The pill gleams like a sapphire, pinched between my thumb and forefinger.  I wish I still had the package to prove it’s completely legal! I glance in the rear view and a man is getting out - oh god - which sends my jumpy heart skiddering. And he’s approaching my car. Legal scmegal. I tap the control for the passenger window and before it slides down completely, toss my pill which bounces off the not quite open glass and disappears somewhere inside the car.

My heart pounds so hard I can hear it in my ears. A plainclothes cop and he’s going to arrest me! I lift my sunglasses and check my face the mirror.  I look terrible! My face is somehow pale and blotchy at the same time. I’m crying rivets of black mascara. I didn’t do anything wrong. It has to be some kind of a problem with my license plate or something. Oh no, is it possible a bank agent discovered I’ve been tinkering around with money from the school trip fund? If only my internet was working at home I would have transferred the money and made the deposit already. How could the bank find out so fast?

He’s next to my car and knocks on the window. I try to arrange my face to some semblance of normal before I slide the window open.

 Mrs. Wendy Katz?”

Oh my god! Not just some random car thing, he knows my name!  It’s hard to see his face with the piercing sunlight. “Yes, yes, I’m Wendy Katz. The diet pills are legal, I swear. I’d show you the package but I left it home!”

 The man is wearing sunglasses and chewing gum.  He stops chewing. “Pills? Can you step out of the car for me?”

No, I don’t want to! It has to be the deposit money and he’s going to handcuff me right here in the parking lot. Then I lift my sunglasses and realize….

Wait a second. I know this guy. The man from the computer store? 

“I know you. I’m hallucinating,” I say out loud. “You bought my laptop.”

“Sorry for the mystery,” he says. “We need to talk. It’s very important.”