Peril in the Pines Ch. 01

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"Okay, you sold me. Sorry to be rude about it. It was the last thing in the world that I expected you to say. I guess I should thank you for your generosity."

At the table of the interview room turned dining room, we chatted a little without committing ourselves, more interested in the good food than in digging up past terrors or glories. The Sheriff did ask me what my favorite memory of my military service was.

"It was a Thursday. My squad had an armored Humvee with a machine gun on top. We went out on patrol at 0600 and we covered sixty kilometers out and back, with stops at points of interest. The weather was beautiful, temperature got up to about eighty by afternoon. We had no trouble with the vehicle, all the craters in the road were marked so we could avoid them easily, people we passed smiled and waved, nobody shot at us or tried to blow us up, we didn't find any bodies, and we returned to our base camp on schedule. My squad made a practice of praying together at the start of every patrol and again when we got back, and we were so grateful for that perfectly peaceful patrol that some of the guys were crying as we gave thanks for it. I'll never forget that day."

"Amen to that. I dream of a day here when the phone doesn't ring and there aren't any crisis calls on the radio. These boys of mine, my deputies, are like my family and I don't want anything to happen to them." He paused, looking off into space, obviously lost in thought for a moment. "What're you doing now that you're back here?"

"I've spent almost two months doing very little, just getting readjusted. Now I'm getting a little antsy, looking at the classified ads in the paper, talking to people around town, trying to find a job that fits me with an employer who won't be belly up in a year. Haven't found anything I like yet."

"I know what that's like. Been there, done that, after another war a while back. Good luck on your search." He seemed distracted, still mulling something over. "While you're here, there's some paperwork I'd like you to fill out for me. You can do it right where you're sitting. I'll go get it from Becky. Back in a minute."

The form was four pages long. The Sheriff set it down with page four facing up, so I started scanning the questions from back to front, and it wasn't making any sense until I flipped to the front page to see the official letterhead of the Sheriff's office on top and below that, "Application for Employment" in big letters. "What's the deal?" I asked.

"We've got a vacancy in the department for a senior deputy, and I haven't made any decision about hiring from outside or promoting from within. Eventually it'll turn into a chief deputy position. We don't have a chief at present, but we'll need one. The idea is to have a top man who's a permanent employee, not an elected official, to provide continuity in protecting and serving our residents. Then if I retire or lose an election, the department will go right on functioning until the new Sheriff gets his feet under the desk and puts his own stamp on things. If you apply, you could be a candidate for senior deputy, or for regular deputy if we promote one of our own into that job. The application's a pain in the butt, but it'll take less than a half hour to fill out, and it doesn't commit you to anything. You can leave it on Becky's desk when you're finished.

The Sheriff rose to leave and paused to say, "Oh, thanks again for lunch."

CHECKING ON EACH OTHER

From the Sheriff's office I went straight to Jan's house to check up on her. She met me at the door, bright and chipper. "Oh, Jack, I'm so glad to see you. Hold me please."

I was glad to oblige the lady. "You seem to have recovered pretty fast," I said. "That was an awful ordeal for you to go through."

"I'm not over it yet. Maybe I never will be. But I'm concentrating on being safe at home with Mom, and I'm not freaking out or anything like that. It was like a horror story in two chapters. First that awful man was about to kill us, and then after I got out of there I was scared that you'd get hurt or killed. I was way over by the road waiting for the deputy when you shot that other man, I guess, because I never heard the shot. If I had, I think I would have fainted."

"Just stay close by my side for a minute and you'll get calmed down. You were afraid that we'd get killed, and it's hard to get rid of a thought like that. The reality of us being together with no injuries will gradually replace that fear in your mind. But if you need to see a therapist, the Sheriff will know people you can see. What we've been through is something his deputies go through at times, and they know how to get you over it. I can ask him to take care of it if you want me to."

"Let's wait and see how it goes. How'd it go with you and him?"

"He's a wily old bird, and he kept asking me the same things in different ways to see if I was making up a story. We ended up with a truce, and I shared our picnic lunch with him. Seems like a good guy. Tough as nails but a human being underneath all that."

