Green held his breath.
“Bud, I have no idea what you saw and I honestly can’t guess.”
He let his breath go and closed his eyes.
“But you live out here. Youlivehere. You’ve never seen something like that? Even heard about it?” he asked.
“Happily, no. Not exactly.”
“You think I made them up?”
Dancer chuckled and kicked at a chunk of broken windshield.
“No. No, not at all. I’m sure such things exist. I’ve heard weirder stuff than that from more established sources than you. Like you said, I live here. As I understand it, some people see things like that pretty regularly, I’m just not one of those people. Knock on wood, I never will be.”
Green gestured at his car.
“That wasn’t done by my imagination.”
“You’re misunderstanding me, fella. I’m not being patronizing here. I mean it. I believe creatures like what you described exist. I believe you. It’s just that such things are a part of some people’s worlds and not a part of others’. You get me?”
“No. Not really.”
She hooked her hands into her coat collar and looked up into the branches.
“I’m not the right person to explain this,” she said.
“Well, who is?”
Dancer smirked.
“Funny you should ask that. The best expert I know on such things is your very own neighbor.”
“Valerie?”
“It’s Valentina. Valentina Blackwood. A’yup.”
“That’s quite a name.”
“Heh. A’yup again.”
“So? What? I should tell her about the monsters?”
Dancer wobbled her head in a way that meantYes, you could do that, but…
“Is there something else I should do first?”
“Green, let’s return to the lesson of being mindful of the work you leave for others. Most people out here have some healthy boundaries. I’m one of them. Incidentally, Valentina is another. I need you to assure me of a few things.”
“I’ll try.”
Dancer nodded.
“If you decide to stay, I’m concerned with simple, everyday things of a less scintillating nature than demon dogs and incandescent critters. Mundane things like you starving or freezing to death or dying of infection or dehydration. Now, this day, like most, is gonna come and go. It’s probably gonna go pretty quickly from your rattled standpoint. You aren’t planning to leave those problems for me to solve, right?”
“Right.”
“Make me believe it, Green. I’m trying to determine if I’m talking to a man who made an honest mistake and has been generously corrected by his most patient new acquaintanceorif I’ve just found an unaccompanied toddler wandering on a highway and a moral obligation to take control of the situation is settling heavily on my shoulders.”
