“I‘m not coming with you. Go away. Leave me alone.”
“I gotta get out of here,” Lula said. “There‘s something in here making my nose twitch.”
“Go out to the car. I‘ll be there in a minute.”
“You sure you don‘t need me?” Lula asked.
“I‘m sure!”
Bollo went back to sorting tomatoes.
“Listen up,” I said to him. “You are required by law to return to the court, and I‘m authorized to use force if necessary.”
“Oh yeah? Force this,” he said.
And he hit me square in the forehead with a tomato. I turned and SPLAT—I took another in the back of the head. By the time I reached the door, I‘d taken at least three more tomatoes.
“Uh-?oh,” a Connie clone said when I staggered into the office. “Looks like you pissed Gordo off. That man could use some anger management.”
“I‘ll be back,” I told her. “How late does he work?”
“He‘ll be here until four.”
I left the office and settled myself behind the wheel of the Jeep.
“What the Sam Hill happened to you?” Lula wanted to know.
“Bollo needs anger management.”
“I‘d go shoot him or something for you, but I‘m waiting on Miss Gloria.”
I wheeled out of the lot, turned onto Broad, and Miss Gloria called Lula back.
“Yeah?” Lula said to Miss Gloria. “Un-?hunh, un-?hunh, un-?hunh.”
“Well?” I asked her when she disconnected.
“It‘s my moons. Miss Gloria ran my numbers, and they didn‘t look so good, so then she did my chart, and it turns out my moons are all screwed up.”
“So?”
“I just gotta wait it out. She said I need to be extra careful during this time and not make any big decisions on account of they could be life changing and I could decide the wrong thing.”
“Because of your moons?”
“Yeah, and we‘re on the cusp of something right now, but cell reception wasn‘t good, so I didn‘t get it all.”
I parked curbside at the office and followed Lula through the front door.
“Omigod,” Connie said. “What happened? Is that blood?”
“Tomatoes.”
“Gordo Bollo had issues with takin‘ a ride with us,” Lula said.
“I need cuffs and pepper spray and a stun gun,” I told Connie.
“You haven‘t got any?”