The operator came on. “911 emergency, can you hold?”
Before Patience could reply, the line went silent. She was on hold. Time dragged on. Thirty seconds seemed like thirty minutes. Then, the unthinkable happened. The call dropped. “Shit!” Patience swore furiously. She considered dialing again, but decided against it. Instead, she called home. Langdon answered on the first ring.
“Where the hell are you, Patience?” he sounded pissed.
“Langdon, don’t get mad. We need help. Lauren’s car broke down.” Patience, for the first time that night, felt like crying.
“Okay, where are you? I’ll come get you,” he said.
“Well, that’s a problem. We had to cut through a bad part of town.”
“Okay,” Langdon said slowly. “Exactly where are you?” he repeated.
“We’re hiding in an abandoned building on Canal Street,” Patience whispered, knowing he would be mad.
But he wasn’t mad. Or, at least, he didn’t sound mad. Instead, his voice got very quiet. “Why did you leave the car, Patience?”
“Because there’s group of boys and they’re looking for us,” she whispered. “We were afraid to stay with the car.”
“Have you called the police?” Still the same calm voice.
“Yes, but the call got dropped.”
“Okay, darling, this is what I want you to do. Stay very quiet, hunker down, and I’m going to come get you. I’ll pull up outside the building you’re in and honk the horn three times in succession, wait a few seconds, and honk again three more times. I’ll do that until I see you. Patience, do I hear you wheezing?” Langdon asked.
“Yes,” Patience answered.
“Do you have your inhaler?”
“No,” she answered.
“Okay,” Langdon said. “Take deep breaths and stay calm. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Patience told him exactly where they were. She thanked her lucky stars that she’d paid attention to the street sign as they looked for their hiding place.
Patience and Lauren settled down to wait. Another call to the police was also put on hold and dropped. “Well, I guess we wait for Langdon,” Patience whispered to Lauren.
Outside, the voices of the boys waxed and waned. Both women nearly screamed when a glass window shattered in the office outside. They almost screamed again when somebody pounded on the door that opened onto the street.
At home, Langdon quickly put on jeans, a leather jacket, and his heavy work boots. He went to his closet, reached up on one of the shelves, and pulled down a Smith & Wesson 9mm semi-automatic pistol. He jammed a full clip into the handle, and stuck another in a pocket of his jacket. He also grabbed one of Patience’s aluminum softball bats. After tucking the pistol into his pants, he ran outside to his car, a silver late-model Toyota. He checked himself: keys, gun, bat, phone, flashlight. He was as ready as he was ever going to get. Peeling rubber, he sped out of the parking lot.
In the hiding place, all was quiet for a while. Ten minutes went by, and Patience began to allow herself a little hope. She opened the door of the bathroom a peeked down the hall towards the office. Dim streetlight shone through the newly broken window. Then fear, bright and cold, washed over her as a shadow passed quietly in front of the window. She heard it then, the sound of the doorknob turning. She turned, ashen-faced, to Lauren and put her finger to her lips. The doorknob squeaked as it turned, and then the door was pushed open.
“Why didn’t you check this one before, you dumb motherfucker?” said a peevish teenaged male voice. There was no reply.
Patience could hear glass crunching as the intruder made his way carefully into the room. “I know those white whores are in here. ” the voice said. “I’m gonna get me a blowjob from a caw—casian bitch tonight.”
“And then what?” another voice asked.
“What the fuck do you think?” the first voice answered.
“Oh,” came the reply.
Both Patience and Lauren could easily guess what he meant.
And then, Patience heard the first voice say, “What the fuck is that? Go check it out.”
A few seconds later, the second voice said, “It’s a car driving down the street, real slow.”
“What kind of car?” asked First Voice.
“Looks like a silver Camry,” replied Second Voice.
“Hunh,” First Voice said. “What would some motherfucker be doing in this part of town tonight? Especially driving a nice car like that.”
“I don’t know,” said Second Voice.
“Of course you don’t know,” said First Voice. “‘Cause you a dumb motherfucker.”
About that time, Patience and Lauren, and quite possibly the two boys in the office, nearly pissed themselves as two shots rang out, outside in the street. There was the sound of a car being gunned and racing past the door. First Voice said, “That motherfucker!” and there was the sound of crunching glass as he ran back out through the door. More crunching glass indicated that Second Voice had obediently followed. The two women were once again alone.
