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Sue's head throbbed. She was more tired than she had
ever felt in her life but some inner sense told her
to fight the fatigue. She raised her head and felt a
pain in her back. She looked over her shoulder. James
was asleep, lying on top of her and snoring loudly.
In his right hand was a liquor bottle. He must have
fallen and it was the impact that had woken her. Though
she sensed that nothing important was wrong, the blow,
falling as it did close to her spine, had bruised her
badly.
It took all her effort but she raised her butt just
enough to push him away. He fell heavily onto the floor
but that didn't worry her. Drunks never hurt themselves.
Dizzily she pushed herself to her feet. Something was
wrong. It was dark outside. She glanced at the clock
and knew that time had almost run out. Something about
this room was dangerous. She did not know what but something
was terribly dangerous.
She grabbed the satchel and slung it around her neck.
Then, though it took all her effort, she picked up James
and tucked him under her right arm. She hauled him to
the window and looked down. It was a long way to the
sidewalk. A rare doubt occurred to her. She was not
sure she could make it. She was feeling light headed
again but she had to leave right now. She said a silent
prayer and jumped.
She fell like a piano. She had almost no strength and
there was nothing she could do to check her fall. She
looked around, thinking at lightning speed, the world
going by in slow motion. From that height she would
break her back, there was no doubt, but she could save
James if only there was something soft for him to land
on. She cast around. There were no stores in the area,
no awnings. A car roof would be too hard. So she pushed
sideways towards the park. The lake might offer a soft
landing. She made some lateral headway but not nearly
enough.
The lake was a very long way away. She willed her body
to move. Why had they not hit the ground already and
why could she not fly? She thought she felt herself
moving sideways a little faster. Her head seemed to
be clearing as they moved away from the Dakota. The
air felt fresh in her face. That helped her to think
more clearly. They were still falling and now dangerously
close to the ground, but at least she felt stronger.
The were moving sideways now, not just straight down.
She pushed hard and saw that they were over the road,
heading more quickly towards the park. They passed over
a cab, just two feet above its roof. She took a lungful
of air and tried to power them away, angling upwards
just a little. It worked and she gained perhaps six
inches.
Once they were over the park she made an untidy landing
and collapsed, exhausted, onto a bench. Nothing she
had ever done was as hard as that. Very soon James woke
up.
"Where are we?" he mumbled.
"Safe," she said.
"My head hurts."
"That doesn't surprise me at all!"
Twenty minutes later they made their way back to the
car. Cadillac was still there, waiting patiently. He
looked down at the empty cooler. "Man, I need to
pee like racehorse," he announced.
"Me too," James agreed.
Sue sighed. "Go over there." She pointed
to a doorway along the street.
"We can't do that. People will see us," Cadillac
protested.
"No they won't," she assured him. She wondered
if either one of them was safe enough to drive. She
weighed the options.
"When you're done," she called "I'll
take you home. We'll be fine," she added, largely
to herself, "as long as this thing doesn't have
a stick shift." She glanced into the car to check.
"Damn!"
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