The door chime sounded again through Nia's phone. Leonie sat on the market bench with one hand covering her free ear. Nia had asked the store worker to call for help too. Someone behind the counter was speaking in a steady voice; Leonie could not make out every word.
“I asked him to stop before we got here,” Nia said. “He wouldn't. He needed fuel, so he pulled in. I took my bag and came inside.”
“I have told the responders the store,” Leonie said. “Can you stay by the counter?”
“I'm here.”
Leonie heard Nia turn from the phone. “Can I wait beside your counter?” she asked the worker. “My father is outside. I told him I don't want to ride with him anymore.”
The worker said yes and gave the store's road name to someone else on his own phone. He asked Nia whether she wanted the rear office or the open counter. “Here,” Nia said. “I want someone to see me.”
The worker put a paper cup of water on the counter. Cal's car door shut outside. Nia took a breath close to the phone.
“Do you want me to tell him to go?” the worker asked.
“Ask him to stay outside,” Nia said. “I want to be able to speak to the people coming without him answering first.”
The worker repeated that request to someone beyond the doorway. Leonie could not see whether Cal complied. She heard a customer ask for change and the drawer open.
Cal's voice rose in the background. “Nia, we can talk in the car. I brought you here so you could read.”
Nia moved the phone away for a moment. Leonie heard her answer clearly. “I read in the car. I asked you to stop. I'm not getting back in.”
The worker asked Cal to give her space. Leonie heard the chime and kept the line open.
“He says I'm making him look dangerous,” Nia told her.
“What do you want me to pass to the responder?”
“That I asked to get out when he passed the turn. He told me we'd talk at his place. I didn't agree to his place. I got out when he stopped for fuel. I have the letters.”
Leonie repeated those words into her second phone call with the shore contact. The contact confirmed a response vehicle was near. Leonie told Nia, “They have your account and are close.”
Cal was audible again, closer to Nia's phone. “I stopped. You are out. What more do you want me to do?”
Nia said, “Stop asking me back into the car.”
“I drove you for the letters you wanted.”
“I know why I got in. I also know when I asked to get out.”
“You got the papers,” Cal said. “You hardly looked up after that. I thought if I stopped at the first address, you'd leave before we had the talk.”
“So you changed the address while I was in your car.”
“I was taking you somewhere we could finish. I didn't think you would get out on the road.”
“I asked you to stop. You could have pulled into the next public place. You kept driving past those too.”
Leonie heard Cal start to answer, then the worker said, “Sir, please speak from outside. She has asked to wait here.” He did not put a hand on Cal or turn the exchange into a fight. He stood beside the counter with Nia in view.
Cal lowered his voice. Leonie caught only, “You know I wouldn't leave you at the roadside.”
Nia raised hers so the worker could hear. “I didn't ask to be left on the roadside. I asked you to stop where I could get out. I would have called for a ride. You didn't give me that choice.”
Leonie kept the phone open.
Cal's next words came through the phone less clearly. Leonie caught your aunt and dinner. Nia answered at full voice. “I don't want to go to another house. I'm staying here until the people I called arrive.”
“Do you know what they'll think of me?” Cal asked.
“I told them what happened.”
“Nia, I kept the letters because I thought I could spare you another leaving. Maybe I was wrong. I gave them to you. Can't we finish one conversation before strangers take it over?”
There was a pause. The worker did not fill it. Leonie heard a small scrape as Nia moved the phone against the counter.
“We were going to talk at the address you wrote,” Nia said. “You drove past it. I asked you to stop then. You had a road and time to change your mind. I am not going back to a car to find out whether you'll listen this time.”
The chime sounded. Nia asked the worker, “Can he wait outside?” The worker said he could ask Cal to move away from the counter. Cal objected, then the bell sounded again as the door opened. Leonie heard the worker give the store address a second time over his own phone.
Leonie gripped the edge of the bench. She held the line open.
The worker came onto the line briefly. “She's with me at the counter,” he said. “Help is coming. He's outside by the pumps now.”
“Thank you,” Leonie said to the worker.
“Just stay on,” Nia said as he handed back the phone. “Until they come.”
Leonie moved the phone to her other ear. She could hear the refrigerator behind the worker and traffic beyond the store's open door.
Nia breathed near the receiver. “I didn't lose the folder. I thought I might when I stood up.”
“Did he try to take it?” Leonie asked.
“No. I had the folder open on my knees to read. When he stopped for fuel, I got out and left it on the seat. I went back for it while he was filling the tank. He called my name. I didn't answer until I was inside.”
“You have it.”
“I only read the first two.” Nia gave a short laugh that caught in her throat. “I still have all the rest.”
Leonie heard a vehicle outside and did not announce what it was. A new voice entered the store, identified itself to Nia, and asked to speak with her away from Cal. Nia said yes. She told Leonie she was going with the responder and would call again when she could. Leonie asked whether she wanted the line kept open until they reached the other room. Nia said yes. Leonie heard footsteps, the chime, and a second voice telling Cal to remain by the pumps.
Before the line ended, the responder asked Nia whether she wanted the room door closed while she gave her account. “Yes,” Nia said. “I want to say it once without him correcting the address.”
“All right. Keep your bag and your phone with you. We'll speak to him separately.”
Nia drew a breath near the receiver. “I agreed to one talk at the place he wrote down. He gave me the letters in the car. Then he drove past the turn. I asked him to stop, and he didn't.”
The responder said they would take the account in order. Nia came back to the phone. “I'm in a different room. You can hang up.”
Leonie ended the call. She sent a short account of what she had heard at the store and rang Ada.
“She's safe enough to give her own account,” Ada said.
Leonie looked at the darkening square. “She gave it before they arrived.”
Leonie put the phone in her coat pocket. The market square was almost empty. She walked toward the curb to meet the next bus, keeping her hand on the pocket in case Nia called again.