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up through the trees to the sky above. It was filled with stars. I took a deep breath, nodded toward Orion and, with the whispering sound of the Serenity Prayer at my back, started walking home.
    As I crossed the street, staring absently at a Budweiser can clattering in the gutter, playing ring-around-the-rosy with a wadded McDonald’s wrapper and a dried-up condom, I felt that cross-hairs’ itch in the middle of my back that warned I was being watched. It wasn’t the first time I’d felt that itch in the last few days. Casually I looked to either side but saw nothing that aroused my suspicions. Still, it was there and I had learned over the years never, ever, to ignore that itch.
    I was midway across the street when I heard the roar of an engine, rubber screaming against asphalt. Headlights flicked on and Skeeter’s words came back in a rush: One bright, one dim.
    Â I ran.
    The big SUV missed me by inches, bouncing up over the curb as I dove headlong to one side of a large elm like a runner trying to beat the throw to home. I hit the ground, rolled, and watched as taillights disappeared up the street.

Anything But Simple
    â€œHe almost liked the story you sent in,” Felice said as I walked into her office early Monday morning. How she knew it was me with her back turned, I had no idea. But she always did.
    â€œWhat do you mean he almost liked it?” I said.
    â€œHe only tore it in half once.” She turned from the file cabinet to face me. “And only called it rubbish twice … without a single expletive in between.”
    â€œAnd that’s a good sign?” I said.
    â€œClose enough,” she said. “He wants to see you right away.”
    â€œI sort of got that impression from the note he left tacked to my chair this morning.”
    She smiled. The way she was looking at me made me uncomfortable.
    â€œWhat?” I said.
    â€œYou two are so alike,” she said. “Do you know that, Teller?”
    â€œMe and HL? You’ve got to be kidding, right?” I said, though I knew she wasn’t. Felice wasn’t one for idle talk.
    â€œWhy do you think he called you back here? Offered you your old job?”
    â€œHe’s done it before.”
    â€œAnd you never accepted. Why this time?”
    I considered telling her the feeling I had, the almost pleading nature of HL’s request, or how it had seemed that way to me at the time. Except I was unsure of how he’d made it. Or how I’d received it.
    â€œI don’t know,” I said. “My Uncle Burt died? Left me the house? He needed a reporter, maybe?” I was grasping and knew it.
    â€œHe has many reporters. Good ones. Not as good as you but good enough for what goes on in this town.”
    â€œOk. So why did he call me back?”
    â€œThe question is why did you agree to come back?”
    â€œFelice. You’re talking in circles again. I’m a simple guy. I need it laid out in a straight line.”
    â€œYou are anything but simple, Teller.”
    She turned back to her filing. “Think about it. And remember that the questions are as important as the answers.”
    She started to hum and I knew I wouldn’t get anything more from her.  It was Felice’s way. She revealed what she chose to reveal in ways she chose to reveal it. It was up to us poor mortals to figure out what it all meant. But her words were never meaningless.
    Troubled by our conversation, I walked to the big oak door that separated her office from HL’s. Taking a deep breath, I opened it and stepped inside, her questions trailing like recalcitrant puppies.

Department Of Parking Enforcement
    HL’s office was cool and dark, smelling of cigars and beeswax and something else I couldn’t put my finger on. I sniffed the air but couldn’t bring that something into focus. HL was whispering into the phone, a barely controlled whisper, and I wondered at whom he was trying so