day sitting out here in the heat. Is Jeffrey in some kind of trouble? Jeffrey wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
He adjusted the radio on his vest, pointed at our license plate and said, “The owner of this car, is not a Jeffrey, but Austin Masters. I’d like to see your id, miss.” He opened his hand, waiting for me to give it to him.
“My id?” I shrugged. “Like my Catholic Girls’ Choir picture id?”
“No. I want a driver’s license.”
“My Mama don’t let me drive ‘cuz they say I’m too clumsy and I’d just wreck my Mama’s car even if she tried to teach me. I do have my choir id with me. I never leave the house without my choir id. Can I give you that?”
He shook his head. “What’s your name, darlin’?”
I looked around. “Me? Mama calls me June, because she says I remind her of June bugs. The way they fly free without a care in the world.” I showed the way the bugs fly with my arms and I giggled.
“No, what is your birth name?”
“Birth name? What does that mean?”
“What. Does. It. Say. On. Your. Birth. Certificate?”
I clapped my hands together in joy. “It says Jeffrey. It’s written in red right on top of mine. Mama keeps it right underneath the rifles in a frame. Well, it used to be in a frame, until Jeffrey did what he did. That was a funny day because he—”
The officer leaned down so close to me our noses almost touched. “What. Is. Your. Name?”
“— told me to bring lipstick for him. But I didn’t know what for… Well, Mama calls me June and Papa calls me Sweet Pea, but I call myself Squirt. Because I like to shoot water pistols with the boys.” I made squirt noises with my mouth while pretending my hands were water pistols.
I could see he got more frustrated the longer the conversation continued. “Fine! Show me that choir id.”
“I’d love to show it to you,” I started going through my pockets, as if I expected to find it somewhere. I turned my pockets inside out and each time I was disappointed when it wasn’t there. While searching my pockets, I accidentally brushed against my tits with my arm and noticed the expression on the officer’s face change: he frowned each time I touched my tits with my arms.
Ah, so that’s how I got him to go away.
“I know it has to be on me,” I said, “I always hide things in my clothes next to my skin.” I stopped and pointed a finger up at the sky. “I know it. It has to be in one of my private places.” I was about to place my hand underneath my bra when I heard him speak.
“No. No. Don’t do that. Did you say he went that way?” he said, pointing the way we had driven. Drips of sweat dropped from his forehead down his chin and he wiped them off.
“Yes. He walked with ants up his butt!” I chuckled.
He walked back to the patrol car and sped away in the wrong direction.
Not bad for a little sister.
***
I woke up to the sound of knocking and opened my eyes to see someone blocking the sun. My legs hung outside the car window in the summer breeze and I wiggled my toes to bring some life back into my feet. “I’m not home. Come back another time.” I put my head back on the seat and closed my eyes. The warm car seat invited me back to my dreams I had had about meeting the man I’d been talking to for months online.
A sudden flood of cold water hit my toes and I jumped up. “You want us to get moving now, dear sister?” Austin said. He grinned and his white smile shone next to his dirty, sand covered face.
“You could have washed your face at least,” I said. “You look like a dirty cowboy.”
“I like that. Yes. Could you call me dirty cowboy from now on?” he said, splashing the water on his naked torso, causing the water to glimmer on his toned body in the bright sunshine.
“In case you are interested, a cop came looking for you,” I looked at my phone, “an hour ago.”
He stopped splashing the water. “What did he want?”
“He was looking for your sorry ass because of