The yellow shirt was cheap but it wasn't old. The coat was older, the one draped over Julia's lap but she wore Walmart yellow and old primrose sneakers with a comfort that belied the quiet and patient shadow of tomorrows chasing her from the corner. Walmart yellow felt like cheating, Julia who pushed strands of bramble-tangle blond hair back behind her ear and cupped her chin with her hand and listened to the dropped-pitch sound of the woman's voice.
The bed and breakfast. There were people who walked the woods looking for wolves who talked about the breakfast. Julia heard them from the nest of white bedclothes in the cupola of the trailer. She listened to the woman with the empty glass and her eyes watched the catch of her smile crumple.
"Is it a good watch or a bad watch?" Julia knew watching. She knew people who waited in corners and who paid attention unobtrusively until you felt hounded just walking a corridor late at night. "I like the woods. There's no one in the woods most of the time. And the neighborhood looks incredibly normal."