Still speaking through the closed window, trying to see more of the man, she said, “I was just trying to make some noise for my sister to hear.  She should be right back.”

The lie sounded obvious. Well, it wasn’t a complete lie, she told herself, and she was still hoping that her sister would return soon.

As the man gazed searchingly into the car, Sarah mentally kicked herself again.

‘Way to go!’ she berated herself, ‘Now he knows you’re alone!’

“Car break down?” the man asked.

Sarah noticed his relaxed way of speaking. He didn’t seem like someone about to do violence. She would expect to hear more of a nervous pitch to his voice if he was. Then again, psychopaths in particular were known for their lack of emotion.

‘Well,’ she thought, ‘if he meant to do me harm, the window isn’t really going to stop him. There have got to be rocks around that could break through pretty quickly.’ Of course, if she had been thinking that clearly before she had started honking the horn, then she wouldn’t have this problem at all.

She rolled the window down half way.  The chilly November air swept into the car.

“Thanks for stopping. I’m sure my sister will be back soon,” she said, trying both to give the impression that she was not alone and to give the man the opportunity to leave. At that point, something struck her as strange. She rolled the window down the rest of the way and leaned out. Looking around, she couldn’t see another car in sight.

“How did you find me?” she asked, puzzled.

“Well, you were kind of hard to miss, with that horn blaring away,” the man said, with a twinkle in his emerald eyes, “I’m Hillard, by the way.”

“It’s nice to meet you Hillard. I’m Sarah,” she replied absently, the she looked him in the eyes. “But what I meant to ask was: how did you get here? I don’t see a car.”

He continued smiling at her, his eyes twinkling as if she had said something funny. “I was camping in the woods over that way.” He motioned to the other side of the road. “I just walked over to see what all the ruckus was about.”

That seemed like a plausible explanation to Sarah and she decided to ask, “Is this a road off of Highway 61 between Thunder Bay and the border? Christine and I – that’s my sister – got stuck in the fog last night and I can’t seem to figure out where we are.”

An unreadable expression crossed Hillard’s face as she spoke.  If Sarah had to guess, she would have said that it was something between recognition and pity.

“Well, if you follow this road, you will eventually come to Thunder … Bay,” Hillard paused hesitantly between the two words and Sarah experienced the same sense of suspicion and unease that she had experienced at the house of Gerwin and Elke.

Sarah didn’t know what to do next. He was obviously hiding something.  She knew that she needed help, but she didn’t know if she could trust him. Getting out of the car could be dangerous.

“So, do you have a car out here?” she asked, thinking that maybe she could trust him just enough to give her a ride into town.

“Nooo,” he said slowly, looking wary, “I’ve been hiking. I have a bit of wanderlust. I like to travel cross country on foot.”

‘So now he’s homeless!  Great!’ thought Sarah.

“I guess you haven’t seen my sister around, have you?” she said aloud.

“What does she look like?”

“She’s three years younger than me. Prettier than I am. She has long curly blond hair and blue eyes. She’s a bit taller than me too.”

“Well, to be honest, I haven’t seen anyone for a few days. I’d be happy to help you to look for her though. There are some rough types who travel on this road,” Hillard looked genuinely concerned.

Sarah considered his offer for a moment. This guy was a complete stranger who had freely admitted that he was homeless. That didn’t really fill her with confidence. On the other hand, she had to go out and look for her sister soon. Hillard looked like the kind of guy who would follow her anyway just to make sure she was okay.

That last thought made her pause. He did seem like the kind of guy who would watch out for her, and not cause her harm. She thought for a moment in silence before finally deciding to trust her instincts.

“Okay,” she said, getting out of the car, “let me just grab our stuff from the trunk. She went that way. I think that’s towards the city.”

Hillard nodded, followed Sarah to the trunk, and took one of the backpacks from her. Sarah stuffed the emergency blanket into her backpack and after a moment’s thought, added the first aid kit. She also grabbed the sandwiches that Elke had made for them earlier.

Outside of the car now, Sarah had the opportunity to get a better look at Hillard. His eyes were extraordinary, but the rest of him was not bad either. He had a really kind looking face and was a few inches taller than she was. He was wearing a worn leather jacket that buttoned in the front, dark pants, and had a large leather bag slung over his shoulder. All in all, he was a pretty good-looking guy.

They started down the road in silence. Sarah had her flashlight, but kept it off most of the time to save the batteries. Every so often, Sarah would steal a furtive glance over at Hillard. He seemed nice enough.

“So,” she finally asked, “Where are you from originally?”

He smiled, almost wistfully. “Zwischenmeer.”

“Never heard of it,” she said, “It sounds foreign.”

He just smiled and did not respond.

“What brings you here?” asked Sarah. The question seemed to give him pause. She watched as what looked like several emotions passed across his face.

Finally, he answered, “Family.”

“Brothers and sisters?”

