Page 3 of Monsters in the Museum

As suddenly as he had stopped, the man took off again at a breakneck speed. Nora was about to run after him once more when Odelle flew through the door behind her and grabbed her arm, halting her.

“Zolotse, are you crazy?” Odelle’s voice was breathless, too, but Nora hardly registered it as she watched the lanky figure disappear around the corner and into the night.

Odelle stepped in front of her, grabbing her attention.

“You just bolted away from me! What’s gotten into you?”

“The man… didn’t you see him?”

Odelle’s eyes narrowed, and she looked toward the end of the alley where Nora was gesturing. “A man?”

Nora nodded.

“Nora… I didn’t see anything.”

Nora’s mouth fell open.

“It was probably just too dark for you to make out, but I swear there was a man. He ran out here!”

Odelle shook the arm she was still holding, “And you ran after him? He could have had a gun… he could have hurt you!”

Nora had the sense to look contrite, “I didn’t even think of that.”

Odelle clapped a hand to her forehead. “Why am I not surprised by that answer? Come on, let’s go find the cops. Maybe they can still catch him.”

Nora did her best to give the police a description of the man, but she had only seen him from the back, and it had been dark. The officer listened to her story, but Nora got the distinct impression that he had pinned her as a frightened female whose nerves had gotten the better of her. The police informed her they would continue to monitor the area, but the monotone in which he said it convinced Nora that he was just repeating the approved party line for her benefit. He made a point of telling her before she left that she should, in fact, run away from imaginary burglars and not toward them. Odelle looked at her meaningfully, clearly intimating an I told you so, before dragging her off to hail a cab.

Odelle chattered during the short ride about how Nora owed her a proper night out and speculated aloud about the man she had met at the bar. Nora nodded along, too tired to protest, her mind replaying the moment in the back alley on repeat. It seemed impossible that she had imagined him, but Odelle was observant and it wasn’t like her to miss things. Still, the tense set of the man’s shoulders before he bolted seemed burned into the back of her eyelids. Nora told herself that her heart only hammered at the image from the adrenaline of the chase, but something in her was drawn to the stranger. She forced herself not to think about who the man might be or where she could find him as she fell into bed.