Chapter 9

Men were pressed up against the glass of the front windows as Lou Anne put her car in reverse and backed up.

"Damn!" said Randy Thornton and handed a dollar to Butch Flannery. "He actually made it into the car!"

"Keep watching!" yelled Tim Clark. "She's going to kick him out within two blocks."

"Bull!" snorted the Reverend William Hoskins, minister of the Third Avenue United Church of Christ. "She's an angel of mercy. I think our Lulu will take good care of the poor man." He watched as Lou Anne's car made it to the street light at the corner of Hickory and Madison, and held out his hand to Tim. Tim sighed and put a dollar in it.

"Don't you go to hell for betting?" complained Tim. "Or for saying bull?"

"Wasn't really a bet," said Reverend Hoskins. "I knew what she'd do." He smiled. "And bull is just a vigorous way of saying nonsense."

"Who do you suppose he really is?" asked Joe Peters, who had also lost money that morning.

"What's the skinny on him?" asked Phil Zucker. "I didn't hear about it yet."

"Turned up half dead over on Hopkins Lane," said Hank, who was watching with the rest of them. "He was lying in the snow, all by hisself, all torn up. Lulu put him in her car and took him to the emergency room."

"That little slip of a girl muscled HIM into her car?" Phil sounded doubtful.

"An angel of mercy," sighed Reverend Hoskins. "God gives strength to those in need."

Several men groaned at the impromptu sermon and there was a generalized movement back to their tables and meals.

"I heard he don't know who he is and can't remember nothing," said Gerald Witherspoon.

"One of us should have gone with her," said Tim Clark. "What if he tries to hurt her?"

"I'll take that bet," laughed Hank. "How much you want to lose, Tim?"

"I'm just saying," said Tim, picking up his fork. "Maybe he's fooling about not being able to remember anything."

"We'll just have to keep a watchful eye on him," said the preacher.

"How we gonna do that?" asked Phil.

"You all heard the man. He's got no car and no clothes. We'll just have to be neighborly and check in on him once in a while. I'm sure all you men have something you're not using that could make his life a little better."

"But he's an outsider!" complained Gerald.

Reverend Hoskins' voice was stern. "He's a man lost in the wilderness, Gerry, and he's with a young woman we all care a great deal for. It's our Christian duty to keep an eye on both of them." He smiled. "Besides, she just won me a dollar. I owe her."

The young woman the preacher was talking about was driving along, staring at the road ahead and not talking.

"Thank you," said Kris, trying to lighten the mood.

"Don't thank me yet," said Lou Anne. "We're taking a little detour before I take you home."

"Oh?"

"We're going to pick up my son and you're going to babysit him while I get some sleep. Then I'll take you shopping, to get the essentials, and THEN I'll take you home."

"You're taking me to your house?" His voice rose. "Isn't that a little dangerous?"

She looked over at him. Her hair covered her right eye, but the other one seemed to bore into his insides. "And why would it be dangerous?" she asked. "You said yourself, you're not a mobster."

"Well I'm not," he said. "But we just met. You're being awfully trusting."

"If I find out I can't trust you, I'll just cut your balls off," she said carelessly.

"What?!" His voice held shock.

"Aren't YOU being awfully trusting?" she said, glancing at him.

They picked up Ambrose, which surprised Roslynn, of course. Ambrose didn't seem surprised, though, and got down to the business of being curious about Kris immediately. Roslynn was curious too, but not quite so openly. Her raised eyebrow expressed it to her charge's mother.

"It's a long story," said Lou Anne, picking up Ambrose and hugging him. "I'll tell you all about it later."

"I can't wait," said Roslynn, meaning it.

In the car Ambrose kept up a stream of questions from his car seat. He wanted to know who Kris was and why his face had all those marks on it and where he lived and if he had a little boy too. Kris turned around and talked to the boy, explaining that he couldn't remember very much because he'd been in an accident.

"Your mommy helped me," he said. "She took me to the hospital."

"THE ADVENTURE!" shouted Ambrose. "Mommy TOLD me about it! I made you a card."

Lou Anne reached for the card, which was still in a tray under the dashboard, and handed it to Kris. Then she let them discuss the card and drove, wondering if she really was being foolish to take this unknown man to her home and trust him with her son. She slowed as she came to the place where she'd picked Kris up, and rolled to a stop.

"This is where I found you," she said.

He looked around and shrugged his shoulders. "If you say so."

They went on, while Kris continued to talk to Ambrose, telling him everything he could remember, with the exception of running over a man in a city somewhere. He was just finishing his story of getting served breakfast by Ambrose's mother when they pulled up to the house.

Lou Anne lay in bed. She couldn't sleep, even though she was tired. Her son was out there in the living room with a strange man. She'd tried to tell herself it was fine, that she had no reason to believe he was anything other than a nice man with amnesia ... but she still couldn't sleep. Even taking the keys to the car into the bedroom with her hadn't helped.

She got up, put on her robe, and went to the door silently. She eased it open and then crept down the hallway until she could peek into the living room. She could hear Kris' voice.

He was sitting on the couch, with Ambrose sitting next to him. They were reading a book. Kris read a line and Ambrose corrected him. At four, Ambrose knew what the book said, even if he couldn't quite read every single word without help.

"You're pretty smart," said Kris.

"Yup," said Ambrose, as if that were common knowledge. "Read some more. I'll help you when you need it."

It all looked so normal to Lou Anne. She felt her muscles relax and turned around. She had to get some sleep, then she could figure out what to do about the man who fate had decided to drop into her life.

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