Falling

Twenty Five (Chase)

"Go! Go! Go!" Boss Man is yelling.

Sam's rough hand grabs mine while Squito takes hold of Sam's left arm and we scuttle off the curb and across the street. I hear Mary and Toby panting behind us.

"There's the car!" I shriek. My nerves are rattling, ribs are struggling to hold my pounding heart in place.

Car doors swing open and Sam, Mary and I pile into the back seat of the black SUV. Squito moves into the front seat where Trip is waiting in the driver's seat.

"Where's Toby?" I yell before seeing him swing up the door behind and jump into the space behind our seat.

"Everybody be here?" Trip's words leap over his shoulders.

"Go!" I yell.

"I hears ya, Lyla!"

My body feels a push back into the seat as the car accelerates.

I'm shaking my head trying to get that light out. I don't want to give up the memory of another Papa. But, he's getting away.

I turn my eyes on Yo. "Get Squito! Chase him to hell if you have to!"

"We be on it, Papa!" Yo yells.

"We'll be take'n that cab!" Boss Man yells to the other three men.

I opens the driver side door and pulls the cab man out.

"We be need'n your ride!" I hand him a U.S. hundred dollar bill. "We'll be return'n it when we be done!" The wheel feels warm in my hands. My nerves is play'n like a fiddle inside, my heart beat'n like a drum.

The hard corner, run'n down the top side of the back seat is cut'n into my back. I be push'n my feet against the back door an' the hard floor be make'n my butt ache. This ant a ride'n place but it be my best choice for escape'n Papa Legba's nasty think'n.

"There be a big black car a'follow'n us," I throws words at Trip.

I sees everyone in the back seat twist'n their heads around.

"Can you be see'n who it is, Toby?" Trip asks.

"It be look'n like Papa Legba's men!" I'm push'n my eyes real hard to put a finger on their faces.

All sudden-like I feels the car taken a real sharp left turn. An' then a right!

"They still there, Toby?" Trip's words be sound'n rattly.

"Yeah! They be close'n in on us!" Me body be jangle'n an' jiggle'n like me brain is a be'n squeezed in the middle of a giant hand—fear!

"What's happening?" Someone be scream'n!

The passenger window of the other car be face to face with mine. A gun be point'n...Lips move'n. A mouth is work'n around silent words.

"Move over...An' stop!"

The window be slide'n down an' I hears a shot fired into the air. The front tire goes all wobbly. I slams on the breaks so not to crash into a build'n.

We bounces over the curb an' onto the side walk. The other car stops right beside us.

"Keeps ya windows up an' locks them doors!" I yells back to the others!

All a sudden theres a crash'n of glass on Squito's window. Someone flings the door open an' long arms be pull'n 'im out. Another guy rush'n up behind 'im...cover'n 'is mouth with a dirty rag an' throw'n a sack over 'is head.

I see's whats happen'n to Squito an' I throws the back door open. I jumps out an' rushes the man hold'n Squito.

There's guys rushing all around the car. Suddenly I see Toby running toward a guy holding a bag over another guy.

Pop! There's a single sound and Toby drops to the ground. Has he been shot!

Mary thrusts a back door open and it slams into the guy holding the bag. He back peddles and the body he was holding slumps to the ground.

I'm sliding across the seat and step into the jangling air. I feel Sam yank me back into the car.

"Wait, Lyla!" Sam grabs me from behind and tosses me back into the seat. He scrambles out!

"Get into the other car!" Sam yells.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

I swing my eyes in the direction that the popping sounds are coming from. "Boss Man?"

"Git yourselves into tha other SUV!" Boss Man is yelling!

We scramble around the back of what used to be our SUV and push doors of the other black car open.

Trip's body flashes around to the driver's seat.

The engine roars!

Red is oozing out of Sam's shoulder. His eye lids are fluttering. There's a faint light flashing behind white, eggshell eyes.

I see Mary pulling Toby's body into the back seat of Papa's car, pushing him tight next to Sam. His eyes are closed.

Squito slams the door shut and jumps into the back, behind where we are now sitting.

The motor roars and we're moving.

"What we do?" Mary cries.

"Put your hand over the wound! We have to stop the bleeding!"

Lyla's breath anchors me to my body. Yet something is drawing me deep into another sensation. A bubble of white light is exploding in my head. Then it shoots out in a flat line, like a glowing bridge. There's a tall shape gesturing for me to come across.

"Sam," the shadow calls.

There's a milky haze between us that thins out as I walk across. A meadow flows out before my eyes. The green grass glows with a life I've never seen below, in my neighborhood.

Trees are flowering and flowers, florescent with rainbow colors, shimmer in the sun-bright air.

"Where am I?" I ask the tall shape that I can now see is a man. Then it hits me, like a slap to my face. "I can see!"

"You are in my neighborhood," A low, melodic voice responds.

"Why...How?" The words tumble out of my mind.

"Just for a moment." The voice sings out."In your time it's just a minute or two," he says. "But...here it's as long as we want it to be."

"What's happening?" I ask. But...I feel no dread...No fear...love enveloping my mind.

"You have more to give them," he's explaining.

"I'm going back? I won't die?"

"No. We'll be talking later. Everything will become clear," he assures me.

I'm holding one hand over hole in Sam's shoulder, trying to stop the bleeding...squeezing his lips open with the other. I take a deep gasp of air into my mouth and blow it into his.

After a few breaths his eye lids pop open. "Stay with me, Sam!"

Tears are spilling over my cheeks. My body is shaking.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Papa's men go down, flop'n onto the ground like die'n fish.

We does a little clean up an' jumps into the taxi.

I be push'n the little taxi, fast, behind the others...up ahead!