Chapter 14: Window Three

On Monday I was at window three at five minutes to nine.

Darius had slept on my couch for three nights with his feet hanging over the arm.

He had walked me to the courthouse steps and stopped there, because I had told him to.

Everyone at the counter already knew.

The girl who had shown me the photograph came to my elbow.

"Switch with me," she said. "I'll take three."

"No."

"Nadine. He'll come to your window on purpose."

"If I move, he picked my window for me," I said. "I'm staying."

At nine-fifteen the front doors opened, and the line shifted.

Luka walked in wearing a navy jacket.

The ankle monitor made a hard small lump under his trouser leg.

He took a paper number from the machine and sat down on the bench to wait.

He did not look at my window.

He looked at the ceiling and at the clock, a man with all day.

I stamped a marriage license.

I stamped two deeds and a dog tag renewal.

My hands were steady, and I watched them be steady.

"Forty-one," the machine said.

Luka stood.

He crossed the floor with the paper in his fingers, and the whole room went quiet one person at a time.

He stopped at the glass.

"Good morning," he said.

"Address form," I said. "Sign on the line."

"You haven't changed."

"The form, sir."

He signed.

He pushed it under the glass with two fingers, and I stamped it, and I did not touch his hand.

"Fourteen Orchard Hill Road," he said. "Main house. In case you want to send flowers."

I pressed the button under the counter.

A county deputy came out from the back and stood at the end of the glass with his thumbs in his belt.

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