Chapter Fifty-Four

As I was backing out of the parking lot, I could have sworn my headlights passed over the back end of Joe's Mercedes parked at the edge of the restaurant.

"No, couldn't have been," I said, deciding the heavy rain and darkness made it near impossible to identify much of anything with complete accuracy, let alone the back of a car I barely got a glimpse of.

Mitch headed south and I headed east toward home. I had the wipers on high, but it was still difficult to see very well. So I kept my speed down.

It was less than a mile to the road I wanted to turn onto. I reached for my turn signal and glanced up in the rear-view mirror to make sure nothing was going to slam into the back of me when I slowed to a stop, while I waited for the eighteen-wheeler to pass next to me before I crossed over into his lane to make the turn off.

The second time I glanced up in the mirror, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something move in the backseat. This creepy sensation swept over me; then it struck again, only it tiptoed down inside of me and stayed there.

I wanted to look over my shoulder. No, that's incorrect. I thought I should look over my shoulder, but was momentarily too afraid. Once I made the turn, though, and had the wheel straightened out, I did start to look. I almost laughed too, for giving myself such a scare.

I was tilting my head around when, "Boo," shot up at me from behind.

I screamed and lost my grip on the wheel. The car swerved into the opposite lane. Luckily nothing was coming.

"Easy there, Fay," the haunting voice warned.

My fingers reconciled with the steering wheel and immediately stuck fast. The car was jerking because my right foot jumped on and off the gas pedal.

"Calm, Fay. We don t want a have us an accident on a night like this, now do we?"

I wasn't sure anything would come out when I attempted to speak, but I gave it a try anyway.

"What do you want, Angel?"

"Slow down, Fay. We don't want to miss your driveway either, now do we?"

I ordered my foot to ease off the accelerator so I could make the turn okay without knocking over my mailbox.

"Push the garage button, Fay," I was instructed as if I was a pre-school-aged child.

I wanted to scream, I don't need a lesson on how to get into my own garage. The only lesson I needed was a refresher course on why when we leave our vehicle we lock our doors.

There was a moment there, as I maneuvered the Lincoln into the garage, which is large enough to park two large cars, when I thought I might smash into the junk piled along the east wall. I reluctantly reached up to the visor and hit the button on the remote a second time to close the door. To lock the two of us inside. This was done because I didn't want to be given instructions again.

Then the car was shifted into park. The ignition turned off. And I was about to twist around in my seat to repeat my earlier question of what she wanted.

I wasn't given the chance. Something shot over my head and wrapped around my throat. I was being choked. On impulse, my hands flew to my throat to try and free myself.

"Let go, Fay, and I will."

I had to take her word for it she would keep her promise. Because if I didn't, I had a strong hunch she was going to win the struggle here. My fingers slid down to my chest, and Angel released the pressure. I coughed. And I coughed some more before I could finally breathe properly again.

Then I heard the door behind me open. I couldn't look around to see if Angel was stepping outside though. She still had what felt like a pair of panty hose wrapped around my neck, and drawn tight. At least I now understood why a man would complain about wearing a tie for any length of time.

Then I thought about Ethel. Is this how it happened with her?

Angel had stepped outside, because when I was ordered to get out of the car slowly, her voice came at me from the outside. And the panty hose had pulled slightly to the left and upward.

I worked my way out of the front seat. Then I gained knowledge of what a canine experiences as his master jerks him around by the choker chain.