When they got into the car, Lyla caught a glimpse of her reflection in the rearview mirror, her hair glued to her forehead with perspiration. She wiped the smudges of dirt from her chin and cheek.
My God. I look like a sweaty rat and smell worse.
She glanced at Jack.
He's used to being with Carissa the goddess. To him, we're probably not even the same species.
"That dude we saw," he said. "That wasn't Keenan, right?
"He was too far away. But didn't really look like him."
"You think maybe he was trying to lead us to the body?"
Lyla shrugged. "I don't even know what to think."
After that, neither spoke. She wondered what lay in store for them if they dared to proceed. She and Jack had started the day fired up and eager to recover the body, but the afternoon had taken its toll, leaving them second-guessing and defeated. And, if she were being completely honest with herself, she'd admit that she had been foolish to even suggest such a preposterous plan.
A half-hour later, Jack drove into the bagel shop parking lot and surprised her when he asked, "Same time tomorrow?"
"We're going back?"
"I am," he replied. "You can come or don't if you don't want to."
"Yeah, okay." She couldn't believe how badly she'd misread him. It must have been the athlete in Jack that enabled him to strengthen his resolve to prevail. She pushed open the passenger door and before she exited she sighed, "We're gonna need rope."
"What?"
"To get him out of that ravine," she whispered.
Of course, they would need rope. How else would they be able to scale down the rock wall to locate the body, and then pull it back up? She watched the color drain from his face as he thought about the repulsive process.
He nodded. "Yeah. Okay. I'll get some rope. We need to find that ravine."
Despite Jack's fierce attitude, she was convinced that they'd probably be better off if they never found it.
When she checked her phone she discovered a gazillion unread messages from Darcy. She couldn't tell Darcy what's she'd been up to. To avoid confrontation, she decided to ride the bus home so she walked to a nearby bus stop where a small group of people waited. No one shared eye contact, everyone's eyes were on their phones.
A young professional woman standing nearby got a whiff of Lyla's body odor and moved away as the bus approached.
Exhausted, she plopped into a seat at the rear of the bus. Every muscle in her body ached, her thighs and calves throbbed. Her eyelids dropped and she drifted into a catnap. Her sleep was disturbed when she felt eyes on her. She glanced around at her fellow passengers. A large woman nearby snored loudly. A young man bobbed his head to the music leaking out of his headphones. Most everyone else was preoccupied with their phones.
She then narrowed her focus on a figure seated at the front of the bus. He leaned forward and leered. She recognized him as the creepy guy from the park, the unshaven guy wearing the tattered heavy coat. He smiled at her with his candy corn teeth.
Lyla stood and shuffled to the rear doors, prepared to exit at the next stop.
The creepy guy licked his lips and extended his tongue. An inch of his tongue was exposed, then two inches, then three, and then four.
Her eyes went wide.
Why doesn't anyone else see this?
He winked at her, his tongue hanging lower than his chin. Finally, the bus squeaked to a stop. The moment the doors opened, she bolted.
........
After dinner, she curled on the couch watching TV. And the next minute...
Lyla stepped onto the sidewalk across from her home, the warm light glowing through the living room windows against the black sky. As she started across the street she noticed that the streetlights were dark.
Something tapped her head and then her cheek. She looked up and saw dried leaves drifting from the inky sky. They fell like large snowflakes, spinning and looping their way gracefully to the pavement.
The roar of a speeding car heading straight for her broke the silence.
She accelerated her pace. The street seemed to have widened, the surface coated with leaves. She ran as fast as she could, but as the car bore down on her, she'd only reached the center of the road. She couldn't gain traction on the slippery leaves.
Headlights blinded her. Instinctively, Lyla extended a hand to cut the glare. Between her fingers, she saw Keenan illuminated by the dashboard lights.
KA-BANG! She was thrown into the air, her scream drowned out by the deafening engine.
She seemed to float like a leaf before gravity pulled her gracefully back to Earth. She watched the tail lights of his car recede into the distance, bracing herself for contact with the pavement but it never came. Instead, she landed softly in Jack's athletic arms.
"So you're welcome." He looked at her with his warm brown eyes.
The orange glow of the sun's rays washed over them as it crept above the horizon.
"Do you mind if I kiss you?" he whispered.
"I wish you would."
He drew her closer and pressed his soft lips to hers. Lyla circled his neck in her arms and immersed herself in a glorious kiss. She thought that if she were to die right now in his arms, that would be enough. She'd have her happy ending, if only in her dreams.