The Runaways

Chapter 36

Hailey

      "That's some nephew you've got there, Georgia," Dale said, sizing me up like he hadn't been able to yesterday morning. Caleb pulled me right out of his sight line.

            "Do you look at all girls like that, or just ones you’re looking to throw in the back of your cop car?"

Caleb shot his mouth off like he’d walked in ready for a gunfight. Georgia flagged him down before he started more trouble than we could afford.

            "Caleb, Shut your mouth and sit down. Dale, this is the favor I called about last night.”

The cracks in Georgia’s voice gave away her desperation. She’d jumped into our problems and waded into the deep end even further than I understood at this point. Caleb and I had plans to leave on our own, without her help. She’d been generous but this was going too far, and she’d gone further than we could handle.

           “You didn’t say anything about fugitives, Georgia! Do you know who you’re dealing with here?” He said.

Dale practically spit across the table at Georgia’s gusto. He sounded about as round as he looked, sort of like a uniformed man made of tooth-picked together marshmallows. His eyelids turned down at the corners, which made him come across more helpless than a cop ever should.

            “They’re children, Dale. That’s who we’re dealing with. And as far as help’s concerned, you owe me a few favors. You know I wouldn't ask anythin' of you if I didn't need it. Now everybody calm down and eat, I didn’t cook the food for nothin’."

Georgia pulled out chairs for us at the table. My legs were so weak from the anxiety that sitting felt preferable to possibly passing out. Caleb sunk into his hard, wooden seat like he’d been forced into an interrogation. I held my breath just waiting for Georgia to explain something—anything would’ve been fine as long as it filled the suffocating quiet.

            "How’re the grits, Dale?”

            “Fine.”

            “The bacon?”

            “Fine.”

            “How’d you feel about taking these two to Charlottesville?”

Dale nearly choked on his breakfast.

            “You’re outta your mind, Georgia!”

          “C’mon Dale, they’re too beat up to walk it, and your car’ll get ‘em down there without any questions. You up for it or not?"

            "Up for it? Georgia, there's a federal warrant out for the both of em', and I'm on strict orders to arrest these two on sight. The state’s breathing down the captain’s neck, the captain’s breathing down my neck, so I gotta take em' in. When you asked me to come by to help you out this morning', I didn't think you'd be askin' me to lose my job!" 

Dale ran his fingers over the top of his head like there was still hair to stroke. Whenever he grimaced at something Georgia said his face turned tomato and crinkled in weird places. Every now and again, he’d look back and forth between Caleb and I, like he expected to see a more menacing Bonny and Clyde.

Whatever it was he'd believed about us from the police briefings died away the longer he stared, especially at Caleb. Even I still couldn’t figure out how a guy that skinny managed to walk from Manassas to somewhere near Midland in the shape he was in.