By this time we were in the living room, and Jan's mother came in. "Oh Jack, I'm so glad you came by. Every other word out of Janice's mouth has been your name. Jack did this and Jack did that and Jack was so brave and Jack wasn't scared a bit."

"Don't believe everything you hear, Mrs. Miller. I was scared half out of my skin, but I had to take a rain check on giving in to my fear because I had things to do to keep us safe. I couldn't be sure how it would turn out until it was over. It was a terrible ordeal for both of us. Jan was very brave, and she did everything I asked her to do, even though she was scared. She kept her head in a horrible situation. You should be very proud of her."

"Is there anything I can get you?"

"No, thanks. I've got to get home and jump in the shower. Being that scared made my mouth dry and my skin sweat, and I need to get cleaned up before I can really feel that it's behind us. But I had to see how Jan was doing before I could go take care of myself."

"How sweet of you to think of her first. Could there be anything else you want to tell me?"

"We haven't known each other for very long, so I don't want to rush things. But you and I could be having a serious talk before long. Especially if I can get a job. Let's hope things work out so we can have that conversation."

"Oh, you're so sweet. I'm beginning to think Janice is right when she tells me. . . Oh, that's none of my business." And with that, she took a step closer to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

Once I got inside my front door, I left a trail of clothes all the way to the bathroom. The hot shower felt wonderful. I got all soaped and rinsed and then let the water run over me till it turned cool. I just stood there, bent over with my hands on my knees, letting my muscles all relax and thinking about what we'd been through in the woods. I thanked God for bringing us out of it safely, and I had a feeling that it was over at last, as I toweled off. I got my clean clothes all ready and then lay down on the bed for a nap. When I woke up an hour later I felt good. The nervousness was gone, replaced with gratitude and satisfaction for the way that I'd faced a tough challenge and won. Most important of all, I had a good feeling about having protected Jan.

Jan was becoming more important in my life. For a long time she was just one of the girls I knew. We'd gone out a few times when I was home on leave, and we had fun but there was nothing special there, just a casual friendship. Then when I came home for good she was available, and we dated but it felt different. For one thing, I no longer had that uncertainty hanging over me, the unspoken question of whether I'd be coming home next time standing up or lying in a box. And she was more mature. It felt as if we'd finished drifting aimlessly in space and had landed on the same planet.

Jan and I kept seeing each other and with each date we were getting more involved in each other's life, taking a longer view of everything. Even though we hadn't talked yet about a house with a picket fence and two and a half children, we seemed to be getting used to the idea of living a long time and needing some long term companionship. In all of our conversations, we hadn't uncovered any impediments to going down the long road together. She was a regular churchgoer, and while I hadn't been one before, I had certainly learned to pray in that Humvee. We were comfortable with each other, didn't drink ourselves into a stupor, didn't smoke, liked children, liked dogs, were both serious minded but still laughed a lot. If we were filling out one of those stupid tests that women's magazines have in every issue, right after the high calorie dessert and before the new diet craze, we would have scored right up at the top for compatibility. To top it all off, I got on well with her mother. So even before our adventure in the woods, things were looking good for us.

Facing a dangerous situation together really bonds an infantry squad. The shared memory of getting into trouble and out of it as a unit takes a bunch of guys who have very little in common and turns them into a coherent team that acts as if it has one mind. I wondered if that's how it would be with Jan and me. Too soon to know, I guess, but the clues were there. Her mother sensed that, too. That's why she'd hinted about whether we had something to talk about.

Suddenly I realized that right then I wanted to be with Jan and her mother. I jumped out of bed, grabbed the phone, and called Jan. "Have you folks got dinner ready yet? I'd like to take you and your mother out to eat. Go see what she says, please."

There was a pause in the conversation. I could hear their voices in the distance but couldn't make out the words. Than Jan came back on the phone. "Mom says why don't you come over here and have dinner with us? She's cooking up plenty for the three of us. Interested?"

"Sure am. What's the entree?"

"What, are you asking around town and picking the best offer?"

"No, silly. I'm planning to pick up a bottle of wine, and I need to know what it has to go with."

"Stuffed pork chops. Does that help you?"

