Chapter 19

When we were both dressed, I helped Sherry into her coat and then donned my own. After getting the spare keycard from her, I opened the door and glanced up and down the hallway. There was no one in sight.

I gestured to Sherry, and she stepped out the door. I closed it behind us, and gave it a shake to make sure it was locked.

"Okay Sherry, if you'll take the elevator down to the lobby, I'll follow on the stairs. You can go on out and I'll meet you at the elevator to the skyway

"Okay."

We walked down the hall to the elevator, where Sherry pressed the call button. I strolled to the end of the hall, opened the door to the stairs, and headed down, taking the stairs at a rapid pace (I've always found it sort of fun to do).

At the bottom of the stairs, I stepped out into the lobby. I walked over to the desk, and handed the clerk (the same young lady I'd dealt with earlier) the spare key card.

"Thanks for loaning me this- you saved me from being late", I told her with a smile.

"You're most welcome Mr. Darkscar. Glad to be of service."

I turned and headed out the lobby doors. Sherry was over near the elevator entrance, looking at the headlines on the newspapers displayed in the vending machines there. I walked over and pressed the "UP" button and we waited side-by-side for a few moments until the door opened. We stepped inside and automatically turned to face the door (I STILL don't know why everyone does that). I hit the button for "PARKING GARAGE", and away we went. Neither of us said anything during the short trip.

We exited the elevator and headed along the skyway to the parking building. We were once again side-by-side, but this time I noticed the Sherry walked closer to me, within the area we usually leave unoccupied.

"John ... what happens next?"

"Well Sherry, nothing for the moment. I can't keep having you meet me without raising suspicion, and frankly, I don't rent a hotel room every day", I said lightly. "I do want to see you again before too long, but it won't be this intimate. Besides, its getting closer to Christmas and you'll be busy at the church, I'm sure."

"That's true, but mostly it will be in the evenings. We have the decorations up already, but we'll be practicing for the Christmas cantata in the evenings. Of course we have some Christmas parties for the Sunday school classes and the youth groups as well."

"In any event Sherry, you can't be away very often without someone noticing, and I surely don't want to cause you any difficulty."

"I understand John. I need some time to understand what happened today anyhow. Can ... can I talk to you soon, at least? I ... I think I'm going to need to."

"Of course you can Sherry! Here's my cell number (I gave her my private number). Just call that and when it prompts you, punch in the access code- it's the first 4 digits of pi- and it will ring in. If you don't enter the code- it will go to voicemail, and it may be a while before I check it, since the phone won't ring. There're only about a dozen people that have that code. In any event, I'll be in touch with you next week sometime"

"Thanks, John. I appreciate you giving me that. I won't call unless I need to. You know ... it's funny ... I barely know you, you've blackmailed me and made me do things I never thought I'd do, but for some reason I trust you."

We walked along in silence for a while, while I thought about how to respond. Finally I said, "You know, I went into this without any real idea of what I was going to have you do, Sherry. I was so mad at what you said to Dave, that when I saw you outside that porn shop, I decided to get even by humiliating you. I decided you were nothing but an uptight, cold, prudish, hypocritical bitch that got her kicks from looking down her nose at all us "sinners"."

"John..."

"Hang on a second Sherry. Let me finish. That was how I saw you. When I made you meet me that day, I began to realize that you weren't exactly what I thought. The stereotype didn't fit the person I saw, and it confused me a little.

Today, I realized that the real person behind the nasty remarks, dowdy clothes, the thick-rimmed glasses and the mousy appearance was actually a pretty nice lady."