The Watchers by Lynnie Purcell Page B

here.”
    “Okay.”
    I took the stairs two at a time, almost
jogged down the hall, and took the second set of stairs in three
leaps. I picked the jacket off the window seat and shook it out,
hoping it didn’t look like I’d used it for a blanket the whole
prior week. I was about to turn away from the window, the jacket
over my arm, when I noticed a slight movement in the trees. I set
the jacket down, my curiosity too much, and put my knees on the
cushion, so I could see more of the forest. There was another flash
of color, and I realized I was witnessing something running through
the trees – something black and insanely large.
    The hair on my arms and neck rose in alarm.
The shape disappeared, but it left me with a cold feeling in the
pit of my stomach. It was just an animal, I told myself firmly,
trying to calm my racing heart. It was just a deer. Only it was way
too large to be any animal I’d ever encountered. They didn’t have
polar bears in these parts did they? Big, black, randomly fast
polar bears…I set my feet on the hard floor and ran down the
stairs, not wanting to keep Daniel waiting. But the woods,
particularly with Daniel’s warning, were starting to freak me
out.
    When I got back to the kitchen, he was next
to the stove casually leaning against the counter as if he had not
only built the counters, but had handpicked the materials that went
in to building them. He looked at me solemnly as I appeared in the
doorway, his face a study in innocent detachment. I gave him a
suspicious look, feeling I had just walked in on him doing
something bad. The memory of the animal faded from my mind at the
sight of him, though the goose bumps lingered.
    “What?” I asked suspiciously.
    He blinked once, his face maintaining his
study in innocence. “What?”
    “You’re up to something.”
    “Me?”
    I held out the jacket for him to take. He
took it slowly, and I noticed he was being careful about not
touching my hand or any other part of my skin. Maybe he thought my
weirdness was catching? Or was it for another reason? We stared at
each other, waiting for the other to break the silence first.
    He finally relented, seeing my obtuseness.
“All right, I was looking though this, which I thought you might
not like.”
    He reached behind him without looking. With
one long finger, he drug around the small flowery book I kept by
the stove at all times. It was mostly filled with cooking ideas and
recipes I wanted to try out on Ellen, but it also had song lyrics,
random ideas and poorly written poems. It was the closest thing to
a journal I kept. I felt the blood rush to my face. I grabbed it
off the counter and cradled it to my chest protectively. “This is
private!”
    “I had to run down a street naked once,” he
said quickly.
    “What does that have to do with
anything?!”
    “I thought you might forgive me for looking
if you knew something embarrassing about me.”
    “It’s only embarrassing if you were
embarrassed,” I said.
    What could he have to be embarrassed about? I
looked him over again, the heat in my face intensifying.
    “I had to run past a nunnery, and the nuns
just happened to be walking to the local school for a fundraiser.
They saw everything God gave me, so yes, I was embarrassed. I
couldn’t walk down that street for years without feeling
ashamed.”
    I thought about it for a moment. “Then I
forgive you.” I said.
    He grinned, and I started laughing at the
expression on his face. He joined in, and our laughs somehow merged
into a seamless harmony that was as beautiful as it was
daunting.
    “I think I should go,” he said as our
laughter trailed away.
    “Oh…Okay.”
    I didn’t want him to leave. For once, I
wasn’t lost in my head worrying about a million things or being
drowned by other people’s thoughts. It felt normal. I didn’t have
to be alone to feel like I wasn’t a freak of nature.
    I didn’t want him to leave for another
reason. He made me feel good. I could argue and