"Yes and no. I don't know one wine from another but the guy in the liquor store can pick something to go well with pork. He's pretty cagey about it. I watched when a lady came in and asked him what went well with lamb, and he stroked his beard and looked down, as if he were deep in thought. But I was over by the end of the counter and I could see that he was really reading a cheat sheet that he's got posted up on the back of a counter display. So everybody wins. The proprietor comes out looking like a genius, the customer gets the right wine, and they've created a mutually beneficial business relationship."

"Well, you don't have to bring anything, but if you want to go and play mind games with that shopkeeper, knock yourself out. Dinner's at six."

ANOTHER ANSWER AND THE RIGHT QUESTION

I was on Jan's doorstep at five thirty, with a bottle of "an amusing little Merlot from a small California vineyard" in a bag under my arm. Jan let me in, wearing a pretty red dress that seemed to brighten up the whole room. Well, that's how it seemed to me, anyway. Probably wasn't the dress. We walked out to the kitchen, where Mrs. Miller had the pork chops in the oven, and when she opened the oven door to look at them the aromas of pork and stuffing filled the room. We all talked while she and Jan worked together to get the chops onto a platter and the vegetables into serving dishes. Then it was all ready, and I sneaked a look at the clock. Sure enough, we sat down to eat at exactly six o'clock. I opened the wine and poured some for each of us, and while I was pouring I commented on how accurately she had timed the dinner.

"Oh, that's no great trick when you're making a meal in the oven. It's so much more predictable than meals cooked on top of the stove. You're timing the meat so you know when the it's going to be done and you just cook the vegetables to match it. After all these years, I ought to know how to do it. But you, Jack, living all alone, who does your cooking?"

"I do it myself usually. There a few things I know how to make, and there are good recipes on the internet. The supermarket has some frozen meals that you just toss into the microwave, but they aren't very good for the most part. Some things are, like lasagna, for example. Another thing I've come to like is my crockpot. I can put together a meal in the crock in the evening, put it in the refrigerator overnight, pull it out and put it into the heater shell in the morning and turn it on, and at suppertime It's all ready to eat. Then there's meatloaf. I make enough for two or three meatloaves at once. If it comes out well, I stock up the freezer with meatloaves. If I mess it up I give meatloaves to my buddies and they act as if I'd given them something wonderful. Single guys who can't cook will eat anything."

"Are you living in your parents' old house?"

"Yes. When my mother died she left it to me. I was in the Army at the time. My uncle Jim had been living with Mom, and I let him stay there as long as he took care of the house for me, and he did a good job of that. He got married a month before I was discharged, and moved into his new wife's house."

"Oh yes. Didn't he marry Darlene Staub? She's a very nice girl, widowed. Her two kids are teenagers now. I know her house because her mother and I were friends. Well, for that matter, Jack, your mother was my very closest friend, and I know your house like the back of my hand. I don't know if she ever mentioned me.

"Doris and I went all through school together, and when we were in high school we'd always go to the ice cream shop for a soda after school. We usually had a bunch of other girls with us, but the booth was ours. Everybody knew that we'd started going there first, and nobody sat down until Doris and I had brought our sodas over to the booth. Then everybody would pile into that booth and the one next to it, and some would pull up chairs, and we'd giggle and gossip for an hour before going home. Usually, after we got our homework done, Doris and I would get on the phone and chatter away for half an hour before bed. My father used to ask what we could possibly have to talk about for so long. But it wasn't what we said that was important to us, it was having a good friend to talk with and be close to, to share our feelings. High school is a difficult time for girls. Your body is changing, you have mood swings, easy things seem difficult, you worry about being popular as if you were running for Congress, and it's all so much better if you have a good friend who's going through it at the same time."

"It seems a little strange to hear you talk about you and my mother as teenagers. It's a time in her life that I never heard anything about."

"Some day I'll get out the old high school yearbooks and show you pictures and tell you the stories behind them. Lots of pictures of us. Whatever was going on, we were in it. You see, we didn't think there was any possibility of college for either of us, so we'd be going to work right after graduation. That meant that we had our four years of high school to be silly girls and that was it, so we didn't want to miss out on any of it."

"But I thought my mother went to college. Didn't she?"

