They had been talking on the phone for half an hour and still Edna couldn't figure out whether Dennis still loved her.  He said he did, always would in his way, but she had had to make the phone call and she needed some extra statement of commitment for having swallowed her pride and been the one to dial.

All her sentences were starting with words like, "I'm not sure I should, I'm not sure we could..." He was finding it a bore and trying not to let her know it.  Finally, he asked what was wrong, what was really wrong.  He couldn't believe it when she told him it was a rat.  She was scared of a rat and she wanted him to come over and shoot it.

"I can't do that, honey," he said calmly, suddenly feeling wise and manly.  However, he assured her that it would be best if she let Tim take care of it. No telling what Tim might think or do if he came home and found Dennis there with a shotgun in his hands.  Nevertheless, he was glad she turned to him first.

"Besides," Dennis said, "I was reading in the paper where you can't shoot rats anymore. You have to call the Animal Control people and they trap them and take them away."

Edna breathed a sigh of relief.  Neither of her men would have to shoot the rat.  And then she heard herself say, "Will I ever see you again?"

"Meet me in fifteen minutes on the little hill off the highway near the lake."

"You mean that little rise under the oak tree?," she asked.

"Yes," he said, "Follow me there."

"But suppose someone sees us?," she asked.

"If another car is coming, I won't pull up, and we'll both just drive on through.  But if no one is coming, you just pull up next to my car."

"Okay," she agreed.

But to be sure she understood, Dennis reiterated,
 "_  _  _  _    _  _    _  _    _    _  _  _  _    _  _."
(4 letters, 2 letters, 2 letters, 1 letter, 4 letters, 2 letters)

Copyright 1998 J.J. Schnebel
All rights reserved

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