Jennifer knew she should feel ecstatic. She had been so, so lucky to get the address of the “homeless man.” What could be more important than retrieving her phone from the homeless woman he’d carried away…to a snazzy Brooklyn address that included no apartment number?
Instead, Jennifer felt hungry in some weird way she didn’t understand. Also, she felt all fidgety. She kept thinking about blond hair, chiseled cheekbones, and piercing green eyes. Instead of being ecstatic over getting the address she needed so, so badly from that weird man, all she could do was pointlessly think, over and over again, about that weird man. Ridiculous. She was being so unreasonable.
She started off toward the address he’d given her again. The birds overhead interrupted this time, singing more beautifully than they ever had in her whole life. Next thing she knew, she was leaning her cheek up against a tree, oddly aware of how the sun warmed it. Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.
A small, laughing child ran down the sidewalk stepping on Jennifer’s toe and reminding her that she was now barefoot. So unreasonable. So why was she laughing along with the child?
Why wasn’t she crying instead for those expensive shoes she’d lost?
What was that…song of some kind?…going through her mind?
Whose laughter was that?
She spun around. Behind her was a woman in a wheelchair. What the hell did she have to laugh about? But there she was, bent over her withered legs because she was laughing so hard. Finally she looked up at Jennifer. “Honey, you’ve got it baa-aad!”
Jennifer had no idea what she was talking about.
