Sheila didn’t have much to hide or even clean up in her tiny apartment, so she just laid on the bed and read a magazine, waiting to see if the cops showed up. They never did and she fell asleep in her clothes on top of the blankets. When her alarm went off in the morning, she slammed the clock to turn it off, jumped up and went to the intercom.
“Hello?” she said into the handset.
When there wasn’t even the hint of a noise coming from upstairs, she looked the clock and realized what had happened. She just looked at her work outfit, all wrinkled from being slept in and sighed. She put her slacks and shirt over the shower rod, hoping that the steam from the shower would flatten the creases. It kind of worked, but she still had to do some ironing. By the time she had gotten her clothes to look presentable, she knew she was going to be late, so she decided to see if Marie might be going to work sometime soon and give her a ride.
Sheila walked up to the second floor and knocked on the door, “Marie, it’s Sheila.”
She heard something moving across the floor from inside the apartment, then the locks started clicking. When the door opened, it was Stefan trying to make out who he was looking at.
“Hey, uh Sheila. Marie’s already at work over at the New City,” he said, pushing his hair around his head.
“Oh, I was going to ask if she could give me a ride. I’m late.”
“I can. Let me find my shoes. Here’s the keys, go put your bike in the van,” he said, kicking things around the room, looking for his sneakers.
“Thanks,” she said, grabbing the keys and running down the stairs.
Sheila grabbed her bike out of the closet and went down the front stairs. She laughed when she saw the van, still in kidnapper motif. She had just gotten the back doors opened when Stefan walked up behind her.
“Hey let me start it up while you get settled. It runs a little rough in the morning,” he said, hopping in through the back doors.
Sheila got the bike in and closed the doors right as the cloud of blue smoke was threatening to invade the interior of the vehicle. “Looks like you might need some valve seals,” she said as she sat in the front passenger seat.
“That’s pretty low on the priority list for this vehicle. How did you know that keys only worked on the back doors?” he asked, gunning the engine and coaxing the beast into drive.
“Lucky guess,” she said, wondering if it wouldn’t have been faster or safer to just have ridden her bike. “Do you actually have any candy in here?”
“Yeah, look in the glove box. I put some fun sized bars in there a while ago,” he said.
Sheila opened the glove compartment and grabbed a miniature Butterfinger bar out of the bag. “I just wanted a prop in case we get beside someone on the way,” she said laughing.
“Good one. Let me catch up to that bus,” he said, pushing the van over the speed limit.
They pulled up beside the Metro bus and Sheila held the Butterfinger up in the window. It took a few seconds, and then the groggy commuters started pointing and laughing at the joke. Sheila even saw a couple people trying to capture the moment with their cell phone cameras.
“Hey we might be on the internet!” she joked to Stefan.
“I’ve been internet famous. It doesn’t really pay,” he said.
Stefan pulled the van into the parking lot of the garage before she could ask him about his electronically based fame. “Tell me that story the next time I see you, OK?”
By the time Sheila had gotten out and walked around the van, Stefan had already crawled through the cargo area and was holding her bike out for her to grab. “Sure, just remind me. It’s really not that exciting,” he said standing in the open rear doors of the van. “Happy sailing!”
“Thanks, and thanks for the ride. It’s got me back on schedule,” she said with a wave.
The Padre walked out the garage just as the van turned back onto Airport Way. “Interesting paint job. Is that a new boyfriend?”
“No, he’s the boyfriend of my new friend Marie,” she said, holding out the tiny candy bar and smiling.
“Well, I do appreciate truth in advertising,” he said, walking back to the rig he was going to drive that day.
