At the gas station, while Kellen pumped gas, I folded my arms on the window ledge and watched him. He was calmer, but he was still under his black cloud.
He leaned down to kiss me again, and I wanted to go on being kissed, but instead he went in to pay for the gas and get some ice for me.
While he was inside, two police cars pulled into the gas station. One sheriff’s deputy, one highway patrolman. The cops got out and walked over to the car, looked at the tags.
I knew what could happen when a dark cloud and the police came together, so I opened the door and got out of the car. That way, when Kellen came out of the gas station and saw the cops, I was there to take hold of his hand, where his knuckles were bloody. Even though I knew it would hurt him, I squeezed his hand hard, to hold him.
“Evening, officers.” Kellen squeezed my hand back, so I knew he understood me.
“This your car, sir?”
“Yes, it is.”
“We had a report you were causing trouble down at the barrens south of Garringer. Is that true?”
“No, I wouldn’t say I was causing trouble.”
“We had a report you assaulted somebody and vandalized his vehicle.”
“I was provoked,” Kellen said.
“Provoked how?”
“That son of a bitch in the Mazda hit … her.” The hesitation was because he didn’t know what to call me. A lie? Daughter, sister, niece? Or the truth?
“Is that true, young lady?”
I stepped away from Kellen, closer to the cops and their flashlights. I pushed my hair back to show them my face. I hoped it looked as bad as it felt. From the way the cops frowned, it must have.
“What was I supposed to do?” Kellen said. “Am I supposed to put up with some asshole punching her?”
“And who exactly is she? She looks a little young to be out this late,” said the deputy.
“I’m taking her home now.”
The patrolman almost laughed, but the deputy frowned.
“Let’s see some ID,” he said.
Kellen got out his, but I didn’t have any.
“And who’s the girl?”
“Wavy Quinn.” I liked my name in Kellen’s mouth.
“Does your mama know you’re out with this guy?” the deputy said.
“Yeah, her folks know she’s out with me.”
The two cops stepped back and whispered to each other for a few minutes.
Then there was so much arguing it hurt my head. The deputy said I couldn’t leave with Kellen. He said, “We need to speak to her mother,” and “We’re going to have to book you anyway, so why don’t we just go down to the station?”
“You’re seriously gonna arrest me for whooping that asshole? Because look at her, you can see he hit her. I got witnesses. So why are you riding my ass? Why aren’t you out arresting him?”
“Don’t you worry, sir, we’re taking care of him,” the patrolman said.
“How’s that? I don’t see you taking care of him. I see you hassling me over bullshit.”
“We just want to talk to her parents, okay?”
“Okay, fine. They’re gonna tell you what I’m telling you.”
At the police station, when the deputy called the farmhouse, nobody answered. Mama had probably turned off the ringer. Then he called Sandy’s trailer and nobody answered there either. I sat in a chair in the sheriff’s empty office while the deputy took Kellen to charge him for assaulting the guy in the Mazda. It was only a misdemeanor, so Kellen got to post bail right there, but he still had to have his picture and his fingerprints taken.
He came back, wiping ink off his hands and arguing with the deputy. His name tag said Vogel.
“I’m gonna have to call Children’s Protective Services,” Deputy Vogel said.
“What the hell for?” Kellen’s black cloud was back. Bigger.
“Because we got a minor here and not knowing who she is, I can’t let her go with you.”
“How about this? Why don’t I go get her mama? Take me an hour to get there and an hour to get back. Think you can wait to call somebody ’til then?”
“I couldn’t get CPS out here before then anyway. I just don’t want to release her to somebody who doesn’t have any business taking her.”
Kellen’s mouth got hard, but he didn’t say anything to that. He ran his hand over my hair and said, “I’ll be back, Wavy.” He glared at the deputy. “And can you get some ice for her eye?”
After Kellen left, Deputy Vogel brought me a bottle of pop and an ice pack, but I didn’t touch them.
Being in the sheriff’s office was a lot like when Mama got arrested, but at least I was dressed with my boots on. When they arrested Mama, I had to sit in the police station for hours, just in my nightshirt, while strangers walked in and out and talked to me. And tried to touch me.
The deputy didn’t try to touch me, but he sat at the sheriff’s desk, asking me questions.
“So how do you know Mr. Kellen? Or Mr. Barfoot? That’s his legal name.”
I stared through him.
“Where did you two meet?”
I crossed my arms over my chest to let Deputy Vogel know he was wasting his time.
“Not at school, I’m guessing.”
Ha ha ha.