Julie and Thomas were at the grocery store, making it a play day, keeping Thomas out of school and close to her. Julie pushed a shopping cart down the produce aisle while Thomas roamed ahead of her, searching for goodies his mother might overlook. FBI agent Ken Chang stayed twenty yards behind them, acting casual.
Thomas pulled a package of chocolate raisins from the dried fruit display and held it up to her. “Can I have this, Mom? Please?”
“Do you know what it is?”
“Yeah, it’s chocolate.”
“It’s chocolate with raisins inside.”
Thomas made a face, then examined the package as if it was lying to him and went back to return the package to the shelf.
Julie glanced back to see Ken scrutinize everything with the professional surveillance skills of a seasoned veteran. Which he was. He kept his gun hidden under his jacket, but Julie felt comfortable knowing he was there.
As she strolled down the produce aisle, Thomas remained ahead of her, looking around for something interesting. As he approached the end of the aisle, he waved at someone with a smile on his face, then resumed his fascination with all his food choices.
Julie dropped some broccoli and carrots into her cart and kept watching Thomas as he strolled around the store unabated by grocery store norms like avoiding other carts and not touching the fruit. Julie allowed him some leeway while she shopped, making him feel free and not restrained by the watchful eye of an FBI agent.
When they finally made their way to the checkout, Ken stood behind Julie with a baggie containing a couple of apples. While they waited for Julie to pay, Ken leaned down and asked Thomas, “Who were you waving at over by the fruit aisle?”
Thomas had to think about it for a moment, since it must’ve seemed like a long time ago.
“Um, the guy who gave me that baseball.”
Julie’s entire body tightened. She desperately tried to act casual, but her lips quivered as she said, “But, Thomas . . .”
“Where did he go?” Ken interrupted, protecting Julie’s anxious demeanor. “I would like to thank him for giving you the baseball.”
Thomas took notice of his mom’s expression. “What’s wrong, Momma?”
Julie quickly grabbed a tissue from her purse and wiped her eye, not capable of hiding her anxiety. “Nothing, Sweetie. I just have allergies.”
“What’s that?” Thomas asked, but Ken was trained at this type of situation and knew exactly how to behave.
He turned Thomas around to see the interior of the store and said, “Mom is going to finish buying the groceries and you and I are going on a hunt.”
Thomas’s eye brightened. “A hunt? Yeah. What are we hunting for?”
“We’re going to hunt for that nice man who gave you the baseball. You think you can find him?”
Thomas and Ken wandered off into the frozen food aisle, while Julie blinked away tears and paid for her groceries. Once she was outside, she glanced around for anyone suspicious. Nick had trained her what to look for. She turned her head and examined every face, then resumed her behavior. After a couple of steps, she quickly swiveled back around to see if she’d catch anyone watching her.
She spotted no one. However, this didn’t prevent her from slipping the pepper spray from her purse and clutching it in her palm. She knew Thomas was safe, but now she felt more vulnerable than ever, and it scared her. She wanted to call Nick, but stopped herself. She knew she would be too emotional and force him to drop everything and come home. She didn’t want that. She wasn’t sure what she wanted, but she definitely didn’t want that.
By the time she reached her car, she heard a noise behind her. There was a commotion from the front of the store. Shoppers were scattering out of the grocery store, pushing their carts as if they were trying to outrun a charging locomotive. Julie ran toward the entrance, sprinting as fast as her legs could take her. What was happening? She wanted to ask someone, but didn’t want to waste even a second to get to her boy.
When she reached the entrance, there was an opening between scrambling shoppers and she could see what the uproar was about. Two large dogs were fighting just outside the front door, growling and baring teeth, swinging around in a vicious circle with long fangs taking deep bites out of each other’s hind quarters. Every time a bite landed, there was a squeal of pain that was so horrifying, Julie cringed. No one seemed capable or motivated enough to intervene.
Julie ran at the dogs and shot the pepper spray all over their faces, causing an immediate cacophony of high-pitched cries, the animals dropping their heads and scraping their paws over their eyes. They both flicked their tongues out in disgust over the acrid taste and snorted out their displeasure.
A man with a leash came running over and glared at Julie as he slipped the latch onto his dog’s collar and murmured curse words at her. The other dog owner suddenly appeared and tended to his dog, pulling the animal away from the fray and cleaning his snout with a sanitized wipe.
There was a quick toot of a horn in the parking lot and Julie saw her shopping cart rolling into the back end of a white Toyota Camry. She stood there, paralyzed from the ruckus, yet still wanting to see Thomas. Was all of this a diversion? Nick had honed her ability to sense an orchestrated scene, and this felt like just that. Or her anxiety was getting ahead of her and she was creating a situation from sheer coincidences.
She turned to the entrance and saw Ken walking slowly toward her, no urgency in his gait. Another toot of a horn. Where was Thomas? She couldn’t see him anywhere.
There was a sudden tug on her pant leg. When she looked down, her son looked up at her with a smile on his face and holding up a colorful package.
“Look, Momma. Mr. Chang got me a Popsicle.”
Julie scooped up Thomas and walked over to Ken.
“Were you able to find that nice man?” she asked both of them at once.
Ken shook his head.
“He went home already,” Thomas said.
Julie swung around to see an older gentleman pushing her shopping cart away from the back of his Camry so he could back out. She needed to be brave for her boy, so she scooped him up and carried him out to the parking lot.
“What flavor is that?” Julie asked.
“Strawberry.”
“Your favorite.”
“Hey, Mom.”
“Yeah?”
“Why were those dogs fighting?”
“Maybe they didn’t know each other.”
“Is that what people do when they don’t know each other?”
“No, Sweetie, animals are different.”
“Can we get a dog, so we don’t have to have Mr. Chang protect us?”
“Honey, what makes you think Mr. Chang is protecting us?”
“Because I saw how he was looking for that guy who gave me the baseball. He seemed uh . . . mad.”
“Well now—”
“And you started crying.”
“No, remember my allergies.”
“Allergies make you cry?”
“Sometimes.”
Thomas wiped a lingering teardrop from Julie’s eyelid, then examined his finger. “It seems real.”
Julie was biting her lip trying her best to control her emotions.
“Hey, Champ,” Ken said, “why don’t you eat your Popsicle before it melts.”
“Oh yeah,” Thomas said and focused his attention on his new treat.
Julie put him down and Thomas unwrapped his Popsicle while she retrieved her shopping cart and brought it to the car. When she raised the back hatch to the SUV, Ken sidled up next to her and helped unload the groceries.
“Thanks,” Julie said discreetly. “He’s growing up too fast.”
Ken slid a case of bottled water into the trunk and said, “He’s growing up at just the right pace.”
“Well, then it’s my world that’s going too fast.”
Once the groceries were loaded, Ken shut the trunk and looked down at Thomas biting the tip of his Popsicle and smiling up at the FBI agent. Ken scoured the parking lot with professional scrutiny and said, “Time to go home.”