wrenched the door open and he stumbled in. He collapsed on her pile of cushions; his brief strength had been exhausted. Perhaps that was just as well. “More water,” she told him, and shut the door on him. Now he would not be discovered, by her parents or anyone else.
She fetched the glass, which had fallen and spilled when she helped the man walk. She took it to the house, filled it again, then checked the supplies of food. There was a loaf of bread; she took it whole. That would do for a start.
She brought the things to the shed. The man lay where he had settled, but revived when she entered. Now he was able to drink by himself; he accepted the glass from her.
He did not seem to know what the bread was. She opened the package and took out a slice. He gazed at it blankly. She took a bite of it. Then his face lighted; he finally understood. He took a slice and bit into it with considerably less delicacy than she had. Oh, yes, he was hungry!
Standing there, watching him eat, Colene finally had time to reflect on what all this might be leading to. She had rescued a man; now what was she going to do with him? He did not seem to be aggressive, but of course he was weak from hunger and thirst. What would he be like when he had his strength back? She really should report him now; she had taken much more risk than she should have, and gotten away with it, but there were limits. She knew nothing about him except that he was a man, and that was warning enough.
She returned to the house and fetched two blankets from her closet. She knew already that she was not going to turn him in. He might turn on her and kill her, but that risk intrigued her more than it frightened her. She would see this through to wherever it led, no matter what. If she could only keep anybody else from finding out about him.
Did that mean she was going to try to keep him captive? After all, how could she stop him from simply walking out? She didn’t know, but until he did depart, she would take care of him.
The man finished the loaf of bread, and Colene returned to the house to get more food. She couldn’t take anything else that would be missed; it would be difficult enough explaining the bread. She found some old cookies, and some leftover casserole in the back of the refrigerator; she could say it was getting moldy so she threw it out. It was getting moldy, but she trimmed off the mold and took it anyway. She was an old hand at trimming mold, because her mother constantly forgot things; she knew it wasn’t anything to freak out about.
The man was glad to have the additional food. But he remained weak, and she knew she couldn’t send him back out into the world. He would just collapse again.
But there was something she had to make clear to him. How could she establish communication, so as to tell him what she needed to? For the fact was that her parents would be getting home soon, and if the man showed himself, the game would be up. He had to remain hidden.
Well, all she could do was try. First maybe they could exchange names. She tapped herself on the breastbone: “Colene. Colene.” Then she pointed to him.