‘Who?’
‘Jefferson – he’s right there in that jeep, staring right at us.’
‘Who’s Jefferson?’
Of course, Kurt had never actually asked for the name of Darlene’s ex. Up until then he had complete zero interest in the man and, being worlds apart, he never expected to lay eyes on him.
‘My crazy ex. He must have been following me all the way from Portland,’ said Darlene.
‘Are you sure?’ Kurt asked. He could see the man’s face but could make out no distinguishing details. If asked to describe this Jefferson, he would have probably asked you to picture the most boring looking man in the world; a cardboard cut-out with a pair of thick black-rimmed glasses.
But Darlene seemed pretty sure.
‘He must have come all the way over from Boston. What does he think he’s doing?’
It had been a fairly surreal day and so perhaps Kurt can be excluded from staring back a bit dopily at first, but Darlene’s last question caused him to wake up a little. If there really was some weirdo following his girl about the place, then he was not going to stand idly by.
‘Damn straight, girl! I think I’ll be having a word with this bozo,’ said Kurt, dropping the box of papers onto the front lawn and then taking the first purposeful steps of what was going to be a march towards this Jefferson. His movement saw a response from the jeep, however, and so he only managed a few steps before stopping. From what he had heard of the man, standing in the road when he was endeavouring to speed by was quite possibly not the wisest decision.
How unhinged was this guy, after all?
The two of them then stood back and watched the jeep pass by, at which point Jefferson wound his window down, stuck his head out and shouted, ‘You slut! Burn in hell!’
Then he carried on past and down the road. Kurt got the impression he was trying to speed away but, from the sound of the engine, there was the distinct impression that Jefferson was having trouble getting the vehicle into gear.
‘Well, that wasn’t very nice,’ Kurt reflected.
‘And I thought it was all over with,’ said Darlene, ‘I can’t believe he’s followed me all this way.’
‘You did say he had been like a stalker.’
‘Annoying phone calls and Facebook messages, but nothing like this.’
‘That was why you deleted your Facebook account?’
‘That’s right!’
‘It’s all falling into place. If you thought, he was only a mild stalker up until now then he has just raised the stakes.’
‘Tell me about it, I’d better get home.’
‘What are you talking about?’
Darlene had looked about to be getting in her car and leaving, but Kurt could not see how that was going to help the situation.
‘What do you mean?’ she asked. ‘The best place is at home until he leaves.’
‘Are you serious? I’m not letting you out of my sight until this matter is dealt with.’
‘But what can be done? Stalkers don’t get prosecuted, it’s too difficult.’
‘I’m not having you waiting around for this to end, wondering whether he’s going to appear around the next corner. It isn’t on!’
‘But… I have to go home. Kurt, we’ll give the game away.’
She was right, unless he kept his distance their families would find out all about them.
‘I’m not ready to tell my father about us. It’s… it’s just happened so quickly and I’m sure he’ll think less of me.’