I lift my fist, but before I can land a punch, Jayla picks up her barstooland swings it at the man’s head. He somehow sidesteps it, and the stool hits a man in the corner. That man didn’t see Jayla toss it, so he swings at the nearest possible perpetrator. Then that guy flips a table and punches him back. A full fight erupts.
Loot turns toward the chaos. “Stop that now!” He rushes from behind the bar and tries to break it up.
I look at my sister. What the hell?
Jayla mouths,I got you,and smiles.
Oh, I get it. I nod back.
I swing at the man who groped Jayla. My fist connects with his face so hard my knuckles hurt. He should know better than to touch a woman without her permission. Then I “accidentally” hit someone to the right of him. That guy swings at me, and my lip splits open. Dang. Now I’m battling both these fools. It’s hard too, because I have to concentrate. Sometimes when I’m riled up from the stage, the power inside me can translate to excess strength. Even if that one dude is a jerk, I’m not trying to kill anybody I came to save.
Jayla antagonizes others into the fight. She’s brilliant. A bar fight will trash this place, put it out of business for a while so no one gets killed by the Klan. I’ll help Loot to clean up and reopen when it’s safe.
Someone hits me so hard my face swings to the right and my ear rings. This isn’t helping my headache or my mood. But if getting my butt kicked saves somebody, so be it.
I hit the guy who punched me, and his body lifts three feet before he falls. Another guy clobbers me in the side of the head. I pivot toward him and punch him back. This time I try to go easy, but he still sways and falls, breaking a wooden table as he tumbles. I have too much strength pouring out of me right now, and the adrenaline is making it worse.
More people jump into the brawl. Across the bar, a lady in a pink dress pushes a woman in green. That shove leads to another. The woman stumbles and falls, green dress ripped, knees slamming into the floor.
I glance over my shoulder at Jayla. The back of her headpiece jerks from side to side. She’s locked in combat with some woman. Yeah, she helped me tonight, but this is why I wanted her to keep her butt home. It’s hardenough to focus on saving myself, but now I gotta focus on protecting her, too.
I fight near her, in case she needs help. But she stands above the crumpled woman, who is knocked out from her punch.
I hit pointy-beard guy again. He pulls out a blade, raising it high. “That the best you can do?” he taunts.
I move in front of my sister. Definitely didn’t expect weapons, but that’s my bad. Everyone carries something in this time period. I just pray no one has a pistol. Not even a time traveler can outrun a bullet.
Pointy-Beard swings his blade, slicing my suit and cutting the dang pocket off. At least he didn’t get me. Still, he’s not about to get away with trying to draw blood. I swing at him, take his knife, and catch him in his gut. Not deep enough to kill, but it’ll sting like hell and make him think twice about disrespecting women. Especially women in my family.
He doubles over, gripping his oozing wound.
“Get moving!” I shout to my sister.
Loot’s jaw is clenched, and his fist is shaking. He’s pissed. Somebody tosses a chair. It arcs toward the stage and crashes into the piano. Red-faced and fed up, Loot knocks him out. “ENOUGH! All of you get out.”
People stagger about, continuing to tussle around us, despite bloody wounds and busted lips. Chairs and barstools are broken, bottles behind the bar shattered and dripping off the shelves. Even the piano is damaged. It’s gonna take a lot of money and time to fix this mess. Guilt pools in my stomach. But at least everyone’s still alive.
I yank Jayla hard, pulling her out of the way of another airborne chair. It smacks the wall by her head and crashes down on the ground. She jumps over the broken heap of wood, and together we run out of the juke joint. We dash away from the fuss, laughing as we run.
“Yo-o-o, that was wild!” I shout. “I swear. I can’t go nowhere with you!”
At the top of the street we turn right, heading toward the forest. A full moon lights our way. My whole body tightens up. Shadows hang like lynched men. A warning.
With Jayla beside me, I rush into the trees. The forest feels alive as I step over a rotted log and eye the tangled vines and green velvety moss aroundus. Ravens swarm overhead. I glare at them, not wanting to deal with that bad omen. A pit is burning in my stomach. I think I know why they’re here, but I’m not gonna focus on it, not yet.
I whip out my golden vintage lighter from my pocket and rotate the tiny dials on a cryptex on its side, programming in our date and destination:PHILADELPHIA,2024. My genius invention to help sharpen my family’s ability to move through time.
Gold-purple flame flickers up from my lighter.
I find a spot between two Y-shaped trees. I guide the fire from my lighter, outlining a rectangular shape I’ve drawn a million times before. I think of how so many of my relatives had to do this, cloaked under the shade of night, making fiery doors, hoping light didn’t draw any onlookers and praying they ended up in the right year.
The space shifts apart to become a door made of waving gold-purple flames.
I love time travel, but this next part always stings. I grab the burning doorknob. I bite down hard and try not to scream.
The door swings open to reveal an ocean of black studded with stars. Crescent moons and Caribbean suns sparkle in waves of darkness as constellations float past. Ma always called it the universe spreading itself out.
I grab my sister’s hand and pull her inside.
