Page 48 of Praying for Thunder

Tiger’s bare feet were kicking the door. “Someone open this motherfucking door!”

Moola dropped the radio and gun on a nearby chair, then proceeded to yank on the door handle like a mad woman. “What’s happening?”

“Gunman! Fire! Gas line spewing fire!” Ani boomed. “Thunder!”

Moola tried, “Anita, tell Stew to open the door!”

She started coughing. “On fire! They’re putting him out!”

Moola stumbled back from the door, covering her mouth. “No. Stew—” Then she hissed before rushing back to the door. “His phone?”

The smell of smoke trickled to my nose as Ani screamed, “Destroyed! Thunder!” The door took the impact of my Ani’s little shoulder ramming it, over and over.

“Oh my God,” uttered Moola. “No one is helping her.” Then her hands were under my arms, yanking me to her chest. “Magical little bastard, you already knew.” She yelled to the door, “Anita! Run outside to the bathroom window. I’m shooting it out!”

Ani yelled back, “But, how will you—”

“Go!” It was a blood-curdling demand.

One Anita listened to.

In the dressing room, along the outside of the bathroom wall, Moola made me crouch and take shelter.

On the ground, covering my ears, I watched that courageous woman point the gun toward the little window, then pull the trigger until the gun was empty and there were thick pieces of glass all over the floor. The gun clattered to the floor not far away.

Not wincing as the shards sliced her feet, Moola rushed, again yanking me up from the floor, then charged to the arms waiting for me. Ani’s arms were all I could see because the window was so small.

Stepping up onto the lidded toilet, Moola viciously kissed my hair. “I love you so much. Never forget that, baby. Never.”

That’s when I started to realize only one of us was getting to use this escape. “Moo-Moo—”

I wasn’t given a chance to say more. Hungry arms ripped me from my Aunt Moo-Moo and through the opening. I cried, “No!” but was smothered in Ani’s embrace. It was short-lived but fierce.

The night was so much darker than the bright bathroom, and there was no outside lighting to change that.

Ani set me on the ground where she was kneeling, demanding I stay right next to her as she reached back in, somehow convincing herself she had another person to save.

Smoke was filling the dressing room and seeping into the bathroom. Moola held Ani’s hand as she cried, showing bravery any hero would find envious. “He is so worth it, you hear me?”

With burn victims and people shot, everyone else was tending to the injured, not realizing Ani and I were on our own on the side of the building, desperately trying to rescue a friend.

With her g-stringed butt on the ground, Ani put her little feet against the wall and tugged on the hand, trying to reason with her.

Cough! “Honey, you’re about to break my arm.”

Anita roared to the sky, “Don’t you fucking do this to me again! Don’t you fucking dare!”

Cough! Chuckle… Cough! “You’re talking to God, right? Not me?”

Ani rushed back to her knees, dirt and grass sticking to her bare skin. Folding over, she pulled Moola’s hand to her forehead. “I’m going to get my car and ram it into the wall.”

Cough! Cough! Moola’s scratchy voice trembled in fear, but she tried to hide it. “Uh, I don’t think gas leaking from your car is going to help me, like at all.” She broke into a sob before gaining control again. “Take him away. I’m going to scream like a bitch. I just know it.”

“No. No! No!” Anita jumped to her feet and frantically looked around. Spotting a shovel, she warned, “Thunder, stand back.”

As soon as I was out of the way, that petite woman swung with all her might. She was hoping to break away the brick wall, but one blow told her she was attempting the impossible. Not that it stopped her. My poor Ani continued to strike and hit that wall at a merciless pace. Even though we were running out of time.

Moola screamed, “Get him out of here! I’m already feeling the heat!”