Minutes passed. More shots rang out. Then there was the sound of a car again, outside the door. A horn sounded three times. Patience looked at Lauren and said wheezily, “It’s Langdon. Let’s go.” She grabbed the dark-haired woman’s hand, shoved the bathroom door open and ran down the hall to the office door. It was still open. In the street outside, she could see Langdon’s silver Camry. He was looking anxiously in their direction. He honked the horn again. Patience paused at the doorway and looked both ways down the street. To the right, about one hundred yards away, the group of thugs was pointing at Langdon’s car and yelling. The boys began running towards Langdon. “Come on!!” Patience said to Lauren, and hand-in-hand, both women burst through the door and ran to the car.
Patience grabbed the door handle. Locked!
“It’s locked!” she screamed, and Langdon quickly hit the switch, unlocking the door. Patience threw Lauren into the front seat and climbed in behind her. They boys were closer now, and one could be seen leveling a pistol at them.
Langdon raised his own pistol and, carefully aiming high, fired five or six times at the group of running boys. They all stopped and crouched down behind garbage cans or beside the building. He stomped on the gas, turned hard left, and left smoking tire prints in the street as he raced away. He drove fast as until he reached the end of the street, then abruptly slowed and turned the corner. Just as he did so, he passed a police car, lights and sirens going, headed in the direction from which he’d just come. The police car turned onto Canal Street and disappeared.
“Are you guys okay?” Langdon asked anxiously.
“I’m okay,” Lauren said.
“What about you, Patience?” he asked.
He felt his heart sink as he looked at his sister. She was slumped in the seat, gasping for breath. He could hear her audible wheezing. There was a scared look in her eyes, and her color was not good. “I need my inhaler,” she managed to croak.
“I can see that,” Langdon said. He reached into his pocket and brought it out. Patience, her hands shaking, took four inhalations quickly, then closed her eyes and sat back in the seat, trying to catch her breath.
Speaking very carefully, Langdon asked, “Sis, do you need to go to the hospital?”
Patience took a little while to answer. Gradually, her breathing seemed to ease. “No, brother, it’s getting better. I think I’ll be all right.”
“Patience, don’t lie…” Langdon began.
“I’ll be okay, Langdon honey. Just let the medicine work.”
Driving quickly but carefully, Langdon steered the car home. He and Lauren helped Patience into the house. Langdon gave her a nebulizer treatment. They undressed her, put on her pajamas, and laid her in the big bed she shared with Langdon. Still wheezing slightly, Patience asked, “When are you coming to bed?”
“In just a few minutes, I promise,” Langdon replied.
In the living room, Lauren ran to the young man and embraced him, hugging him fiercely, kissing him, and finally bursting into tears. She cried hard for about ten minutes, saying, “I was so scared! It was so stupid of me to take such a risk!”
Langdon held her and let her cry. Then he said, “We had a close call tonight, but now it’s over and we’re back safe at home. But Lauren, please promise me that you’ll never take a chance like that again. I really like you and I don’t want anything to happen to you.” He kissed her gently. She kissed him back eagerly. “Now, are you sleeping here tonight?”
“If it’s all right, unless you want to take me home.”
“No, I’m not leaving Patience tonight. I’ll get some pillows and blankets. You can sleep on the couch.” He got up and left the room.
Lauren felt terrible. She hoped that she hadn’t ruined her chance to be with the siblings because of her mistake. She would have loved to sleep with them in the big bed, but it wouldn’t be right, not tonight. She decided to just be happy she was safe and alive.
Fifteen minutes later, Langdon crawled into bed beside his sleeping sister. Her wheezes had subsided. Her breathing was easy, normal. “I was scared and you saved me, “she murmured. “Saved me again.”
Whispering into her ear, Langdon said, “Sis, I would do it every hour of every day for the rest of my life, for you. Never forget that.”
Patience chuckled sleepily, reached up and caressed his face, and fell fast asleep.
Part Two
The next morning Langdon, after making sure Patience was all right and giving her a nebulizer treatment, ferried Lauren around while she rented a car and made sure that the Saturn was taken care of. There was no telling what kind of shape it was going to be in today, but she wasn’t going back into that area of town, even in daylight.
Patience had no classes that day, but Langdon had two classes and his part-time job at the bookstore to go to. He wouldn’t be home until six p.m. That morning, Patience and Lauren promised him a surprise for saving them.
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