Chapter 2

2

JODI

S omething told me to leave my rented room early that morning. It wasn’t my devotion to my job. The breakfast place where I’d put in an application almost as soon as I got to town wasn’t exactly my dream career. But it was something. It meant money was in my pocket, and I could sustain myself for a little bit longer.

Until I spooked and had to move on.

I did my best to keep my head down and work hard no matter what kind of job I found myself in. And that had been quite a few different things. There had been a lot of waiting tables. Standing behind registers. Even a few bouts with a mop and broom. I took whatever I could. It didn’t matter as long as they wouldn’t ask too many questions when they hired me, and I could stay under the radar for the time I worked there. However long that ended up being.

That didn’t mean I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when I got out of bed, ready to sweep into the diner for another glorious morning. Sleeping well wasn’t something I did very often, so mornings generally didn’t come late enough, and I rarely got out of the front door early enough. Most of the time I skimmed the beginning of my shift, just making it so I didn’t catch the attention of my boss and possibly put my position at risk.

And sometimes I fell a little short. My boss wasn’t a bad guy, but he definitely didn’t love it when I ran through the back door and lunged for the time clock in hopes of coming in under the wire. He especially didn’t love when I slunk through the back door knowing full well that window of opportunity had long passed, and I was just trying to make it without causing too much upheaval.

That might have been part of what got me out of bed earlier that day. But it felt like something else was dragging me through my morning routine and pushing me through the door a good bit before I’d usually even brushed my teeth.

I wasn’t usually one to lean on the side of superstition. I was far more concerned about the here and now, what I could see and feel. But sometimes I couldn’t help but wonder if the Universe was there giving me some sort of nudge when it needed to.

Or maybe it wasn’t anything quite so poetic. Maybe it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time when I turned that corner and saw a man run out of an alley between two buildings and descend on the woman and her child walking across the street from me.

The woman let out a cry of surprise, and the man grabbed her purse. She latched onto it, tugging at it to try to keep it from her. The man hauled back and planted a punch in the side of the woman’s head, making her little girl shout and leap forward to try to help her mother. This seemed to infuriate the man even more, and he shoved the child aside, causing her to tumble onto the sidewalk.

I could barely believe what I was seeing. A woman was being mugged right out in the open. It wasn’t even nine on a Monday morning, and this was happening right out on the sidewalk on a public street. It was both sickening and infuriating.

It was also happening with only me there to witness it. No one else was around, and with the woman struggling more now and the little boy crying on the cement, there wasn’t time to try to call for help. I had only one choice, and that was to intervene.

“Hey,” I shouted to try to distract the mugger long enough for me to get across the street.

This was stupid. This was incredibly stupid. Now I was going to have to figure out how to keep my name out of the police report this was inevitably going to require.

Especially after I grabbed the mugger by the shoulders and plunged my knee right into his groin.

“Thank you,” the woman gushed while the man was still groaning and rolling back and forth on the ground at our feet. “Thank you so much.”

“Are you alright?”

“Yes,” she said. “I think so.”

“How about her?” I looked at the toddler now cradled in her arms. “That looked like a pretty hard fall.”

She kissed her on the side of the head and smoothed her hair back from her sweaty forehead. She was calmer now, and she looked over at me with wide, curious eyes.

“I think she’s fine. Aren’t you, baby?” She snuggled her closer. “It just startled her. But it could have been a lot worse. Seriously, thank you so much.”

At that moment, I wanted to dip out and run away like a vigilante so I didn’t have to deal with the police. But I didn’t get the chance. Before I could even take a step away from her, two police cars pulled up to the curb. It looked for all the world like we were about to get swatted, and I tugged the woman back away from the still-prone mugger so the officers could get right to the arrest.

As one officer reached down and pulled the man up off the ground, another came over to us.

“Can someone tell me what happened here?” he asked.

“I was taking a walk with my daughter. We had a couple of errands to run. I didn’t even notice the guy in the alley, and suddenly he was on me. He grabbed me and tried to yank my purse away from me. I wouldn’t give it up to him, so he hit me. Then he pushed my little girl.”

