And You Will Find Love

"Barbara, don't play so rough," Chet pleaded on his side of the glass door. "Or quite so hard to get. I'm really not a bad a guy, when you get to know me. And I assure you, you will. I help old ladies across the street and buy cookies from the Girl Scouts. I'm damn good in bed, if you'd ever let me into yours, or mine, or wherever."

She didn't wait to hear any of it. She hurried on up the stairs to her apartment and locked herself in. Once she felt safe, she parted the curtains just a little, to look outside and see if Chet was still there. He was not, neither was his car.

But Barbara became startled at the sight of someone else down below in the street. It was a dark morning after the night's thunderstorm and the street lamps were still on. Beside a lamp across the street from her building, she saw a tall, strongly-built man, all in black, standing alone in the shadows, as if hiding there. When he turned toward the light for an instant, she could make him out, and gasped. The man had only half a face.

Barbara hurriedly closed the curtains. Nervously, she touched the Pegasus she always wore on a blouse or sweater or jacket, and always over her heart. It had comforted her many times, but was unable to that morning.

So No Face is stalking me!, Barbara came to realize. Oh, my God! But why? Is he that friend of my father's, whose face went through a windshield? What did I ever do to him? Moments later, her phone rang. She hesitated to answer it, but needed to know if it was Chet. He knew where she lived. He might also know her number.

"How about six o'clock?" Chet asked. "My lip and shin might be healed by then."

"Leave me alone!" she shouted. "Don't you ever give up? Don't you get it? I don't like you! In fact, I detest you!

I never want to see you again!"

But nothing she could say would put him off. "Oh, come now, admit it, Barbs. You like me. A lot. Let me show you how much I like you!"

She didn't hear that last, because by then she had hung up on him.

Almost afraid to, she went again to the window, parted the curtains slightly, and held her breath as she looked out. No Face was still there, standing in the shadows beside the street lamp which by then had gone out.