She didn’t want to argue, not now she needed to concentrate. “Well, someone has to pay attention to what’s going on,” she rejoined, but with a smile, a little duck of the head, telling them that she was on their side still and willing to take a bit of gentle ribbing. She hadn’t had the opportunities Abby had to grow jaded about nice boys with nice eyes, wearing nice clean baseball caps. It suddenly occurred to Abby, with forehead-smacking clarity, that it had been a long time since Martha had interacted with a man who wasn’t telling her what to do or when to go back to her cell or worse.

“Yeah, that’s what I think too.” Martha smiled harder. It doesn’t mean anything for regular people, anyway.” “Whenever we go on vacation she gets crabby because she’s away from the boob tube and the Internet.” Under the table Abby could tell that she was rubbing the spot on her leg where Abby had been pinching. “Oh, Abby is a news junkie,” Martha said lightly. Martha noticed her line of sight and smirked at her. Even people who claimed to ‘never watch TV.’ Especially people who ‘never watch TV.’ You couldn’t ignore movement and colors at the edge of your vision-humans weren’t built that way.

Even people who insisted they didn’t care a bit about the news would stop what they were doing and watch the flickering life on a screen. It was tuned to Fox, and though she couldn’t hear a word the blond anchor was saying, Abby could see the way the old men in their Carharts stared up at her. It was while watching the waitress disappear that Abby noticed the television above the counter. And by the time Abby had the argument in her head the waitress had taken Ryan’s order too, and was gone. The temptation to push her popped up out of nowhere but Abby pushed it away, annoyed with herself-one meal wasn’t worth it. Martha got the French toast and didn’t change her order even when Abby pinched her again. She should be happy.Ībby ordered an egg-white omelet, and then reconsidered and changed her order to a regular one. Ryan went from acting like nothing was wrong to really relaxing in short order. “What’s good?” Martha asked, and that spiraled into a discussion of the four kinds of sausage, the fifteen kinds of jam.

Abby smiled broadly at her until Ryan got the message and smiled too. Martha came back to the table a moment later, and didn’t seem to notice the change in mood. Abby felt a small part of his attention dart towards the door as though he was considering ditching them right then and there, but as she’d hoped, he was more scared of being rude than he was of a maybe-crazy girl. “She’s totally harmless,” Abby said, and reached out to pat his hand.

Ryan nodded, and glanced uncomfortably in the direction of the restrooms.

A Hawk in the Woods by Carrie Laben