How is it Wednesday again already? I will try my hardest to remember to put up an excerpt each week from now on. In keeping with that, here’s a scene that follows hard on the scene from last week. In it, Harry meets a stranger who seems kind of familiar and who gives him some good advice.

She was out the door before I fully realized she was leaving. I ran my hands through my hair for a few seconds, my head spinning. Taking a deep breath, I tried to decide whether to go after her or stay and wait for word about Otis.

“You’re going after her, aren’t you?”

I’d completely forgotten about the old man in the opposite corner. “She said she needed time to think. And she’s probably gone by now anyway.”

“Nope. She got in her car and she’s still sitting there. I can see her from here. Now get out there.”

That was all I needed to hear. It seemed like a sign from God, or at least I was planning to take it as one until Dee saw me coming, threw her car into gear and backed out of her parking space. I swerved left to try to stop her from exiting, but then thought better of it. For one, she clearly didn’t want to see me. And for two, I wasn’t even really fast for a runner, but especially not in comparison to a car. She was out of the lot and headed for the next intersection before I could even get to the exit. Not knowing what else to do, I trudged back into the ER waiting room.

“She didn’t wait on you?”

I glowered at the old man. “No. No, she didn’t.”

“I can’t believe it. In every Hallmark movie I ever saw, she would’ve waited.”

I collapsed into the chair I’d been in originally and hung my head. “Well, this is no Hallmark movie, is it?”

The guy stood with some effort. He seemed to have a bad knee. It was hard for me to guess his age. Up close he seemed younger than the white of his beard suggested. His ruddy complexion and the turned-up corners of his mouth made him seem like he would make a good Santa. Settling slowly into the seat that had been Dee’s, he was silent for maybe thirty seconds.

“Well, come to think of it, maybe this is the part just before the ending where there’s a big misunderstanding and it looks like they’ll never figure it out. But we all know they do.”

I shook my head and laughed in spite of myself. “I hope you’re right.”

He cleared his throat. “You a cop?”

“Private.”

“A private eye. My cousin’s one of those. But she doesn’t pack heat. I don’t remember her ever telling about anything more exciting than sitting in a car taking pictures of philandering spouses.”

“I do that stuff too, though I hate it. I tend to attract cases with a little more danger involved. Funny thing is, this case was a simple missing person, an embezzling business partner. But it’s managed to get me and my best friend both shot.”

“Your friend ok?”

“Will be.”

He rubbed the stubbly hair of his goatee with his left hand. “You love her?”

“Beyond words.”

“She love you?”

I leaned back in my seat, contemplatively stared at a water stain on the ceiling, and heaved a sigh. “Yeah, yeah she does. God made us to go together. She knows that. Just hope she remembers.”

Just then, the doors opened and two men and a woman, all looking tired, shuffled in. The tallest of the men, obviously the oldest and unmistakably a brother to my new friend, approached. “Any news?”

He rose. “Not yet. They said they’d let one of us go back after she gets back from the MRI.” The other two looked around at the nearly empty waiting room. “I’m over there.” He pointed at the corner he’d been in. There was a red insulated tumbler and a book on the table beside his chair. As what I guessed were his siblings moved toward his seat, he turned to me. “If you love each other and God’s in the center, she’ll be back.”

I reached out my hand. “Thanks.”

He shook it. “You’re welcome. I’m Joe, by the way.”

“Harry.”

“Pleased to meet you, Harry. I’ll say a prayer for you.”