“You speak Japanese?”
“Yeah.” Maggie wiped water from her eyes.
“Let’s go!” Gay got up and started for the car, went to the passenger side.
Maggie fished the key out of her pocket, had it in the driver’s door when a Sheriff’s cruiser came around the corner, tires hissing. It stopped as Maggie was getting in the car. A window came down.
“What are you ladies doing out in the rain?” The deputy was young, maybe twenty-two or three.
“Going for pizza,” Maggie said.
“In this?” The deputy pointed to the sky.
“Kids don’t care about the rain,” Maggie said. “Not when they can send the moms out for the pepperoni and Pepsi.”
“Where are these kids?” the cop said.
“There.” Maggie pointed to the corner house, the one they’d just walked away from. “You can go annoy my husband if you want,” she said. “My kids would love that, but we’re getting wet, so we’re outta here.” Maggie started to get in the car.
“You know about the trouble up the street?”
“Mister,” Maggie said, “the only reason I’m talking to you is because I thought the neighbors called because the kids got the TV up in the stratosphere. If you have other business, I’d appreciate it if you’d go about it and let us be on our way.”
“Kinda late for kids to be eating pizza,” the deputy said.
“And they’re gonna get it a lot later if you don’t stop hassling us.”
The cop looked to the house. Saw the flickering light from the television. He couldn’t help but hear the sounds of movie gunfire. It sounded like a war was going on over there. “Okay, sorry to have bothered you.” He rolled up his window and drove away, turning left onto Daneland, Nighthyde’s street.
“That was close,” Gay said.
“Yeah.” Maggie pulled away from the curb.
“Uh oh,” Gay said. The Sheriff’s car turned its lights on, pulled into a driveway, backed out again. “Guy with that German Shepherd must have seen us, told the cops about the two woman in his backyard.”
“Could they have got it over their radio that quick?”
“Only takes a second once they know,” Gay said.
Maggie jerked the wheel to the right and the VW climbed up the curb.
“What are you doing?”
“No way can this thing out run that cop car.” Maggie felt the bump as the rear tires thumped over.
“So, we should pull over and tell them what’s going on.”
“Like they’re gonna believe us.” Maggie shifted into second, pushed the accelerator to the floor. The rear wheels spun on the park’s wet grass, the car slipped to the left, Maggie, in her element now, turned into the slide as the wheels found traction and the little red car scooted forward as the police cruiser turned on its siren.
“I can’t see anything,” Gay said.
“We’re driving blind.” Maggie hadn’t turned on the lights and the rain was sheeting down now.
“But he’s not!” Gay was looking out the back window. “He jumped the curb. He’s gonna be on us in a second.”
“I see him in the rearview.” Maggie turned on the lights, hit the brights. Ahead she saw manicured grass. She shifted up into third. She didn’t know how far the grassy savannah went, she couldn’t see beyond it.
“Oh shit!” Gay screamed. “He’s gonna run right over us.”
The siren was deafening as the Sheriff’s cruiser climbed up onto their tail. Red and blue lights flashing on the cruiser, coupled with its bright lights, lit up the inside of the VW. Blinding white coming out of her mirror fought with the eerie glow from the Christmas tree on top of the cruiser. Red, blue, blinding white. Red, blue, blinding white. Like no Christmas Maggie ever knew. A Christmas from Hell, maybe.
All of a sudden the VW shook and went into a long slide to the right.
“Bastard rammed us,” Maggie said. This time, instead of turning into the slide, she turned away from it, felt the Gs as the VW’s rear end whipped around.
The kid cop in the cruiser slammed on his brakes as the VW spun through a one-eighty.
“Holy shit,” Gay screamed as Maggie popped it down into first, stomped on the gas and let out a whoop as the little car’s tires dug in again.
Caught by surprise, the deputies could only watch as the VW sped by them, engine screaming against the abuse Maggie was inflicting upon it. But their surprise was short lived. In seconds the cruiser was wheeling around, digging up the grass as its powerful engine roared, cutting off the whine of the VW’s.
“Look out!” Gay yelled.
“See it.” Maggie jerked the wheel just in time to avoid hitting a baseball backstop.
“You went the wrong way, turn, turn, turn!”
Maggie pulled the wheel back, but not in time, and the Volkswagen scraped along the bleachers. The sound sent shivers screeching up Maggie’s spine as she struggled with the wheel. Finally, she got control again. She pulled the wheel to the right, away from the stands. The VW shot toward the pitcher’s mound, past it and continued on toward second base.
“They’re coming!” Gay said.
The deputies had swung a wide right to avoid the backstop and were now coming at the women from right field. Maggie pulled on the wheel, jerked the car toward left and shifted up into second.
“Look ahead,” Gay wailed.
Maggie did and saw a long hillock, six or seven feet high. It was covered with pine trees, the kind her parents had had every Christmas as far back as she could remember. Only these were much bigger. The hillock and trees ran the length of the baseball field, separating it from the residential neighborhood across the street.
“Hang on.” Maggie clutched, grabbed the stick, pulled it down into first, put her foot to the floor and aimed the car to a small space between two of the trees.
“You’re crazy!”
Again the car was flooded with light. The cruiser was coming up fast, going to ram them again. Did. The VW went right, Maggie pulled it back, engine screaming. For a second she was off course, didn’t think she was going to make it, but she did, threading the car between the trees as if she did it all the time.
Pine branches screeched against the sides of the car and once again sound shivered through her, but Maggie screamed, “Yesssss,” as the car passed out of the trees and they were careening down the hillock.
A loud crash thundered behind them.
“They didn’t make it!” Gay yelled out as the little car shot over the curb. The wheels squeaked as they hit the street. “You did it!”
Maggie shifted up into second and took the first left. They sped down a residential street and came to a four lane road.
“I know where we are,” Gay said. “That’s Woodruff. Turn right, then left at the light, it’ll take you to the freeway.”
Horace glanced over at the Japanese out of the corner of his eye as the wipers click clacked water off the windshield. He was staring ahead, as if he could see through the rain, stiff and still as Buddha. It was unnerving the way he could hold himself like that. Fucker didn’t even blink. Couldn’t be good for his eyes. All of a sudden, Horace couldn’t stop himself from blinking. His eyelids fluttered out of control and for a second he thought he was having one of Ma’s seizures.
Someone told him once they were hereditary, but he didn’t believe it. He couldn’t afford to.
He turned onto Ocean. A couple minutes and he’d be at the fag bar. If life could be the way he wanted it, Horace would walk away right now. But when did you ever get what you wanted? The woman had seen him, her friend, too. Got a real good look, even though they were all tied up.
He shook his head, stopped for a light, listened to the rain pounding on the roof. How the hell had those bitches tracked him to the Lakewood house? And what was Ma thinking about all this? One thing for certain, he was gonna have to make it up to her somehow. Not just for the deal about Virge not coming back, that was gonna be bad enough, but Ma was never gonna let him hear the end of tonight.