Free No Ordinary Day by Polly Becks

the ignition again.
    The car coughed, then fell into silent clicking once more.
    The cursing hadn’t helped, so instead she thought of her grandmother Maeve. She took the rosary that hung from the rearview mirror in her hand and uttered the prayers she had heard the old woman say in difficult situations.
    The car did not care.
    Frustrated and tired, Lucy pounded on the steering wheel, then put her head down on it.
    One or two more swear words dribbled out.
    A tapping on the driver’s side window next to her made her lift her head so fast that she bumped her chin on the wheel.
    She swiveled in shock and stared out the window.
    A face beneath a military beret was looking back at her beneath tiny waterfalls streaming off the soft edge of the hat.
    It seemed to be a handsome face up close, with dark, riveting eyes, fringed with thick lashes, and a mouth that appeared sensuous, though it was hard to tell through the beads of rain on the window.
    Lucy pushed the button on the door handle.
    The window ignored her just as the engine had.
    Annoyed, Lucy took hold of the door handle and opened the door slightly.
    “What do you want?” she demanded, trying to avoid the rain that was now whipping into her car in the cold wind.
    The dark eyes blinked.
    “Do you need help?” Sergeant Evans’ voice was flat, absent the humor that had been in it during his presentation.
    “I do—but I don’t want to drown, so I think I will call AAA, thank you.”
    Thick brown brows over the deep, dark eyes drew together, and the heavily-lashed lids of the eyes themselves blinked again.
    “Sounds like you need a jump. I have cables.”
    “Again, thank you, but no, thank you.” Lucy closed the door again, locking it manually.
    The face disappeared from the window, replaced by the back of a dark regulation raincoat with long pleats in it as the soldier turned away. Lucy took the opportunity to fumble in her purse, searching for her AAA card.
    Only to jump when the face appeared at her window again, followed by another polite rap.
    “What do you want?” she demanded through the window in the closed and locked door.
    The voice that responded was muffled by the rain and the door.
    “Look, I can get you going and out of here in five minutes if you’ll just—”
    “I—do—not—trust—you,” Lucy said loudly with exaggerated slowness through the car window.
    Sergeant Evans pulled his head back in surprise. “Why?”
    Lucy unlocked the car door and cracked it open again.
    “Because you just gave aid and comfort to the enemy, Sergeant,” she said hostilely. “What you and the Army Corps of Engineers fail to understand is that most of the West Obergrande folk would like to see the working side of town systematically drowned, not because they are worried about our fate in a flood, but because they find our side of town ‘unsightly,’ all those nasty factories and mills where middle-income people work, all the lower-end housing where we live, where our children go to school, along with theirs from the west side.
    “If they drown the school, they can rebuild it in West Obergrande, in their own neighborhood, and make it ‘prettier,’ as that one stupid woman said tonight that started the biggest fight, I believe. When a large part of our side of town is swallowed by the lake and the Hudson River, their property values will go up—most of them will have lakefront property. The rest of us, of course, would be screwed. And you just gave them valuable ammunition to do it. So, while I appreciate your kind offer, I’m going to have to turn it down, because I know where I stand, and whom I can, and cannot, trust. Thank you sincerely for your service to our nation as a National Guardsman, but you can move along now.”
    She closed the door, her left side wet with rain, and went back to her search for the roadside-assistance card.
    Ace Evans stared, straight-faced, through the window for a moment while she turned her purse upside down angrily and