Rescue

stopped cold when he saw me, then sat back into the truck with the door open and tried a grin. “Need any help?“
    There was a southern edge to the voice, and I checked his license plate. Lots of mud dried over the numbers, but another New Hampshire registration from the colors.
    “Thanks, but I think we’re all right.“
    He looked around. “We?“
    “The people I’m helping.“
    “A Good Samaritan, huh?“ He pitched it just this side of sarcasm. “Where they at?“
    “Taking a bathroom break.“
    I watched him process that. It seemed to me he wanted to look back down the slope, but stopped himself.
    Then he dipped his head. “Don’t like to see another Granite Stater broke down, you know?“
    “Uh-huh.“
    “Well, Live Free or Die, right?“
    “Right.“
    The guy shifted back into the cab and closed the door, driving off to the south a lot more conservatively than he’d driven in. I looked down at the rear plate of the Dodge, then walked around to the front. From the way my Prelude was positioned, he couldn’t have seen the Swinger’s rear license, and at the speed the pickup was going he would have had to be pretty quick to notice the front plate was from New Hampshire .
    I was back at the trunk of the Dodge, everything just about loaded into it, when Melinda and Eddie came out of the trees and up the slope. As they reached me, I closed the trunk lid.
    Glancing north, Melinda said, “All done?“
    “I think so.“
    “Well, thanks for your help.“
    “You really need to get that flat fixed.“
    “Okay.“
    “The other tires, they’re not going to last you long, either.“
    She went over to the driver’s side, glancing north again before opening the door. “Thanks for the advice.“
    “Wait a minute till I clean off my hands, and I’ll follow you into the city.“
    “No, we got to get going.“
    I said, “You have a place to stay tonight?“
    A defiant expression that suggested she’d had to practice it, too, when things really counted. “We’re gonna be fine, Eddie and me.“
    I looked over to him, then held up my dirty hand so he could see why I couldn’t shake. “Take care, huh, Eddie?“
    The grave nod, then he bit his lip some more. “Good-bye.“
    Eddie got in the passenger’s side and closed his door. Melinda hit the gas, spraying gravel as she moved the Dodge out into the slow lane. A plume of oil smoke coughed out the tailpipe, the acceleration not what it might have been despite my feeling that Melinda was trying to make up for lost time.
    I watched their car until it was out of sight around the next curve. Then I went to my own trunk for a rag to wipe my hands, trying to bring back the memory that Eddie Straw had triggered.

2

    H ow’d you get your hands so dirty?“
    Taking the classroom desk-chair next to Nancy Meagher, I said, “Some people had a flat on 93. I stopped to help out.“
    She smiled and shook her head, which made the shoulder-length black hair wave gently over her cheeks, the freckles on either side of her nose playing peek-a-boo with me. Straight from the office, she was still dressed in a charcoal gray suit with ruffled white blouse and pearl earring studs. The wide-spaced blue eyes blinked once, then her left hand drifted over to my right, squeezing it between two smudge spots.
    I said, “ ‘Only one soap’s gonna get these hands clean, mister.’ “
    Nancy cocked her head. She’s a lot younger than I am, and this time her eyes told me that she didn’t get the quote.
    “It’s from an old commercial for Lava, Nance.“
    “And that’s some kind of soap?“
    “Right. They used to advertise it on—“
    “Okay, folks. Let’s get started, please.“
    Caryn, our instructor, walked with her red-tipped pointer to a sales-meeting easel at the front of the classroom. On the far side of thirty, she was dressed in a rugby jersey and blue jeans. The fourteen other students were already in their seats, spiral notebooks open like Nancy’s and mine.
    “Last time we discussed the differences between a Beach Dive and a Boat Dive, Calculating Your Buoyancy, and Underwater Hazards.“ Caryn flipped to the next chart, which had “scuba“ spelled out as “Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.“ Moving her pointer, she said, “Tonight we’re going to cover Deep Diving, Depth Tables, and the Repetitive Dive Tables. First though, are there any questions from last time?“
    One of the other students raised his hand and asked an