Dell

Dell

"Screw that guy,"

Dell

Dell braced against the earth.  The grassed smelt like home but the scent sent his eyes up again to look at his house.  The men had been there when he and his guide arrived at the edge of his property.  Sam’s Town had a small population maybe five thousand by now.  And these men were a malignant cancer known by the whole body to be foreign.  That was the good thing: his neighbors who spread fifteen houses between the surrounding three hundred acres had more information than Dell could thank them for.  By night he would visit one and gather information then another for food.  Then he brought the food back for him and his guide.

It took them two days to walk out from Valen, the Worshippers hidden place of worship, through the forest.  When they arrive on the edge of Dell’s property the large man’s hand grabbed Dell’s shoulder before he entered the clearing.  “You can’t go home,” he said with wide searching eyes that scanned out and through the open field to Dells duplex.  He pointed out to Dell a long black car in the driveway and two men in loose flannel eating fried fish on the porch. 

Routine had set in by a week after that.  The guide, Merol, would wake him around 2300 hours and Dell would begin his long walk around the perimeter of the edge of the forest and from house to house.  Last night Carl Hutchinson had told him the men were getting food from Tanker’s Diner now pretty regularly and that they had two cars between three officers.  He wouldn’t dare stay the night lest he put them in unwarranted danger but they usually offered anyways.  And the temptation of a warm bed was never easy to turn away from.  The heart of his patrols was fed by the information they gave him.

Then around 0200 he spoke with Agnes Peters who was a brave old woman and brought a pie straight to his house in the middle of the day.  One of the men in flannel stood but the other grabbed him and he sat back down.  Last night she had another pie for him cooling on the windowsill.  When he took it she wrapped her chilled, thin hands around his, “Be careful, you’re mother knows you’re out there, I told her.  But these guys aren’t telling them anything.  They’re probably with the government, be careful.”  Then she hesitated and looked away for only a moment.  When she looked back the grave face flexed into an excited nod and smile, “Guess who’s coming tomorrow?”

“Really,” Dell said as excitedly as he could, “Nancy?”

The old woman smiled, “She’s really torn up about a friend from college.” She leaned closer as if telling gossip, “there’s no saying if she’ll want to talk or not but I’ll try and get her out here one of these nights when her folks aren’t around.”  Nancy was a girl Dell had met while going to school in Spain.  They had dated for two weeks in their first year there. They decided it was best that they didn’t go any further when Nancy switched programs and studied in Italy for the next semester. She cried when they broke up but it was her who acted like it never happened when she came back.  Did it?  They stayed in touch but it wasn’t until she called him one night crying over some guy on the soccer team that they every got close again. 

“He’s such a jerk!” She said once they met up and continued to weep and complain about the jerk. That night near a loud, tall fountain amidst foliage levied by coed footprints Dell kissed tears from her eyes after she finished talking. 

“Screw that guy,” he said.  Her eyes grew huge and her mouth shrunk.  “I mean don’t screw him.  Like don’t take what he said to mean anything.  Forget about him.  You know?  You’re so special and one day you’ll be that special someone.”  Then bright florescent lights bled into the small fountain square and sprinklers sprang up and swatted water that flowed out from their small turrets.  Nancy leapt up in a sudden jerk and hit her head on the outer lip of the fountain.  That was the end of the night for her but only the beginning for Dell.

Dell had run her to the campus hospital and waited for her to gain consciousness while getting interrogated by the campus police and Madrid police about what happened.  Dell felt a sudden and total loss when he returned to her room only to see the same soccer player she had complained about praying beside the bed.  Self-pity led to anger towards the soccer player. But soon that yielded to guilt as he thought, this guy is better than me.  How could I really think to take advantage of her like that. And then he left the soccer player to God and Nancy.  He’ll take care of her.

Seeing Nancy now would be refreshing and odd.  He had his family to worry about and there was that kiss with Mara. His head was spinning when he left Agnes Peters’ house with a pie in one hand and some beef jerky in the other.