It was going to be our first night in the house. I wondered what would happen next. Surely Mrs. Penn and the officer wouldn’t stay much later. It wasn’t dark yet, but it would be soon. We’d only been inside for a few minutes, the boys speedily returning to their wheeled toys, when Mrs. Penn brought up that exact subject.
“Shama, are you going to be okay here all alone?” she asked, her face wrinkled in worry.
“I’ve been alone . . .” I started to say, most of my life, but I didn’t want to leak any more of my sad history. “I’ve been alone a lot,” I ended up saying. “Frey and I were camping out in the woods by ourselves. Of course, he won’t be sleeping beside me, which will be weird.”
That thought must have made me pale because Officer Krugle stepped in. “I’ll stay with her,” he said.
Both Mrs. Penn and I gasped.
“You certainly will not,” she said. “Don’t you realize how that would seem?”
“I’m a policeman,” the officer said, as if that alone covered all morality issues. He shrugged and shook his head as if we were the ones who were responsible for such silliness.
“I’ll be fine,” I told them, although I was feeling even more uncertain because I’d inadvertently landed myself in an unfamiliar house, amid a town full of strangers who might possibly be better rock throwers than the villagers.
“I don’t get scared easily, and the boys are here,” I said as much to reassure myself as Mrs. Penn and the officer. “And Frey is just outside. He’d bugle if something was amiss.”
Mrs. Penn’s face was still stormy as she glared at the man who’d basically intruded all day. (Well, except for when we went down into what could have been a spooky basement and especially, when we journeyed up into the attic that might have been roach and rat invested. It was nice to have been accompanied by someone when I confronted the dark unknown.)
“All right, then, Shama. Boys, it’s time for bed. You two behave yourself for Shama. I’ll see you all at breakfast, okay?” Mrs. Penn said, turning back to me again as if asking if that was okay.
I nodded, although it didn’t seem like Mrs. Penn needed permission. Yet, it was nice to think that she’d be returning. For some reason, I found her company companionable.
Mrs. Penn took the officer’s arm and led him to the front door. “Sweet dreams, Shama,” she said, then marched Officer Krugle out the door as if she thought he might suddenly back away and demand that he should stay.