Not that she was surehow, exactly, he had been placed in danger. It wasn’t like people could control the wind, and even if they could, why would they use it to hurl oversized umbrellas at her?
It made no sense.
Ugh, maybe I’m going crazy.
Maybe she had hit the ultimate food coma, and now she was hallucinating.
… Or maybe she just really, really needed to use the bathroom.
She’d been ignoring it all afternoon, wanting to avoid using the portapotties if at all possible, but now…
Probably that hibiscus iced tea is coming back to bite me. Oh, and the hot cranberry cider.
… Yeah, that wasn’t my smartest move.
There was really nothing for it. She was going to have to brave the portapotties.
How quickly she’d gotten spoiled! This was nothing, compared to some of her other assignments. But she just really,reallyhated portapotties.
She hurried down to where she remembered having seen them earlier, preparing to hold her nose, go in, and come back out as quickly as possible, and then never think about it ever again.
Spotting them in the distance, she doubled her pace, hurrying her way through the crowd while trying not to jostle anyonetoomuch.
Oh God, I’ve never been so glad to see one of these ghastly things in all my life.
She reached out a grateful hand for the door handle –
“Sorry, sweetheart.”
A hand slapped a sign on the door –OUT OF ORDER– and Luna’s heart sank into her shoes.
No. NO.
She looked up to the next portapotty – and the next – and they all bore the same terrible signage. The harbinger of her own personal, horrible doom.
OUT OF ORDER. OUT OF ORDER. OUT OF ORDER.
“Something’s wrong with the chemicals in there,” the man went on, oblivious to the way that her soul was shriveling up and dying inside her. “We’ve got to close them all for public safety until someone can come up and work out what’s wrong with them.”
The man went on, but Luna wasn’t taking any of it in.
Her phone buzzed. Slowly she pulled it out of her pocket and raised it with trembling fingers in front of her face.
THERE TRULY IS NOWHERE YOU CAN HIDE FROM MY VENGEANCE! YOU SURELY NOW REGRET TOYING WITH MY HEART! HAHAHAHAHAHA!
A line of emojis followed, but Luna barely paid any attention.
“You havegotto be kidding me!” she burst out. “Oh my God!! Whodoesthat?!”
Had she truly acquired a stalker? The most ridiculous and sadistic of all stalkers?
There was nothing for it – she was just going to have to make a mad dash back to the B&B.
And I thought this assignment was going to be fun. I’d rather be back eating the fermented shark!
A hand suddenly alighted on her shoulder, gentle but firm, and she almost jumped out of her skin.
“You look like you could use a kind stranger, darlin’,” said a woman’s voice, and she looked up into the eyes of an older woman, her face lined from a lifetime of smiles.