She choked up when she said that. It was obvious she didn’t care nearly as much about what she just went through as she did about what her daughter had experienced. I could see the emotion was overwhelming her, so I stepped forward slightly to get the officer’s attention on me and give the woman a break.

“I saw what was going on from across the street,” I said.

My hope was that the officer would accept a brief statement and I’d be able to be on my way. It didn’t work out like that. It took forever to answer all his questions, describe what happened, then go back and describe it again. When that was done, I had to go to the next officer and go through it all again.

When they drove away, the mugger in the back seat, she turned to me and let out a sigh.

“Thank you.”

“No problem,” I said, thinking about the minutes ticking by and wondering how many of them were past the time when I should have been at work. “As long as you’re alright.”

“I am. I will be. What can I do to repay you?”

“Nothing.” I shook my head. “I’m just glad I was there.”

“At least let me buy you lunch.”

“I have to work,” I said. “I’ll be there until this evening.”

She laughed. “Tomorrow, then.”

I nodded. The next day was my day off, so I could meet with her without having to worry about not getting to work on time.

“Alright,” I said.

“Great.”

We exchanged information, and I rushed away. I’d used up all the extra time I had that morning, and by the time I got into the diner, I was late. No one paid much attention to me as I rushed in and went for the time clock. Maybe this was going to be the moment when the Universe paid me back for my good deed by making it so I went unnoticed and could just slide intomy shift.

“Jodi.”

And maybe that was still a bunch of poetic nonsense.

I turned around to face my boss.

“Mr. Murphy,” I said. “I am so sorry I’m late. It was out of my control.”

“This is the third time in the last month.”

“I know. But I really couldn’t help it. I know you hear from people when they’re late all the time, but I actually mean it. I have a police report to back it up,” I said.

I hadn’t actually meant to pull the crime witness card, but he looked angry, and it just kind of fell out of my mouth. The expression on Mr. Murphy’s face went from upset to worried in a split second.

“A police report? Are you okay? What happened?” he asked.

“I’m fine. There was a mugging, and I intervened. I had to talk to the police and everything. That’s what made me late.”

He looked at me for a few seconds, and I could almost see the gears turning in his head. Finally, he nodded.

“Alright. That earns you a pass.” I relaxed a little, and he leaned slightly toward me. “This time. But you need to understand I can’t just keep looking the other way. If you’re late again, you’re going to lose your job.”

Any relief I felt drained away, and I nodded. “I understand.”

“Okay. Get to work. We’re swamped out there.”

He walked away, and I let out a breath, feeling a bit shaky as I clocked in. I definitely didn’t want to lose my job. It wasn’t the most glamorous job I’d ever had, but it also definitely wasn’t the worst. The people were nice, the tips were good, and it was helping me build up my meager savings. And those needed all the help they could get.

I put my head down and poured all my energy into doing my job, but the woman and her little boy never really left my mind.

It was a long day, and I made it even longer by staying late to help one of the other girls who had gotten swamped with tables right before my shift ended. When everything was finally under control, I left and went back to my rental room. Exhausted, I peeled myself out of my work clothes and took a shower before sitting down to count my tips.

Peeling off a few of the bills, I set them aside for food and other expenses. The vast majority of the money went into the small portable safe kept at the bottom of my duffle bag. It might not have been the most secure option in the world, but it was what I had.

With that finished, I pulled out my old laptop. It was time for my daily check to see if they were still looking for me. Opening up the usual sequence of pages, I saw my real name still splashed all over social media. They hadn’t let up. I didn’t know how long it would take until they finally did. Maybe they never would.

So, I would just keep moving.

Tucking the computer away, I stretched out across my mattress and closed my eyes. This wasn’t how I expected my life to be. When I was a little girl, there was a very different path set out in front of me. But I wouldn’t go back to it. Even with the struggle, the long hours, the rented room. Even with feeling like I was never really settled, I would never want to be on that path again. Freedom was far better than status.