“My secret admirer.”
“Huh?”
“I know it sounds weird, but I’ve been getting these letters from a guy who’s crazy about me. I’ve never met him, but he knows all about me. He follows me everywhere.”
“Everywhere?”
“Everywhere.” Abruptly turning around, Janice peered down the narrow walkway. “What was that?” she whispered.
“What was that?”
“That noise.”
“I didn’t hear nothing.”
Janice managed a nervous smile. “Must’ve been the wind.”
“There ain’t no wind.”
“Well…” She shrugged. “Let’s get going, okay?”
Six paces later, she snapped her head around.
Glen looked, too. He looked for a long time. His grip was tight on her hand, this time not from cruelty. This time, from fear. “I don’t see nobody,” he muttered.
“Maybe it’s only my imagination,” Janice said. “This guy—this secret admirer—he really has me spooked. He’s an adult, you see. He says he loves me, and wants me to run away with him.”
“Who is this guy?” Glen asked.
Janice shrugged. “I don’t know. I just know he’s an adult, and he loves me, and he gets terribly jealous.”
“Jealous?”
She nodded. They rounded a curve in the walk. Ahead, Janice saw the bench and the footbridge. “Can we sit down for a while?” she asked.
“Sure.”
They sat on the bench, and Glen put his arm around her shoulders. Leaning forward, Janice gazed down the walkway.
“Stop it, huh?”
“I’m sorry, Glen. I’m just nervous, that’s all. I don’t know how he’ll take it, finding me with a date. It might make him awfully mad.”
“Yeah? So let him get mad. I can take care of him.”
“I’m sure glad you’ve got a knife. Hope he doesn’t have one, too.”
“I can take care of…”
“Or a gun.”
“Knock it off, huh? Come here.” He pulled Janice close to him and tried to kiss her. She quickly turned her face away. His lips found her cheek. They left it wet.
“Glen, don’t.”
“Hey, that’s what we’re here for, you know.”
“I know, but… What was that?”
Glen looked.
“You heard it, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I heard it,” Glen admitted.
“A footstep?”
He shrugged, and kept staring down the walkway.
“Look!” Janice gasped.
The shape of a man appeared in the light of a distant lamp.
Janice clutched Glen’s arm.
“Hey, leave go!” He tried to pull away, but she held on tightly.
The man kept walking. He moved slowly, one stiff leg dragging grotesquely behind him. He wore a dark cap, and sunglasses. The collar of his jacket was turned up.
“It’s him!” Janice whispered.
“Leave go my arm!” Glen’s voice sounded strangled.
Shutting her eyes, Janice clutched Glen’s arm with all her might. She heard the broken, shuffling rhythm of the man’s footsteps. “Don’t let him get me!” she begged.
With a scream of panic, Glen leapt to his feet and shoved Janice. She tumbled onto the walkway. “Glen!” she shouted. “Come back! Please!”
But he was running, his head turned back to watch, his mouth wide with horror.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Janice, on her hands and knees, watched the dark figure limp toward her. She turned her head away. Glen was out of sight.
She stood.
“Who are you?” she asked.
The answer came in a trembling, hollow voice. “I am the one who has come for you.”
“What do you want with me?”
“I want your heart.” A low chuckle escaped the parted lips.
“You may have it,” Janice said.
She walked forward, holding out her arms. She hugged him tightly. Suddenly, a quick laugh burst from her. “Oh, Mike, you scared the daylights out of the poor guy.”
“Good.”
“How did you know where to find us?”
“I tailed his car. Never suspected, did you?”
She shook her head.
“I kept the headlights off. Clever, huh?”
“Very.”
“I don’t get it, though. How come Glen took off like he’d seen a ghost?”
“I had him pretty nervous. I kept telling him about my secret admirer, and how the guy was probably following us, and how frightened I was. Of course, I never thought you’d show up, acting like a weirdo.”
“I just didn’t want him recognizing me, that’s all.”
“What were you going to do?”
“Spy.” He grinned. “Maybe attack.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” Janice said.
“I guess your secret admirer and I handled it pretty well.”
“Yep,” Janice said.
“Whoever he is.”
Janice nodded. She squeezed Mike tightly and smiled up at him. “Whoever he is,” she whispered.
And then they kissed.
EPILOGUE
Dear Janice,
The time has come for me to fade from your life. My efforts succeeded in drawing you and Mike together, and that is all I ever wanted to do.
It is best, I think, that you refrain from making my identity known to Mike or the others involved, at least for the present. Such knowledge would benefit no one, and would certainly cause embarrassment for myself. Actually, writing these letters was a very immature thing to do, I realize that now. After all, there must have been other ways of getting you and Mike together. If I had been discovered, a lot of people would have been very angry at me, and I wouldn’t have blamed them in the least. I think I have learned a lot from this experience, and I am sure I will never do this sort of thing again.
Perhaps in a couple of months, when the memory of my letters has diminished with the passage of time, you might casually bring up the matter. But that is up to you. Farewell, my friend.
Your Secret Admirer
She unrolled the note out of her mother’s typewriter. She read it quietly aloud. Then she tore it into tiny pieces, and watched the white bits flutter downward into the waste basket. They mixed with the other paper scraps and seemed to vanish.
“So long, Secret Admirer,” Janice said. “I won’t be needing you anymore, ever.”
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