know herself well enough to guess which it would be, until she heard the laughter rumbling off the walls of her tiny room. She flopped down on the bed and hoped she could sleep off this strange day.
“ Then what happened? ” Jeremy asked.
“ I waited. ”
“ You didn ’ t go to the police or the hospital? ”
“ No. ”
This was starting to sound suspicious — made up even. “ You still haven ’ t been to a doctor? ”
“ No. ”
“ Why not? ”
“ Because the note said not to, ” she replied. “ It said not to tell anyone. ”
This made Jeremy laugh. He already had concerns about such a perfect girl going out with him. This could explain it. Either she ’ s nuts — which also explained why she didn ’ t have a boyfriend — or she was toying with him, trying to make a fool out of him. He wasn ’ t biting.
“ So, you can ’ t tell the police or the people you ’ re staying with, ” he reasoned. “ But you can tell me . . . does the note mention me? ”
“ No, ” she said, before detecting the facetious tone.
He didn ’ t want to flat out call her a liar, but he didn ’ t want to be the butt of her joke, either. Those two possibilities still loomed: crazy or toying with him . He couldn ’ t decide which he preferred. Either way, he needed to end this date quickly and get back to reality.
“ That is bizarre, ” he said. “ It ’ s hard to believe, though. ”
With that, she instantly knew she shouldn ’ t have told him. She should have listened to the note. She should have tried to repair the damage by telling him that it was just a joke — that when she gets nervous she makes bad jokes. It was too late. A separation had grown between them.
On the walk back to his truck, she tried to reestablish a normal conversation. She talked about the trees and the birds. She asked him about DePauw University — when he was going, what he would study, when he planned to return. It wasn ’ t working, though. Jeremy had closed the book on this crazy girl and he politely dropped her back at Nathan ’ s Hardware as soon as humanly possible.
“ I had a good time, ” she said, as she let herself out of the passenger ’ s side of the truck.
“ Yeah, me too, ” Jeremy replied, waiting for her to close the door so he could drive off.
14
The New Plan
Stewart stood in front of Stone Ridge Cabin, remembering how snow used to cover his feet here in the winter. His arms were folded, and his right hand stretched up to his face with his finger perched across his bottom lip. This was his thinking pose, and it was serving him well.
Mindy, Web, and New Guy stood around him. They didn ’ t have thinking poses, or if they did, they weren ’ t using them. What they didn ’ t know was that while half of Stewart ’ s mind was focused on their next move, the other half was enjoying a bitter-sweet stroll down memory lane. He had first stumbled across this cabin in a search for the perfect romantic retreat. As he looked down on the landscape now, every tree and rock was a reminder of her — the one who got away. Suggesting that the Redundancy Department buy the property was his twisted way of holding on to the memories.
A sudden shift in the wind refocused his thoughts, and he dived fully into the opportunity at hand. As it was his tendency, he imagined there was something big at the end of this maze, and he wanted to be the one to claim it.
“ If we turn this information over, we ’ ll be lost in the paperwork, ” Stewart reasoned. “ But if we find them and bring them in . . . ” he smiled a very natural smile, “ we ’ ll get all the glory. ”
Glory , Mindy wondered, was this really about glory ? This was a new concept to her. She had never operated with glory as an objective.
“ Is everybody in? ” Stewart asked, as an afterthought, much the way someone pushes you out of an airplane and then asks whether you have a parachute.
Web nodded, because he always nodded when Stewart
“ Then what happened? ” Jeremy asked.
“ I waited. ”
“ You didn ’ t go to the police or the hospital? ”
“ No. ”
This was starting to sound suspicious — made up even. “ You still haven ’ t been to a doctor? ”
“ No. ”
“ Why not? ”
“ Because the note said not to, ” she replied. “ It said not to tell anyone. ”
This made Jeremy laugh. He already had concerns about such a perfect girl going out with him. This could explain it. Either she ’ s nuts — which also explained why she didn ’ t have a boyfriend — or she was toying with him, trying to make a fool out of him. He wasn ’ t biting.
“ So, you can ’ t tell the police or the people you ’ re staying with, ” he reasoned. “ But you can tell me . . . does the note mention me? ”
“ No, ” she said, before detecting the facetious tone.
He didn ’ t want to flat out call her a liar, but he didn ’ t want to be the butt of her joke, either. Those two possibilities still loomed: crazy or toying with him . He couldn ’ t decide which he preferred. Either way, he needed to end this date quickly and get back to reality.
“ That is bizarre, ” he said. “ It ’ s hard to believe, though. ”
With that, she instantly knew she shouldn ’ t have told him. She should have listened to the note. She should have tried to repair the damage by telling him that it was just a joke — that when she gets nervous she makes bad jokes. It was too late. A separation had grown between them.
On the walk back to his truck, she tried to reestablish a normal conversation. She talked about the trees and the birds. She asked him about DePauw University — when he was going, what he would study, when he planned to return. It wasn ’ t working, though. Jeremy had closed the book on this crazy girl and he politely dropped her back at Nathan ’ s Hardware as soon as humanly possible.
“ I had a good time, ” she said, as she let herself out of the passenger ’ s side of the truck.
“ Yeah, me too, ” Jeremy replied, waiting for her to close the door so he could drive off.
14
The New Plan
Stewart stood in front of Stone Ridge Cabin, remembering how snow used to cover his feet here in the winter. His arms were folded, and his right hand stretched up to his face with his finger perched across his bottom lip. This was his thinking pose, and it was serving him well.
Mindy, Web, and New Guy stood around him. They didn ’ t have thinking poses, or if they did, they weren ’ t using them. What they didn ’ t know was that while half of Stewart ’ s mind was focused on their next move, the other half was enjoying a bitter-sweet stroll down memory lane. He had first stumbled across this cabin in a search for the perfect romantic retreat. As he looked down on the landscape now, every tree and rock was a reminder of her — the one who got away. Suggesting that the Redundancy Department buy the property was his twisted way of holding on to the memories.
A sudden shift in the wind refocused his thoughts, and he dived fully into the opportunity at hand. As it was his tendency, he imagined there was something big at the end of this maze, and he wanted to be the one to claim it.
“ If we turn this information over, we ’ ll be lost in the paperwork, ” Stewart reasoned. “ But if we find them and bring them in . . . ” he smiled a very natural smile, “ we ’ ll get all the glory. ”
Glory , Mindy wondered, was this really about glory ? This was a new concept to her. She had never operated with glory as an objective.
“ Is everybody in? ” Stewart asked, as an afterthought, much the way someone pushes you out of an airplane and then asks whether you have a parachute.
Web nodded, because he always nodded when Stewart
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