Page 100 of Sol
Dani -- Power
Luluand I reclined in the red plush seats in the dark of the central city movie theater, near our apartments, watching a Disney cartoon movie dubbed in Spanish. As usual whenever I needed a break, we’d escaped to the make-believe land of a screen and someone else’sstory.
The movie was almost done. You could tell. Our hearts would be happy that it all resolved in theend.
But then we heard aboom…BOOM, that was no sound effect. The movie skidded to a halt, and the lights came on. Heads jerked around, and the audience immediately startedtalking.
“What was that?” I whispered toLulu.
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” she muttered back, eyes wary andalert.
One by one, audience members got up, until it was an exodus of people leaving. We joined the crowd jostling up the narrow aisles, leaving the darkened theater into the lobby full of smoke. The noise level raised by decibels, people now starting toyell.
My heart in my throat, unsure of whether to go outside or stay in, I screamed at Lulu, “What should wedo?”
The glass had blown out of the movie theater doors, and popcorn covered thefloor.
“Let’s get out ofhere!”
Pushing our way through the crowd to get outside, I scraped my forehead on jagged glass on the door, coughing on thefumes.
She held my wrist in a vice-like grip. “Dani, I’mscared.”
“Me too.” My eyes darted around. “I don’t know where to go. I don’t know what’shappening.”
“You’re cut! Let me give you atissue.”
As she rummaged in her purse, I checked my phone. Trent had texted that he’d meet me at the movie theater any minute now. What if he wasoutside?
We needed to findhim.
Blood from my cut dripped down past my eyes, into my dry mouth, the metallic taste making me sick. But I felt no pain. Bodies bounced against us. We had no space in the street full of people, cars, and mopeds. We were closed in, claustrophobic, frightened about what washappening.
She handed me a packet of Kleenex, and I pressed one to my forehead. “Stay withme.”
“Always.”
We elbowed our way past an ambulance that had fought its way through the crowd. A crew hustled out with a stretcher, followed closely by another ambulance and another stretcher. An emergency technician with a first aid box and bottles of water called, “¿Alguien necesita unvendaje?”
I ran up to him. “¡Sí!”
He handed me a sterile wipe and a bandage. Lulu cleaned up my forehead, and we both snagged bottles ofwater.
Now I couldsee.
And what I saw wasawful.
People clutching bloody handkerchiefs to faces, arms, legs. Children crying. People covered in soot andashes.
A building a block away onfire.
My chest hurt. I blinked rapidly. I gripped Lulu’s hand. People walked around us, calling for lovedones.
“You okay?” I askedher.
She shook her head. “No.” With a determined set to her jaw, she said, “Let’s see how we canhelp.”
A little girl with her hair in pigtails, maybe eight years old, ran up to us, crying. “¿Dónde está mi mamá?”She was looking for hermother.
