Installment # 22 Him

Installment #22
Him

He stood with his back to the closed door and felt the
sweat pour down from his head and arm pits. He was not ready
for this! Why had she come up here? Why was she in his yard?
This was his home and she had found him. She appeared so
innocent, but he knew better! Never knew this house was here?
Who was she trying to fool? This house had been here for years.
Years! She was snooping around and he had caught her. Did she
know about his tunnel? Did she know about his tree? Did she
know he watched her? Maybe she was watching him watching
her! Women! Nothing but treacherous bitches, every one of
them. Even that stupid Jennifer. Always making coffee and
tidying things. Damn feather duster. What was it with the
cleaning all the time? Her job was to run the office, not get in his
way.

He peered out the window and could not see any sign of
the woman. She must be gone. She had to be gone. Of course
she was gone. She was probably down there right now on her
farm gathering her eggs. Damn chickens never stopped, did
they? Course not, they were females. Females never stop what
ever they start doing. They would keep laying eggs and Meg
Parker would keep gathering them. Jennifer would keep dusting
and putting her pointed little nose into his business. Maybe he
should do something about her before he did something with
Meg Parker. When he made his move on Meg it would take time
away from the office. Jennifer would be suspicious. She might
come up here. No, she did not know where he lived. She knew
about his apartment in Denver. She knew about the apartment
on Williams, but not about the cabin here in the mountains. She
knew he went somewhere out of town, but not where. Nosey
bitch could probably figure it out. Get with the accountant and
see where he paid taxes. He shook his head violently. This was
sheer paranoia and he had more important things to concern
himself with right now!

It was now next week and redranger was on the horizon
and headed toward Denver, ready to rendevous with Meg. He
had to figure out how to stop that from happening. Get his
ducks in a row. First, check her email and see what the plan
was. It took so long for the computer to boot up that he
decided to make an exception and have a drink in the middle of
the day. A splash of soda and a splash of Scotch. Well, two
splashes of Scotch. That was better. He settled at the
computer; pulled up her yahoo account. It had been rather
quiet the last few days. No sales at all. A few feedbacks and
finally he saw the redranger. “meg. I will be leaving
Brattleboro, Vermont on Wednesday morning and arriving at
Stapleton early afternoon. John is having a car meet me so I
am good for Wednesday until Thursday. I would like to meet
with you on Thursday and we can spend the whole day
together. I am at the Sheraton and they have a lovely dining
room there. Let me know and we will firm all this up on
Tuesday.”

He hit the “print” button and then the “keep as new
button” It was one thing to hack into her account but she was a
smart woman. Smart and alert. She would connect the dots and
know something was wrong if he started leaving things laying
around or not laying around. Nothing else that was of any
interest to him. But he left the screen up in case she showed any
action. He put a CD in the player and kicked back in his
recliner.

His mind toyed with what to do with the redranger.
Eldon. That was a silly name. He wondered if it was his real
name. Somehow he doubted that it was. He had been around
and he knew what this online stuff was. Guy probably didn’t
even have a job. Just coming to Denver to play around and Meg
was his target. A little weasel that hid in the shadows and played
pretend games because he was afraid of reality. Acted like
something he was not. He would do God only knows what to
Meg and then go back to where ever he came from and never
even think about her again. Well, not while there was life in his
body! No siree! He would save her. He would protect her. A
shimmer of an idea began to form in his mind. Yes, he knew
what to do. Eldon would arrive in Denver on Wednesday.
Today was Monday. He would be ready. Of course he would be
ready. Wasn’t that what he had learned in Viet Nam, to always
be ready? He smiled as he drained his glass and the hot liquor
found the warm place right beside his heart. The heart that
suddenly longed for Meg Parker. He sighed sadly thinking of all
the things he had done and would continue to do for her. He was
sad that she could never know the real depth of his commitment
to her. It would frighten her, he knew. His eyelids grew heavy
and he chortled because he knew he was going to sleep right
there in the chair. And fully clothed as he thought of Meg
Parker standing in his yard, he touched himself and blushed at
the pleasure it brought him. Then his mind went blank with
sleep.