"Yes. A year after we graduated, the community college opened up. They needed students to get it up and going, so they weren't fussy about what courses we'd taken or the grades we got in high school. They just needed people to fill the seats. Doris went first, and the next year I joined her. It was really funny. Everybody was so new at it. We had one instructor who didn't even know the way to the office. They were trying so hard to integrate the school into the community that they almost never failed anybody. If you were there for every class you were pretty sure of a B, and with just a little effort you could get an A. And there were Older Men there. That's what we called them. Sometimes we'd say, "Over there, O M!" It wasn't like high school, where we admired the football players but we didn't know if they'd ever amount to anything. Everybody who went to the community college was already working, and in the evening when we went, everybody there had a full time day job. So we could meet a guy and ask, 'What do you do for a living?' and 'What are your plans after you graduate from here?' It was great; we could pick a winner with no guesswork. And we did! We both met our husbands there. Your mom and dad paired up first, and I started dating my husband a semester later. Oh, my, those were the days."

Jan had been strangely quiet during all this. She said, "Mom, you never talk about those days with me. It's a good thing Jack came to dinner, so I could hear some stories from when you were a girl. What's that all about?"

"Oh, honey, the subject came up now because of Jack and his mother, and it got me thinking good thoughts about those years in terms of sharing everything with my best friend, Doris. But when I look at you and talk with you I'm reminded of your father, and I guess I miss him so much that it still gets me choked up. I'm sorry. I'll try to do better because you ought to hear about what I was doing at the age you are now. Most people would say you're just like me in so many ways, and I can see that, but you're just like your father, too, and you remind me of him constantly." She paused, looking off into space for a few seconds, and when she turned back to us there were tears in her eyes. "I'll tell both of you and anybody else who wants to know, he and I loved each other so much that when he lay dying he was still my hero from our college days." She paused, again, lost in deep thoughts. "That's the kind of marriage I want you to have, with a love so strong that it'll carry you through the hard times, when the going gets tough." She said those last words with a choking voice, trying not to cry.

Jan and I looked at each other and nobody said a word. Her face was serious, almost grim, and her jaw was set. I could read in her face that she was determined to make it happen, and I suppose she saw that in my face, too. Without thinking about it, I got up from the table and walked around to where she was sitting, and stood behind her with my hands on her shoulders. Then I bent down and kissed her on the cheek. "Mrs. Miller, that's what I want in a marriage, too. I hope it all works out as well for us as it did for you and Mr. Miller, and for my mom and dad, too. That adventure today taught me a lot about Jan, how strong she is, how she can handle trouble, and even more about how we work together, how we can depend on each other. I want to use that feeling as a foundation for our future together, so we can be there for each other, forever."

Jan put her hand over mine, and turned around a little in her chair to look up at me. For the life of me, I don't know what she saw in my face right then, but she let out a little whimper as she got up out of her chair and turned to give me a big, wonderful kiss. As we broke she said, "Oh God, Mom, I love this man! He took on two murderous thugs today to save me, and he knew that he might get killed doing it but he just went ahead and did it. Jack, be careful what you ask me because there's nothing I wouldn't do for you. Nothing!"

"I apologize for interrupting your wonderful dinner, Mrs. Miller. I'm sure none of us expected the conversation to turn so serious, but what Jan and I said was right from the heart. Life can't get any more real than what we've been through today. The only thing I can add is that you knew my mom and dad, the kind of people they were, and I'm their only child. Everything they were, I am, so you probably know me as well as I know myself. You must remember how they'd get behind issues that meant something to the people here in town, and even things that were important to the whole country. I learned from them to think beyond the end of my nose, try to see the big picture, understand things that matter. That's why I joined the Army, and it's why I gave it my best for five straight years. It's also why I came home with five stripes when my buddies were lucky to get two or three. And I might as well tell you that it's why I signed a job application today, for a job with the Sheriff's office. I wasn't going to tell you till I see if I can get the job, but after the way this conversation went, I want you to know about it. The real point is that I don't mouth off about something and then forget about it. I have principles and standards and convictions and I live by them. I suppose that sounds sort of pompous for a guy my age, but it's true and I know that Jan feels the same way. I'm sure we can be good for each other."