Free The Big Chili by Julia Buckley Page B

should “never darken my door again.” Henry learned fast.
    Jenny snapped her fingers at me. “Hurry up; let’s solve your problem before he comes back. And then we can talk about our latest crushes. I am assuming you must have one, even though Angelo ruined you for love.”
    â€œFine. Solve my problem.”
    â€œWhy not just send the cops an e-mail? Just word it carefully and apologize and say that it was a delicate situation.” She brushed a stray red hair out of her face; her green eyes held no irony.
    â€œThat seems weird, though, like I’m avoiding a face-to-face meeting. Like I’m hiding something. You should see the looks on their faces when they ask you questions, Jenn. It’s disconcerting, even for innocent people.”
    â€œProbably
only
for innocent people. If you have enough gall to murder someone, I’m guessing you’re not bothered by a few questions. Ugh. These look gross. But they’ll taste good, don’t worry.” She started putting the hot dogs into buns.
    â€œAnd the thing is, the longer I wait, the harder it gets to do anything, because every day that goes by is another day I waited to tell them, which will also look weird.”
    She nodded. “I see your point. And what if coming forward starts to make you look suspicious? Like you crave attention or something? Don’t criminals do that?”
    â€œI don’t know what criminals do. I just want this to be over so I can go back to my life.”
    â€œI’m with you. I would be freaked out to watch someone just drop dead in front of me.”
    We left things unresolved and joined Henry with our platesof dogs and fries. As Jenny predicted, they tasted good, despite the grease and salt. It was comfort food, which had been our specialty in college, the land of pizza and chocolate chip cookies.
    While we ate I gazed at Henry’s action guys, whom he had left knee-deep in Play-Doh. They were frozen there, trapped until Henry decided to set them free. What amazing power children had, simply because of their imaginations. I felt imprisoned in a way similar to the plastic Batman: frozen with indecision and trapped by the choices I had already made.
    Later, Jenny and I did the dishes while Henry played. She confided that she had liked a man at work and had dated him several times, but had recently broken it off. “Can you imagine?” she asked. “He asked me out, paid all this attention to me, took me out on dates, but never mentioned that he was married. I had to hear that from a coworker. It was more than embarrassing.”
    â€œWhat a jerk! Can’t you get fired for something like that? Him, I mean—not you.”
    â€œI don’t know. He’s actually one of the administrators, which makes it worse.”
    â€œUgh. I hope people realize that you had no idea.”
    Jenny nodded. “Some of my friends passed the word. But still. I turn red whenever someone looks at me. Thank God I didn’t sleep with the man.”
    She sighed, putting away the last dried dish. “Henry never did bring my yarn, and I need to start making snowflakes for our Christmas show.”
    â€œIt’s October.”
    â€œYeah, which means Christmas is around the corner forteachers. We plan in advance, Li. These darn things take a long time to make, but they’re really pretty, and the kids love to see them.” Her face warmed at the idea of happy children.
    â€œGreat. So you’ll be holed up in here making snowflakes by hand, and I’ll be lying low, hiding from the police and making secret food for people. Maybe we
both
have agoraphobia.”
    She laughed. “We’re not in college anymore. Maybe your parents just don’t realize that we can act like adults. Henry!”
    He appeared, a toy in each hand. “What?”
    â€œRemember the other thing I needed from my closet?”
    â€œAh!” He darted away again in his warp-speed