Echols, Jennifer Read Online Free PDF Page A

into the cell, my heart pounding. I felt myself begin to panic. I whirled to face him and reached out with one hand to his shoulder. I didn't know what I was doing. I was just trying desperately to connect with him, like a friend, anything.
    He started back. "Never touch me while I'm in uniform!" he shouted. The blush crept back into his white face. As if I were trying to come on to him and lead him astray from his wife and fourteen kids and storage shed, shiny and new from the Sears catalog.
    "Okay," I whispered. I cradled the offending hand in the other hand and faced the far cement-block wall. The metal bars slid shut behind me with a clang. I tried to slow down my breathing. Red lights blinked behind my eyes, which was not a good sign. "Can you leave the door open a crack?"
    "No."
    "Can you leave it unlocked?"
    "No."
    "Can you put the key where I can reach it?" "Like on Andy Griffith? That defeats the purpose of jail."
    "Right." He was about to walk away. He was about to saunter back down the hall and leave me in this cell with two bunks secured to the wall with metal brackets, one metal toilet, and Hannibal Lecter next door. I couldn't slow down my breathing, and I could hardly see past the red blinking lights.
    "Meg."
    Creepy, this cop. "How do you know my name?"
    "I'm well acquainted with your driver's license. I've pulled you over twice in the past few months for riding your motorcycle without a helmet."
    Oh yeah. Now I vaguely remembered this asshole. But —and it was amazing that my brain could process this in its current state—my driver's license listed my name as Margaret, not Meg. Somehow he knew I was Meg and not one of the other nicknames for Margaret, all of which I’d been called by my elderly relatives when I was little. "How do you know I'm not Maggie?" I asked the cement block wall. "Peg? Margot? Of course, Margot has always reminded me of a fungus." I was panting. "Meg, look at me."
    I began to turn. As I shifted my head, the darkness closed in. The cop appeared through the bars at the end of a long tunnel that collapsed as I watched.
    *
    My skin shrank against my bones. I could feel myself shrinking and floating up.
    *
    One more nose full of ammonia and I knocked the smelling salts away with my hand. The cold of Lois's metal desktop soaked through to my shoulder blades. I turned away from the close-up of her Rolodex and faced the cop's belt buckle. He pressed two fingers to the inside of my wrist and looked at his watch, checking my pulse.
    I reviewed what must have happened. I fainted on the floor of the jail cell. Ew. And the cop picked me up in his big strong arms and carried me here.
    Ew?
    "She's faking," the cop said, hating me with his dark eyes. "She made herself pass out by hyperventilating." Yes, ew.
    "It doesn't matter whether she's faking or not," Lois called from somewhere across the room. "Most high school girls would get upset if you threw them in the pen with a bunch of men."
    "There were no men in the cell with her."
    "Would you give it a rest, After?" Lois said.
    "Better yet," I said weakly, "give it a rest right now."
    The cop removed his fingers from my wrist. "Do you have any medical conditions we should know about?" he asked me in his Official Capacity.
    "Do I? What year is this?" I remembered running five miles that morning. "No, not today." I sat up slowly on the desk.
    "Here, sweetie." Lois handed me a Sprite. I popped the top with tingling fingers and took one gulp.
    "Drink faster," the cop said. "You can't have food or beverage in the cell."
    "You are not going to put her back in there," Lois said in disbelief.
    "Lois, I didn't pick her up for jaywalking. You're going to let her spend the night sipping Sprite and watching
    TV?"
    "The other three are spending the night at home with their mamas, in bed."
    They stared each other down for a few seconds. "Shouldn't you be on patrol?" Lois hinted.
    The cop cussed, stalked across the room, and flung open the door. This time an even