“More distant than that, although sometimes he feels closer.”

That was definitely an enigmatic response. Then, Hillard looked over at her and asked, “Do you only have the one sister? Or are there more of you?” This last question he asked with a smile. The corners of his mouth crinkled and Sarah could see tiny laugh lines around his eyes.

“Just the two of us,” she replied, “Our parents died when we were younger. My dad died of liver disease when I was only 16. I don’t remember much about him except that he drank a lot and yelled at our mom. My mom died of breast cancer three years ago. Since then, it’s just been me and Christine.”

“So, you’re close?”

“We’re best friends, as well as sisters. She’s always been there for me when I needed her – especially recently.” Sarah’s face darkened as she remembered the events of Friday morning.

Hillard looked at her quizzically but, before he could ask any more questions, Sarah changed the subject. “She’s always been the pretty one though. Guys chase after her all the time. Not that she ever gives any of them a chance.” Sarah smiled. “She says she’s waiting for a guy with substance, whatever that means.” Her smile turned wistful. “I never imagined that I would get married before she did.”

“You’re married?” If Sarah did not know better, she would have thought that Hillard looked disappointed.

“Was … is … not so much anymore,” she replied lamely.

“Sounds complicated.”

“Yeah, well, maybe Christine had the right idea when she waited.”

“So what, exactly, did you mean when you said that Christine was the pretty one? That’s the second time you’ve said that. I think you’re very pretty.” Hillard smiled at her and Sarah was surprised to feel her heart skip a beat at the unexpected compliment.

Sarah allowed her walking to take her to the side of the road, where she started kicking rocks self-consciously. She didn’t answer for a moment. She never knew how to answer those kinds of questions. They always seemed so loaded and fake. Plus, the feelings left over from Friday morning were just too raw.

As if sensing that this was a delicate subject for her at the moment, Hillard fell silent, and Sarah became absorbed by her own thoughts again.

 

After opening the door to her house, she had stopped in the entranceway, frozen in shock. Her neighbour, Judy, had been standing in her kitchen. Judy had been wearing Sarah’s bathrobe. As she turned towards Sarah in surprise, the bathrobe fell open at the top, and Sarah could see that Judy wasn’t wearing anything underneath the robe. Not surprisingly, the robe looked fantastic on the slender Judy – better than it had ever looked on Sarah.

Stunned, Sarah couldn’t figure out what Judy was doing in her kitchen half-naked. Her mind just wasn’t processing the visual information. Then Paul came out of the bedroom, wearing nothing but his white boxer shorts. He looked over to see what Judy was looking at and saw Sarah.

“What’re you doing home? You’re supposed to be at work!” he started shouting, accusingly, obviously trying to deflect the situation in her direction.  

Sarah’s first instinct was to defend herself and then she was overwhelmed with guilt at coming home without having earned any money for the day. Then an intense anger overwhelmed her. An icy cold feeling flooded through her skull and she couldn’t even speak. She just stared at the two of them for a moment, her lips pressed tightly together, then she spun around, stormed outside and went back to her car. She pulled out of the driveway and began to drive around aimlessly, turning from street to street, unsure of where to go next. She had been driving around this for what felt like an immeasurable amount of time when she finally found herself in front of Christine’s apartment building. 

Christine had been home for lunch, but she had called in sick for the rest of the day after she saw the devastated look on Sarah’s face. It had been Christine who had gone back to the house on Oliver Road to get Sarah’s things. It had been Christine who had held her while she sobbed. And it had been Christine who had ordered Chinese take-out and opened the first bottle of wine. Her sister always seemed to know what to do to help.

 

Now how was Sarah going to help Christine? How could she have let her sister go off by herself like that? The next time Sarah kicked a rock from the side of the road, it was in anger, not self pity.

“You okay?” asked Hillard. He was looking at her with compassion, as if sensing that she was going through a rough time.

“I can’t believe I just let her go off by herself. I just fell asleep in the back of the car and didn’t wake up for hours.  I just …”  Sarah broke off with a fit of coughing. She had almost forgotten about her cold in her worry about Christine..

“That doesn’t sound good. The cough, I mean, not the sleeping in the back of the car. Maybe that’s where I should have left you. If you’re sick, the cold air could make you worse.”

Sarah rolled her eyes at him. “I’m fine. It’s just a cold. My sister is the one we should be worrying about. She might be out here in the dark, all alone. And I don’t see how we could possibly catch up with her, since she left hours ago.”

Suddenly, instead of a rock, her foot connected with something metallic. It made a clunking noise as it hit a large rock off to the side of the road. Sarah’s eyes opened wide as she gasped and bent down to retrieve the object. It was dented now, and the screen was broken in two places. But there was no mistaking what it was. It was the cell phone she had given to Christine before she had left the car.

 

Read Chapter 4 next Wednesday, October 19th, 2011 . . .

 

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