As
Patty and Ben hurried off, the rain began to pick up. After a few
moments, sheets of rain tumbled down from the sky. Buck futilely
held up the umbrella against the near flash flood. The cloth warped
from the force of the water ramming against it. As he rushed to the
truck with Shirley Sue, he felt his jeans sticking to his legs. In
the short time it took to climb into the cabin, his shirt and hair
became soaked. He and Shirley Sue sat in silence for a minute,
listening to the rain thudding against the roof of the truck.
Buck
looked over at Shirley Sue and laughed. “Well, that was crazy,”
he said.
“The
weather or Patty?”
“Both.”
He
started the truck and waited for a break in the line of cars and
pedestrians who kept moving across the space behind them. After a
few minutes of waiting, an orange Beetle signaled for him to back
out. As he was waving at the vehicle he felt something slamming into
his arm.
“Punch
buggy! No punch backs!”
“Aw,
shucks!” Buck said, glancing over at Shirley Sue. She wore a grin
which reached from ear to ear.
After
pulling into the parking lot, the traffic immediately came to a
standstill. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as they sat
in the line of cars.
“Look
at all those cars,” Shirley Sue said.
“Ya,
you'd think they never saw a little rain before,” he joked.
During
the trip, the rain poured down so heavily at times that Buck could
only see the break lights of the vehicle in front of him. He gripped
the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white. After
twenty minutes, the couple arrived at the station, a trip which had
only taken them five minutes before.
Buck
turned off the vehicle and the pair gazed out at the stream of water
spilling down, hoping for a break. After a few minutes of waiting,
they gave up and stepped into the rain with their umbrellas in hand
and walked up the steps of the police station. Buck pulled the door
open and they walked into the building.
They
made their way to a front desk and saw a woman wearing a headset with
a microphone, reading a book and chomping on bubblegum. On her desk
sat a placard which read 'Jean Brown, Secretary'.
Jean
looked over the top edge of the book, placed her index finger on it,
and set it down. She snapped her gum loudly. “You kids need
something?” she asked. He voice was nasally and high pitched.
“We're
looking for Sheriff Smith or Officer Brady,” Shirley Sue said.
“I'll
go get her for you hun,” Jean said. She stood up and smoothed out
her short black skirt. As she walked toward a door in the back wall,
her tan wedges clacked against the ground. She walked through the
door and disappeared around the corner.
A few
moments later, Sarah and Roger followed Jean through the door.
“Hey
Buck and Shirley Sue!” Sarah called out to them.
The
pair waved back as the trio approached the reception area.
“I
would have invited you back, but Brady had a hard enough time letting
me and Buck back there unsupervised.”
Jean
laughed as she picked her book back up. “The way he treats this
station sometimes, you'd think we were some big fancy department,”
she mumbled through the snapping of her gum.
“You
two look soaked!” Roger said, glancing down at the puddle which had
collected around his brother and Shirley Sue. He grinned.
“Umbrella's work better when you open them.”
“Glad
to see someone finds it amusin'. It's rainin' cats and dogs out
there,” Buck replied.
Jean
looked up and cleared her throat. “If you kids like, you can use
the break room over there ta talk,” she said, pointing to her
left.
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