{#463. You’re in witness relocation when at your job for a grocery store in this faraway place, someone recognizes you}

My life isn’t stressful anymore. I don’t have to wonder who I’ll find on my couch at three o’clock in the morning, or check my backseat before getting in my car. I don’t have to thoroughly inspect seals on containers and examine my food before eating out in restaurants. I no longer have to avoid busy intersections or make excuses to always ride alone. I’m not forced to have a backup plan with alternate routes to get from point A to point B these days.

What I have is a home in Bear Lake, Idaho, nearly cut off from the world. I work a routine job at the local Stop-n-Sav just to fill some hours in my stretched out days. I could be anyone I wanted to be, but who I wanted to be was a hermit. And the government didn’t mind at all. They were thankful to have someone that wouldn’t cost a bundle and that wouldn’t be a headache. Bear Lake isn’t much of a tourist destination, and certainly wouldn’t be for the colleagues I had in my past life. They’re all the glitzy glam of Vegas or West Palm Beach. Here we have mountains, but not the pristine slopes you would find in Vail or Denver. We have the lake, but it’s hardly destination worthy. No, we’re mainly for families that find Yellowstone overwhelming and overpriced, or the couples who just desire a slower place for a week or two. We put on no airs, we make no production. Except for the Raspberry Festival in August every year, that is. I’ve been here four years now, and with each passing day I feel more like I’ve never lived anywhere else.

I belong to a quilting circle and a garden club, I volunteer at the Ladies’ Auxiliary in nearby Chester. I read to kids at the library once a month, and I deliver flowers from my gardens to the local nursing home in the summer. I feel that my life is full, and never stagnant, as my ex-husband would scoff and snort.

On this particular Thursday, I was decorating a child’s cake with the latest fad, unicorns all colors of the rainbow. I knew the icing would taste terrible, but I also knew the children wouldn’t care. I piped some electric blue onto one of their manes and looked up to see a woman of middle age flipping through the book on the counter. I peeled off my latex gloves and went to her.

When her eyes met mine, I knew the meaning of “my blood ran cold”. It had happened once before, when I put the man I thought I had loved behind bars for life. Maybe to death. I stopped following his trial the minute I set foot on the plane that would carry me as far from his iron-clad clutch as possible.

“Steff?” She asked, her eyes wide.

I had choices. My name was no longer Stefanie. I was no longer the bottle blond I had been since high school. But my accent would betray me, as my eyes already had. I wore readers with clear glass most of the time, but had been careless today. It wouldn’t have mattered. Here was the girl I had shared a locker with, had shared hairbrushes with, had shared secrets, men, and lies.

I could run. I could go out the back door, dropping my apron as I went. I could pretend I was a doppelganger, and didn’t know who she was. I could play it off like I had just happened to wind up in this two-bit town on a whim. Or I could learn what I could and pack and run tonight, if not sooner.

“Oh my God, how have you been?” I all but squealed, already resorting to my old method of interaction, running around the counter to give her a squeeze. I noticed she still had her nails done, and they were lacquered a blood red. Not a good sign. Not a good sign at all. I tried not to visibly shrink back. Also, too late, I thought to look around and see who she had with her. No doubt Bruce, her personal bodyguard, would be nearby.

“He’s in the car,” she assured me. “Steff…..what the hell?”

I begged her with my eyes. “Don’t ask. Life is so different. I just had to…”

And I fled.

No time for my purse. I hit the sequence of buttons on my watch that would signal Washington that I was in danger, and I took to the woods as fast as my legs would carry me. It would be two hours before they would be able to pick me up and I had better make damn certain nobody else could find me before then.