Chapter Eleven
Jake was practically floating. He was deliriously happy after his picnic with Beryl.
It was difficult letting her hand go, but he knew he’d see her tomorrow and decided going slow was the best course of action, given her past. He could certainly understand her reluctance to date ever again, even as he was grateful she’d given him a chance.
As they walked out of the park, they’d passed several people and he had the strangest sensation in his head.
A woman in exercise gear passed by them and he could have sworn she spoke.
He heard words in his head, but her lips weren’t moving.
He chalked it up to his memory loss making him crazy and moved on.
He didn’t say a word to Beryl. It was surely better that she not think he was hearing things on their first date.
Jake stood on the corner where a flashing four-way red light signaled traffic to stop before proceeding. He started to cross the street, looking both ways, as one never knew when a van full of bros would be out and about.
He saw an old vehicle approaching. He thought it was called a station wagon. The color was mostly rust with patches of dull blue paint here and there. On the back quarter panel was what looked like a piece of wood paneling. Strange.
There was a guy behind the wheel, and as the vehicle got closer, Jake noticed that he wore a colorful red bandana covering the lower half of his face below his nose. Was he protecting his beard or something? So bizarre.
Before he could process that fully, the weird sensation of someone talking in his head started again. Jake heard what he thought was a low male voice say, “Finally, that redhead is gone and he’s alone. Now we can get him, put him in the car and deliver him.”
Were they talking about Beryl? She was a redhead. A beautiful redhead.
Jake stopped in his tracks and turned around.
Before he knew it, Beryl was racing toward him.
She had dropped her grocery bag and blanket on the sidewalk a few steps from him and leapt into his personal space, her arms wrapping around his neck.
She pulled him away from the street, dancing them back and away from the crosswalk and the approaching station wagon.
Beryl’s back landed against the brick wall of the bank and Jake was pressed into her from shoulders to knees.
Her expression was one of concern, but her green-eyed gaze spoke volumes. She continued to hold him tight.
“Crap, where did she come from? Dang it, we missed our chance,” Jake heard. He twisted away from Beryl’s sultry gaze to see a big guy standing at the curb. The dude had a blue bandana over his lower face, hiding his mouth, so Jake didn’t know if he’d spoken.
Then the guy backed up two steps, out into the street, right in front of the quickly approaching blue and rust station wagon. There was the sound of screeching tires, but the big guy with the blue bandana got hit before the vehicle stopped.
He landed on the hood of the vehicle, cursing loudly and shaking his fist at the driver. The driver’s eyes practically bugged out of his head as he listened to the victim on his hood yell, “You hit me, you idiot!”
All around them, cell phones were pointed at the guys with bandanas and the strange blue and rust car with wood paneling. Nearby, Jake heard a muffled voice say, “Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?” The owner of the phone reported that a car had hit a guy in the street and gave the location.
The sudden wail of an approaching siren filled the air around them.
Good. The police were on their way to figure this out.
Beryl put her hand on Jake’s cheek, pulling his attention back to her. He forgot all about the accident on the street. His focus was squarely on Beryl.
“Let’s go back to your shop, okay? I’ll walk with you.”
He was about to ask if they should tell the police what they’d seen.
Jake glanced over in time to see the guy with the blue bandana get off the station wagon, race around the front of the vehicle, wrench the passenger side door open and jump in.
He screamed at the other man, “Drive! Don’t let the cops catch us! ”
His door wasn’t even shut when the guy in the red bandana floored it and the station wagon roared down the street.
The driver sped away so fast, the back end of his car fishtailed, grazing the side of one parked car, then another.
Five seconds later, a sheriff’s patrol vehicle, siren blaring, blew past in the same direction, toward the highway.
Jake wondered if they should stick around as witnesses. Beryl, seeming to read his mind, said, “We can report what we saw here later on to the sheriff if we need to.” She glanced around at the pedestrians filming the scene with their phones.
“Okay.” Jake nodded. He was still pressed against Beryl and didn’t want to move. “But you don’t have to walk me to my store. I’ll be okay.”
“I know. But I’d feel better if I saw you safely there.”
Jake nodded and peeled himself away from Beryl. She retrieved her paper grocery sack and blanket from the sidewalk and they quickly walked to his shop.
Beryl stayed close beside him, but her focus seemed to be all around, as if a band of bloodthirsty attackers were about to descend upon them. “Why are you worried about me?”
She stopped perusing the area to look at him. “I think that guy was about to grab you.”
“Really? Why do you think that?” Jake was starting to believe the same thing, but wondered why she thought so.
She stared at him for several long seconds before she said, “I can’t really explain it, but when that guy passed by me, I thought I heard him mutter something about grabbing someone and he was headed in your direction. I started running to you before I thought too much about it.”
Jake grinned. “Well, thanks for saving me.”
“I might have been completely wrong, but—”
“Actually,” he said, interrupting her. “I thought I heard him mutter the same thing. Hard to tell, since he was wearing that blue bandana, which was odd, right?”
“Yes, definitely odd. But better safe than sorry.”
“Right,” Jake nodded and slung his arm around Beryl’s shoulders as they continued down the street.
When they talked to the police later, he’d mention that the guy in the station wagon had a red bandana covering his face.
Then there was the fact they drove off together, leaving the scene of an accident, as if they’d been up to no good.
Once Jake and Beryl were safely ensconced in Dark Matter Metal & Leather, they told Frederick what happened.
