“And the other nights?”
Dennis wrung his hands. “You know Concordia Park, by the seminary there?”
“You slept in a park?”
Dennis shrugged. “It’s nice weather. Not too cold. I hid under a bench. No one saw me.”
Elly looked over at Keith, exasperated. “Keith.”
He held his hand up. “I know, I know. Dennis, would you mind if I talked to Elly alone for a few minutes? Why don’t you go wash up in the sink in the back?”
Dennis nodded and flung himself out of the chair, groaning loudly. “I think you broke my arm.”
Keith rolled his eyes. “I definitely did not.”
Dennis tripped over an overturned bucket as he headed to the back. Elly eyed Keith’s bruised hand. “You should ice that.”
Keith shrugged. “Are you okay? How is your face?”
Elly raised her hands to her cut cheeks. They stung a little. She looked with dismay at her glassware shelf, now sitting crooked on the ground, surrounded by a hundred shattered and broken vases. “I suck,” she stated. “I totally panicked.”
Keith shook his head. “No. You were alone. It was very suspicious. I don’t think you overreacted at all.” He traced his finger down her cheek. “And your face?”
Elly shook her head. “I’m not worried about that.” She rubbed her hands through her hair, totally bewildered. “What are we going to do? He cannot sleep under a bench again. You heard him, he’s all alone….”
“And playing to your sympathies.” Keith rubbed his sore hand. “I don’t think he’s on drugs or dangerous, but he also doesn’t seem exactly emotionally stable. I mean, you heard him, after what he’s been through … do you believe everything he says?” Keith hushed his voice to a whisper. “I’m just going to put this out there—he seems very na?ve. Is it possible that he might have made this whole thing up as some sort of escape from his terrible reality?”
Elly turned to Keith as tears threatened to brim over her eyes. “I don’t know.” I can’t even think about it yet. She could barely think with the adrenaline that was pulsing madly through her veins, the hammering of her heart, and the pounding of her head. Elly couldn’t calm down to think clearly, not yet. “What should we do now?” she asked.
“Well, I still think he has a lot of explaining to do. And I’m still of a mind to call the police.” He stood and wrapped his arms around Elly. “I can’t explain what it felt like when I heard you call my name and then just heard glass breaking. I’ve never known fear like that. Or strength, for that matter. I threw him over the desk—did you see it?” He whispered in her ear. “That must have been pretty impressive. There is still some strength in this old bull.”
Elly nodded. “You were very impressive,” she agreed. “My knight in shining armor.”
Keith puffed up his chest. “I played high school football. I know a thing or two.”
“You do.”
Keith raised his hand and felt Elly’s forehead. “Are you sure you don’t want to go lie down upstairs and let me talk to him here? You did faint, you know.”
Elly shook her head. “It happens all the time. I recover quickly. Thanks for catching me.”
“It was nothing.”
“It wasn’t.”
“No really, I was already holding you.”
Elly felt a flash of panic. Did he think I was heavy? She thought. Did he wonder, “Why am I dating a small orca?”
Keith smiled down at her. “I pray you never get mugged. I hope this doesn’t hurt your feelings, but you did more damage to yourself than he did.”
“Thanks.” Elly said to Keith, noticing Dennis standing at the doorway, wiping blood and snot off his nose with a wet paper towel. He was exhausted, Elly noticed. Exhausted and hungry. The poor kid. As she watched him lean against the wall, looking so entirely defeated, Elly was aware that her life was about to change. Her desk clock slowly clicked away the minutes, and with each second, Elly was aware that nothing would ever be the same, now that she had seen his face. Elly noticed that Dennis’s hands were shaking as he wiped his face, and she suddenly had the urge to clasp them into her own in a wave of compassion.
Keith stared down at him suspiciously. “Come sit down.”
Dennis mumbled something to himself, something that ended with “douchebag” and plopped into the chair, his arms folded defensively in front of him.
Keith looked over at Elly and motioned to the phone. Elly shook her head no. Keith turned back to Dennis. “Here’s what we are going to do. We’ve all had a very stressful night and need some time to calm down and take it all in. I’m going to take you over to my deli—I work a few doors down—and get you a solid meal. Then we’ll drive over to the Holiday Inn Express and get you a room booked for the week.”
Dennis looked up at him. “I told you man, I have no money.”