Page 19 of Pete and His Precious

“I didn’t know it. I didn’t know it, because I never see my neighbor, and I never talk to Naked Animal-Rights Lady.”

Sorry Lord, but they won’t know her as Sultry Voice Woman.

“So I never heard her voice, and I asked my neighbor out without seeing her.”

“What were you doing? Walking around the building with a blindfold on?” Leo asks.

“No. I can hear her through the wall in our apartment.”

“Yeah. He’s told us about that,” Cal said, pulling his leg up, and stretching his quad.

“So you ask her out without knowing anything about her?” Leo said.

“Yeah. You haven’t heard her voice. You’d have done it too if you didn’t have Nora.”

“I disagree, but go on.”

“Anyway, after I paid for her meal, she thanked me, and that’s when I heard her voice and I put two and two together because I recognized her when I saw her as it’ll Naked Animal-Rights Lady but I didn’t recognize her as my neighbor until I heard her.

“Wow. You live a really messed up life,” Cal says, as we start jogging together. There is an alley that leads to a path that goes through the woods. It’s about three miles long, and perfect for a short jog. I set a brisk pace, and figured if my friends want to keep talking with me they’re going to have to keep up, and they’re going to have to talk around breathing.

Cal is still in pretty good shape, because he’s still playing hockey, but I figure Leo is probably going to lag behind, and I’ll be just fine. That way it’ll be two against one.

I just told them everything I know. And I didn’t wait around to see what their reactions were, although I figure that they’re both probably pretty annoyed with me. After all, how dumb can one person be?

“So now that you know who she is, it doesn’t really make a difference, right? I mean, the lady that you arrested probably was a little excited about attending the rally, and lost her head for a bit. She could turn out to be a really nice girl.”

Our feet pound on the path. Leo is keeping up better than I thought he would.

“I don’t think I want to find out. I’m not that desperate.”

“My sister told me that you checked out some really weird books in the library.” Cal came up on my other side and blindsided me. I was not expecting that.

“Aren’t my library book borrows protected under confidentiality rules or something?” I say, knowing that that probably wasn’t true, but still. People are gossiping about what books I checked out at the library?

I don’t even know why I’m surprised. This is what you get when you live in a small town. It’s annoying, but it’s also really nice, because people really do take care of you.

“How did your sister find out about that anyway?”

“She is best friends with the sister of the girl who works at the desk part time.”

Yeah. And in a small town, everybody is connected somehow. Unless you just move there, and then you’re at a disadvantage.

“Nice.”

“Why did you do that?” Leo said. “Asking in my official capacity, because if you’re doing something weird with little girls, I think I should know about it. I know Mrs. Higginbotham asked you to do the face painting at the festival, but if you’ve got a thing for little girls, I’m going to have to pull you from that assignment.”

I keep my mouth closed. Could I be that lucky?

But then, everybody will think I have a thing for little girls.

“If I tell you a secret, do you promise not to act on it?” I say.

We go around the corner, and merge into a single file line as we pass a mother pushing a baby stroller.

Leo waits until we pass the mother before he comes back up beside me, our feet tramping in tandem on the hard ground.

“What’s your secret?” Leo says, and I can tell he’s worried about me. He loves me like a brother; we’ve been friends forever. He’s really concerned that I’ve got some kind of problem. I almost find this funny, if it weren’t so serious. There really are people who have that kind of issue, and it’s not funny, especially not for the girls who are victims.

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