Renegade Sightings

The Renegade, he’s been missing for a while. Well we haven’t heard from him, at least.

We first sight him in the distance, standing out in a soggy field where some kids are kicking a ball around. It’s reckless of him, we think, standing out in the middle of commotion, swirling dirt and spit and limbs. Nice hustle, we hear him shout. What is he, some kind of soccer coach?

Our sandals are squishing uncomfortably, getting muck between our toes and up our calves, as we try to find the path of least sink. And the Renegade, he looks so calm. It’s a wonder he left no prints, in those boots.

The second time we see the Renegade, he’s at Giant buying bananas and frozen pizza. We know because we get in line behind him and watch him check out. He smiles, and we don’t know what to say exactly, we are still trying to figure it out when he picks up his bags and turns to us, behind him, says, Here, and hands us the printout coupons off his receipt. $1 off Ziplock bags- in our cart. Hey thanks! (More enthusiastic than necessary). No problem. We can see Daisy through the glass, outside the store. She waves, surely at the Renegade. When we get outside, they are gone. We buy lemonade from girl scouts who are camped under the strip mall awning.

In the night, there is racing up and down the streets, and sirens and yelling outside our window. In the moment before we get up, we imagine the scene. The Renegade must already be there. He must be rolling up, sorting things out. Like Batman, a vigilante, we romanticize him in our half-sleep.

We walk to the window, look down into the sidewalk. Voices are raised, angry, somewhere, and tires screech. There is nothing to see but red and blue strobe way down at the bottom of the hill. A cat looks up at us and streetlight or starlight is reflecting in its eyes, but we see embers. We look up and down for the tell-tale trail of cigarette smoke, look for a long time until the police car pulls away, so certain he was there. We never thought of going outside ourselves, just fall asleep to the sounds of distant chaos.

Daisy pulls up in the alley, breathless, and the Renegade jumps in without waiting for her to come to a stop. Hi Beautiful, the tires smoke, they disappear, and the night rushes back to fill in the space.