CHAPTER 9
511 Words
Outside, she’d acted like a newborn baby girl opening her eyes for the first time. She’d blinked as if blinded by the sun’s ultimate rays of light. A radiant smile with an eager stride was all so new and pleasant. Almost like a weight had been lifted from her tiny shoulders. It was a weight in which she had carried for years on end, holding her back from a full and glorious life that one should honestly be accustomed. Of course Pamela had been happy before, but never so vibrant and lively.
“So what’s going on with you?” Logan asked. “I never saw you like this.”
She didn’t respond. Trapped in her own mind, she’d fantasized only of rolling through a field of flowers. It was like a breath of fresh air, one she hadn’t experienced in all of her life.
A few cars rolled by in both directions as they walked away from her home.
“Where are we headed?” Logan asked, as he looked ahead to see a dice game in full play on the corner.
There were three young men. Two wore baseball caps, and white v-neck t-shirts, the third had long black hair that was tied into a ponytail, with a black shirt. They were stooped next to the bodega, bouncing the dice off the brick wall of the building, their backs to the street. Logan could see money on the ground but had no idea how much.
Clapping and cheering went on as the dice bounced of the wall and smacked the cement; one of the baseball caps swiped up the bills from the ground, and rose to his feet. The other two guys reached in their jeans pockets and dropped a couple more. The dice were rolled again.
“Pamela, did you hear me?” Logan asked as they neared the youngsters.
She blinked back to reality. “Huh? No… What’d you say Logan?”
“I asked what’s been going on.” Logan said, catching the red eyes of the young man with a ponytail.
“Oh… well… guess what?” Pamela asked, as they neared the gambling trio.
Logan looked to her. “What…”
They stopped.
She looked to Logan. “My father won’t be coming around any longer. He…”
And just then her purse was snatched right from under her arm.
The young man with the ponytail bumped into the pair in a frenzy and ran up the block from where they had just come. Logan and Pamela weren’t expecting such nonsense in broad daylight on an open road. There hadn’t been much crime, if any, in the neighborhood.
Pamela shouted for the thief to stop. She looked behind to see the other two gamblers take off around the other side of the bodega. She turned back to the thief and took a few steps in pursuit before she slowed to a stop.
Logan grabbed her by the arm. “No! I’ll catch him. You call the police.”
What better time could there have been for Logan to be a hero? He dashed up the concrete sidewalk behind the purse snatcher, in full pursuit.
- Writer
