Lake 2

T S Brock Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

    Audrey pulled her battered buffalo-skin suitcase by its strap from the silver winged storage compartment into the shade of the Greyhound bus. It tumbled onto the street then slumped on her shoes. She made it upright and dragged it to a concrete bench. Then she sat in the blinding sunlight. It was late summer 1950.

    “Good Luck.” The tall thin driver said with a wink. He pushed the unit shut, smiled, careened into the bus, then landed awkwardly on his squeaky seat. The doors slammed shut and the bus roared forward disappearing into the dusty summer heat.

    Audrey took in the small town surroundings. She cleared her throat as a person might in a windy parking lot near a desert. The address of her ‘would be’ apartment was running through her mind, “401 Rosaline Avenue.”

    On her right, just across a street winding downhill, was a worn tired grocery store. A pot-bellied balding man stood out front smoking attired in an unbuttoned army jacket. He had a bent restless posture. His left arm swung up at regular intervals to catch a puff of tobacco. It reminded Audrey of the consequences of war and made her sad. There was a row of one or two-story shops and houses behind the hill bending down, but she didn’t have time to look.

    “Hey! You must be the new teacher!” Jim Wolfe, the local sheriff, called out through the passenger side of his battered green patrol car. He was parked in the shadows of oak trees across from the bus stop.

    “What?” Audrey blocked the sun with one hand and placed the other on her hip. She noticed the glare of his siren lights reflecting from the roof of the car. “Are you a cop?”

    “Sorry mam… We don’t have a lot of…”   

    “Where can I get a taxi around here?” Audrey lit up a cigarette.

    “I was just going to say…” Jim paused, elbows on the roof. “Well, you’re lookin’ at it.”

    She blew smoke. “I’m sure there are many folks who would beg to differ considering you have the umm… the wrong kind of lights on the top of your car.” She called out while gazing at a flock of pigeons and the smoke lingered. Some moments passed and Audrey folded her arms looking pensive.

    Jim scratched his chin then bellowed out in his best manner, “No. I’m here because there are only two taxi drivers in this town. One is dead drunk, and the other is sleeping off his hangover. I guess I’m your only option at this point.”               

    “Sounds like it couldn’t be worse.” Audrey laughed nervously. “But I’ll give you the benefit of my bad luck.”

    Audrey released an enormous sigh then flicked her cigarette into a storm drain. She dragged her suitcase in awkward elegance. Jim leapt from behind his vehicle and began to assist in an ostentatious display of courtesy. Audrey balked and stepped back. Jim took hold of the strap and put the load in his trunk. In another wink, he opened the passenger door and Audrey got in.

    Swinging around the hood, Jim jumped in and started the car after a series of reluctant whines from the engine. Audrey, arms folded, was now sitting, somewhat uncomfortably, in the front seat next to her perfect stranger.

    “You put on quite a show. Where did you learn all that gentlemanship?” Audrey began to speak just as Jim was putting the car in gear.

    “You might call it small town hospitality.” Perhaps glancing a bit too long into her bright green eyes.

    “So that’s what you call it.” She put on a pair of sunglasses. “I gotta say it’s been quite a while since I’ve been in one of these fashionable rides.”

    “I guess that was under different circumstances?” Jim raised his brow and wiped the sweat from his face with a wrinkled blue handkerchief.

    “Yah… So how was it you happened to be patrolling the bus stop just as I arrived?”

    “News travels fast around here. They said you were coming today.”

    “So I’m not under arrest then.”

    “No.”

    “And who are ‘They’?” Audrey peered from under her shades.

    “Well… I guess ‘They’ are just about everyone.”

    “I see. And I suppose you know where my apartment is.”

    “Yes.”

    “Welcome to Wisconsin.” Audrey said under her breath.

    “That’s right. Welcome to Wisconsin.” Jim laughed boyishly.

    “I guess I didn’t get your name.” Audrey insisted.

    “Jim Wolfe.”

    “Audrey.” She offered a firm handshake. “But you already knew that.”