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"I wasn&039;t planning to"

I had long ago outrun the storm, but there was a line of clouds dark on the horizon ahead I&039;d been playing with the idea of doing so down out of Canada, but that was just plain selfish Bad weather was both natural and necessary The only time I was really morally allowed to tinker was if it posed a clear and i my own

What I felt wasn&039;t the storm ahead, and it wasn&039;t the storm behind It wasn&039;t a storm at all I wasn&039;t entirely sure what it was, except that it was strange

"Any idea-?"

"No," David said "Not yet Maybe you should start the car"

I did, and eased the Land Rover into gear and back onto the road We accelerated without any proble fell on us out of the sky or rose up out of the ground, which was downright encouraging

"So," David finally said "Exactly how many enemies do you have?"

"Marion&039;s not an enemy"

"She buried you alive"

"It&039;s complicated"

"Apparently" He settled back in the seatnot relaxed, exactly, but cautiously watchful "Tell me about what happened"

"You knohat happened You were there"

"Tell "

I felt a lurch sout "You know, I really don&039;t want to talk about it If I&039;d wanted to talk about it, I would have done the whole This-Is-My-Life thing with Marion, where it ht actually matter"

"You need to tell someone," he said, which was very reasonable "And I don&039;t have a stake in the matter"

In other words, he was Djinn He could walk away at any time I wasn&039;t even a flash of a second in terms of the eternal life he could look forward to My story was so to pass the time

"I killed somebody," I finally said

He was unmoved "So I heard"

"Somebody important," I said, as if he&039;d contradicted me I was surprised to feel tears burn at the back of my throat "I had to"

David reached over and touched ers, but it was enough to send a warhor a David thing? Was there even a difference?

"Tell me," he said "Please"

I told David about the first encounter I&039;d had with Bad Bob at , and then the weird shoe&039;d had at the National Weather Services offices, the tile and stopped Tropical Storm Samuel

And then I told him the rest

After I&039;d calmed doith a few drinks at a sand-side bar, I&039;d decided to put Bad Bob&039;s bizarre problee I&039;d strolled down to the sea in irls are a dime a hundred on Florida beaches, so I didn&039;t feel special Well, okay, ood bikini Beach studs checkedbad in that I staked out a section of hite sand as far as possible froreatest hits of Elasses, and settled down on my beach towel to soak up the love of Mother Sun

There&039;s nothing like a good day on the beach The warmth steals slowly into every e The dull, constant rhythm of the seas counts out the heartbeat of the world The smell of fresh salt water, banana and coconut oil, that ripe undercurrent of the cycle of life turning sohing, whispering, kissing Happy sounds Somewhere out there, in the wet darkness, sharks hunt, but you can forget that, lying there in the sun, letting your cares slide away like sand through your fingers

I had al that was botheringthrough my blood It didn&039;t move away like it should have

I opened my eyes and peered up, dazzled, at a dark shape with a brilliant white halo of windblown hairthen blue eyesthe face of Bad Bob Biringanine

I sat up fast He was crouching down next to s one does earing too few clothes in the presence of an inti manI put on my coverup, then crossed my arms across the thin fabric

"That&039;s too bad," Bad Bob said "It&039;s a nice look for you"

"What?"

"The suit Designer?"

"Yeah, right On what you pay lared Incouys who held my future in the palm of their hand

His face was different out here in the world- that hummed in tune out here, near the sea and sky This hat true power looked like in its ele part of the vast ," he said "That&039;s not what I meant to do It&039;s not personal, Baldwin It&039;s not that I think you&039;re a crappy Warden It&039;s that I&039;ve seen too ot the e"

"No, you didn&039;t And hell, I can&039;t blaance, and I daood," he said "Most people screw it up their first ti out there that isn&039;t anywhere else on the planet"

"Really?" I shadedposition on the sand "If I knew that, I&039;d probably be National Warden by now instead of some cranky old bastard with a nasty reputation Maybe souts and less self-preservation than me will find out They don&039;t call it the Mother of Storms for no reason"

"A discovery like that could really rinned, and it was a street urchin&039;s grin, full of Irish charirls in his iirls "Oh, I think my reputation&039;s secure, don&039;t you?"

It was, of course; whatever else Bad Bob Biringanine got up to, he was bound to be a legend for generations to coet in rin and just looked at me seriously "I liked your work Steady, calet to you, and that takes guts I&039;ve rattled plenty of cool custoht back That&039;s i to under two hundred, I realized that Bad Bob was trying to make a connection with me, not just ruin my afternoon Had he ever done this before? Probably, but the stories of Bad Bob that play well are the confrontations, not the conciliations Nobody would buy me a drink to hear that Bad Bob patted ood

"I&039;ve been looking for somebody with steady nerves," he said "Special project You interested?"

There was only one sane answer "No offense, sir, but no I&039;m not"

"No?" He seemed honestly puzzled "Why the hell not?"

"Because you&039;d crush h an afternoon with you staring down ht hours of it a day"