"Oh, how nice of you to tell me. I'll never get into a car that you're driving, then."
"Too bad. And I just planned all kinds of nice trips for us with that pile of brochures as my guiding light. Don't you want to join me?"
She blushed. Good that he'd dropped the stand-offish attitude of a few hours ago, but it made her nervous. "By the way," she rattled on, "I was wondering this afternoon about that school you said you wanted to found on the rez. How are you going to set that up?"
Josh started telling her about his plans to start a native secondary school in the vicinity of Naabi'aani, and Hannah shared a few 'teacher-fresh-out-of-college' stories with him.
"Sounds like teaching isn't that easy," Josh concluded after listening to one of Hannah's anecdotes about the freshman group that had given her nightmares.
"Oh, you'll do fine. You seem sort of strict."
"Of course I am. Pupils will tremble as I enter the classroom."
Hannah rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that sounds very pedagogical."
"Oh, we're at the gas station, by the way."
"Hmmm. Ben really drives like a maniac."
"Yeah, he'll only be a minute, there's no one here. Everything will be fine. Don't worry, okay?"
Her gaze drifted to the road ahead of her. Oh, crap. In the darkness, she could see three guys were approaching her car. They looked drunk. One of them was carrying a half-empty case of beer, and the other two were shouting at each other in unsteady voices.
"Shoot." She couldn't help whispering into the phone. "Josh. There's a bunch of drunks walking in my direction. They've seen my car." One of the guys was pointing at her Datsun right at that moment. "Oh, damn."
"Are your doors still locked?"
"Yes," she quivered.
"So just ignore them. They can't bother you when they can't get in."
She chuckled nervously. "You're right." Despite his words, her heart was beating in her throat.
In the meantime, one of the guys had stopped next to her window. He bent over to look at her through the glass. "Are you okay in there?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Hannah swallowed hard. "My car broke down, but help is on the way."
"Would you like a drink?" the second one asked, holding up a beer bottle.
"No, thanks."