I sighed and went back to my car. After the way my morning had been going I shouldn't have been surprised when I found “BITCH” scrawled on my windshield in red lipstick. I had a pretty good idea whose lipstick it was, and I wasn’t going to take this from her. I drove over to Catalina Disposal, parked right in front of the office window and pressed the horn. Luke rushed outside and saw the scrawl on my windshield.
"You better talk to Raylene." I shouted, "This is getting out of hand and you need to do something."
Luke scratched his head, "Just a minute..." He ducked into the office and returned with a roll of paper towels and a spray bottle of glass cleaner. "I told her this was all a big mistake." He mumbled aloud as he scrubbed the crimson "B" off my windshield. "She is hot. I mean drop-dead gorgeous..."
"Luke! How can you even say that?"
"...and way too young. Where's your sense of humor?"
"Well, it's not funny. I'm scared what she might do next. Obviously, your message didn't get through to her. Talk to her again or talk to her parents."
While he scrubbed the "IT" off the glass he commented, "Yeah, her parents... that could be a problem. You see they're divorced, her dad's in jail for assault."
"What about her mom?"
He just shrugged after he wiped the "CH" off.
"Who knows?" He sprayed some of the cleaner on his hands and wiped off the red stains. "I gotta get back to work, but I promise I'll talk to her and Pinkie today."
Avalon, I've learned, is a small town. Even if it's only about thirty miles from the second largest city in America, but small town it is and news travels fast. I'm sure most of the people here saw the big red letters on my windshield. This wasn't one of my better days since I've been here. I dropped the mail on the table, poured a glass of lemonade and went onto the patio where I closed my eyes and took in a big cleansing breath.
My eyes popped open when I heard Luke's truck coming up the road. What was I going to say?
“Hey," He began, "I was just talking to...”
“So what are you going to do about it?” I was firm with my arms crossed.
He stood there looking at me, “Well, I don’t know, I thought I’d check to see if there is anything I could do.”
“You wanted to check to see if there is anything you could do? Well that’s stupid, it’s your problem bleeding over onto me.”
“How is this my problem?”
“Don’t be self-righteous with me, Mr. Luke Garrett. I have nothing to do with it. I talked to Pinkie and she agrees it needs to be handled.”