Beryl said, “I’m not quite sure what they were up to, but I swore I heard one of them say he was about to get someone. I don’t know who. I’ll call the sheriff when I get back to my office and tell him we’re witnesses. They’ll probably call you.”
Frederick looked quite concerned about the whole incident. “I don’t like this at all, Jake,” he said. “Perhaps you shouldn’t travel alone until this has been resolved. Perhaps we could carpool together to work.”
Jake said, “I don’t think that’s necessary, Frederick. Don’t worry.” He looked at Beryl. “We don’t even know if the dude was talking about me.”
“We don’t know that he wasn’t,” Frederick said and looked at Beryl as if for her agreement.
“I’ll call and speak to the Skeeter Bite sheriff, Wyatt Campbell,” Beryl said. “I know him personally. He’s married to my cousin, Valene. I’ll ask him if he thinks you should take further precautions.”
“I know Sheriff Wyatt Campbell,” Jake said with a smile.
“How do you know him?” Beryl asked.
“Oh, well, last night, someone broke into my house and—”
“What?!” Frederick said. “When were you going to tell me about that?”
Jake shrugged. “I didn’t want to worry you over what probably amounted to a kid’s prank. Nothing was stolen…” his words didn’t seem to be swaying his manger. “I’m sorry, Frederick. I sort of forgot about it until Beryl mentioned Wyatt’s name.”
“Nothing was stolen?” Beryl asked, her face riddled with concern. “So maybe someone was waiting for you?”
“That’s it,” Frederick said. “You should come home with me. I’ll put my kids on the sofa and you can sleep on the bottom bunk in their room.”
“No. I’m not going to do that, Frederick. If someone is after me, I will not put your family in the line of fire. No way.”
Frederick started to argue, but Jake put his hand on his friend’s forearm. “I will not risk your family for my sake, not going to happen. I’ll speak with Sheriff Campbell and see what he thinks I should do. Okay?”
“Okay. But my offer still stands.”
“Thank you, my friend.”
Frederick turned to Beryl and said, “Thank you for protecting him.”
Beryl’s cheeks turned pink. “You’re welcome. We’ll figure this out. I promise.” She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Is that really the time? I’ve got to get back to work. I’ll text you, Jake, and I’ll see you tomorrow tonight.”
Jake said, “Yes. Perfect. See you tomorrow tonight.”
Before the door swung completely shut from her departure, Frederick said, “Oh, my, a lunch date and now a dinner date the next day? Marvelous. The luncheon must have gone well, before the unfortunate almost-kidnapping incident.”
“Settle down. I don’t think I was almost kidnapped.”
Frederick said, “I’m worried only because we know so little about your past before you came here. I never got the idea that you were hiding out from anyone, but what if I was mistaken? Maybe you did come here to Alienn, Arkansas, to lay low. What if someone from your forgotten past has found you?”
Jake wanted to argue but he couldn’t. Frederick was right. He had no earthly idea about his past or if anyone from it might be after him. “I’ll do my best to be careful. I promise.”
A customer came in and Jake retreated to his workspace. Even though he tried to work on a project that was due next week, his mind was alive with possibilities, both good and bad.
Good were the possibilities of a coming relationship with Beryl. Bad was the idea that someone from his forgotten past might be after him for an equally unknown reason.
The Incident that had caused his memory loss was never far out of his mind. He could play the what-if game all the live-long day, but the truth was, he didn’t know if anyone was after him or why.
Jake didn’t want to endanger anyone around him. Not Frederick and certainly not Beryl. He was left with what he considered no good options. He didn’t want to stop seeing Beryl. He didn’t want to stop working in his shop.
Without any further meaningful information, Jake decided to be more aware of his surroundings and not mindlessly walk through his life without a care.
The memory of what that man had said, or thought or whatever, chilled him to the bone. “Finally, that redhead is gone and he’s alone. Now we can get him, put him in the car and deliver him.”
Who were they going to deliver him to? Was it connected to the break-in at his home?
His biggest concern was involving Beryl in whatever this might be.
Jake would never let anything happen to her. Ever.
His opiniated gut agreed with him.
The entity seethed with a frustration he had never felt before. Having failed to procure his prey at the man’s domicile, he’d hired locals to acquire him, thinking they would have an advantage. The entity had trusted them to bring his prey to a neutral location.
Not the final destination, of course.
Not where his machinery was located.
The entity didn’t want any locals to see where his camp was or, more specifically, what was inside it. His tools and equipment would be difficult to explain even to the aliens living on this planet.
To his fury, even the local muscle had failed.
The man he needed to do a special procedure on had proven much more difficult to reacquire than he’d believed possible.
The capture at the human’s house had been happenstance.
The entity pushed that failure out of his mind.
He needed to resolve this problem and return home.
He’d been gone too long. This final failure before heading back to his planet was difficult enough.
The entity’s anger was useless, but profound. He was going to have to ponder a different strategy to bring this man to his encampment for the procedure.
Jake Jones would not be able to evade him forever.
The entity would secure him, hook him up to his equipment, perform the necessary procedure and then leave Earth behind as soon as he was able, vowing never to return to this infuriating planet, no matter how fruitful the place had seemed at the outset.
The entity had foolishly counted the seemingly endless possible currency he could earn before realizing the limitless problems the population of this planet brought as a terrible bonus.
Earth was bad luck and more trouble than it was worth.