North of Boston
THEY aint much happened sence the last riting. I am toasting the body at the fireplace when a Trooper Dangerous Dan McGrews through the door and bats the snow out of his fur hat.
He asts will I chaperone him while he lugs two runaway girls to the County Home. The female Deputy Sheriff is out of town, so he picks on me.
We start off with two very scared, cold and wet 17-year-olds out of Maine crying quietly in the back seat. Their particular little world has come apart on them like a cheap alarm clock. I try to extend some words of comfort and advice but get nowhere.
The road is a white carpet and the wind-driven snow laces back into the headlights. The radio talks about a three-car pile up around Portsmouth.
Then they is a tense whispering in back. The Trooper yells "Watch it," snaps on the big center light and we go into a skidding stop.
One of the girls has a big white pill going into her mouth. Dont stop to ask if it is an act with aspirin or the real McCoy. I reach back and handle her just like I would my Labrador when separating him from suthing he should not eat, only much faster.
We unload them at the County home. The matron says she will fit them to a warm bath, supper and bed.
On the way back, the Trooper talks to Concord. Pretty soon Concord says parents of said subjects have been contacted and will call for same tomorrow.
Stop at the mill pond and clean back seat and throw half a dozen pills onto the ice. So we never knowed if it was the real thing or just an act.
Ast the Trooper in and make coffee and sandwiches. The thermometer is two clapboards below zero and the wind and snow building up.
He thanks me as he buttons his jacket and sets the fur cap just so. "Funny thing those girls are off the cold road and safe from some fellers that would give them as much chance as a fox gives a rabbit and they hate us for it.
"If they got the brains the Good Lord give a goose they'll be thankful some day," I tell him. He grins and his tail lights wink out in the storm. I do wisht one of you fellers could of ridden with us that night. It was an affair that sticks quite a while in a man's mind.
