Page 15 of It Started With a Scarf

He pulled into the street, and I sighed with relief and looked back, seeing that Preston had turned and was now facing the other way.

"If we can just go a block or two this way, and then hang a left. I'll probably go to a bus stop on Michigan, but you don't have to take me that far. We're already good once we get past this block."

I relaxed the rest of the way, knowing we had left Preston in the dust and that he had no idea which way I was headed.

The cabby took me to a bus stop on Michigan. I tipped him for being so nice. I felt dazed as I sat at the bus stop with my bags, I considered getting an Uber or another cab home, but I was used to the bus and I had already spent my coffee money on taking the cab this far.

It took forty minutes and two different buses for me to get home, but I made it. I was proud of myself for the clean escape. I wasn't scared of him. He was more annoying than anything. Besides, Chicago was a big city, and I figured I might never run into him again.

Joan's store manager, Patrick, was at our house when I made it home.

Mitzy was curious about all of the bags I had brought home. She was all over me, and it took me a few minutes to get over the chaos of coming in the door and giving Joan her things.

I had been home for roughly five minutes when I realized I couldn't find my scarf.

The hours that followed were horrible.

I, indeed, did not have my scarf. I retraced my steps, taking an Uber to the shopping center and then to the bus stop where I had run into Preston. I knew it wouldn't be there. I had specifically checked behind me when I walked away from him. I had a gut feeling that it was on one of the busses. I used an Uber, to track down the buses and to see if there was a scarf left behind. Finding them was a tall order.

I found one of the busses, and I went into it and looked all around the seat where I had been sitting. The Uber driver was accommodating and he followed me from one bus stop to another so that I could take my time to look. I scoured the thing. I asked the passengers if they had seen a colorful striped scarf, and they had no idea what I was talking about. I looked all up and down the aisles of and under the seats, but nothing. I got off of that bus feeling deflated but still hoping it could be on the other one.

I tracked the second one down, and nothing.

I had gotten to know a lady at the transportation services during my pursuits, and she assured me that it could still turn up.

I waited by the phone all night and I never got a call back from her. I called her again later, but I got a machine because the office was closed.

I cried quite a bit that night.

Chapter 5

Dominic

An account of that same circumstance from Dom's perspective:

It had been over a week since Dominic saw that woman with the scarf. He went back and forth to his other place in Milwaukee since then, and he had just gotten back to Chicago.

Dominic wasn't expecting to see Marley that day, and he hardly recognized her. He glanced out of the window just in time to see her step into the shelter of the bus stop.

There she was, like a vision. She had on layers of clothing and was carrying several colorful bags which she held in front of her. He could barely see that scarf tucked over her arm, but a person could notice that thing from a mile away.

Dominic smiled absentmindedly and watched her for a second, debating going downstairs. He thought he might miss her by the time he made it down there. He glanced down the street, looking for the bus so that he could calculate how much time he had to make it to her.

He did see a bus down the street, but he had no idea how long she would be waiting. By the time he glanced at her again, her demeanor had shifted. She hadn't been smiling the whole time, but now she looked agitated, glancing down the street and half-hiding behind the cover of the bus stop. Dominic studied the sidewalk, trying to see what she was looking at.

There was a man heading toward her, which was not what Dom wanted to see. He wanted to go to her, but he also didn't want to take his eyes off her. Dominic watched, feeling stunned and helpless as she and the man had an encounter. Her posture was guarded, and she moved away from him and then stepped away, leaving the bus stop.

Her scarf fell behind her as she moved, and it dragged. Dominic stared in stunned amazement as the guy reached out for it. He took it right off of her.

She glanced back at him, but it was too late because he quickly put the scarf behind his back. He rolled the other hand in front of himself like a huge dill weed and then bowed carefully while hiding the scarf from her. Dom kept thinking it was all an act. He thought the guy would bow and then present the scarf to her like he had saved it from falling.

But no. He stood there with the scarf behind his back and let her walk away.

"Hey!" he yelled, hitting the window, but it was no use. He lifted the window and yelled again, but no one could hear him from there.

Dominic didn't hesitate. He was a college football player and physical fitness enthusiast. He was a natural-born athlete, and his body generated considerable forward momentum the instant he knew Marley was walking away without her scarf.

He ran quickly. He took the stairs so that he didn't have to wait for the elevator. Dominic basically slid down the stair rail. He took two and three steps at a time, light on his feet, focused on nothing but timing his steps perfectly and making it downstairs and to the street.

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