Chapter 19
Of course, I can’t just stand out at the 9th hole like a target, now can I? I yell from behind a tree that I’m here.
“Leave the dragon,” a man yells back.
I’m thinking he isn’t going to like it when he finds pewter instead of ivory, and he’s going to take his vengeance out on my family.
“I’m a little scared to just come out there,” I say. “I mean, what’s to stop you from killing me?”
He asked why he would do that and I say once he has the dragon, he has no reason to keep me alive. He says he has no reason to kill me, either.
And then someone – an old woman – darts out from the trees across the green and is tackled moments later from behind.
“Run,” she tells me. And I would, I really would, except that I see the glint of a knife, despite the dismal day.
Curse words come to mind, but I’ve pretty much trained myself to set a good example for my kids and they rarely slip out.
Okay, not true. I curse.
“Go,” the old woman again. “Don’t worry about me. Just go.”
Squinting, I think I might recognize her. “Mrs. Petroff?” I ask, coming a little closer to get a better look.
“Go,” she says again, and I can see it’s her, the woman Bobbie and I refer to as the Shoebox Lady because she reminds us of the crabby woman on the funny greeting cards.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
“You can thank the old lady for leading us to your kid,” the man says. “If she hadn’t given him the dragon, you’d never have been involved.”
“I never told them,” Shoebox Lady swears. “They overheard, on Halloween, and then this guy’s partner tried to steal them all and I had Max’s old pistol in the safe with the ivory and . . .”
“And now she knows too much,” the man says.
“Go,” she tells me again, and I start to leave. She calls after me to tell Jesse he was the best friend she ever had.
My Jesse? The child who was forbidden to even step on this woman’s lawn? Her best friend?
I know, I know. All children lie.
And now I’m stuck, because I really can’t tell him that I let his secret friend get killed.
“Don’t you want your smuggled pound of flesh?” I ask the man, wondering where the hell Drew is and praying that he was still following me and that I just didn’t see him.
“Jesse’s piece isn’t part of the set,” Shoebox Lady says. “I told you that. My ex-husband never found the last piece. I’d never give the boy stolen property. He’s just got a dragon from a chess set we got in China back in the 70s when Nixon opened it up. He doesn’t have what you want.”
“Right,” the man says, clearly not believing her. But I do. I can hear it in her voice that this woman knows and loves my son. All kids lie echoes again in my head.
Maybe we make them lie, I silently answer back.
Leaves crackle from behind me and I raise my voice to cover the sound of them, making small talk about how she knows Jesse and I do my usual babble routine and turn my head until I see what the man wielding the knife must see. He holds it against Mrs. Petroff’s throat and tells the police to back off.
“Put the knife down,” I hear a deep voice say. A half a dozen cops coming up from behind me like I’m not even there.
And I let go of the breath I’m holding – only to hear more dry leaves being crushed and my father calling my mother’s name.
