Page 98 of Sol
And I didn’t know how to fix this with Dani. Didn’t she know I’d give her anything? All I knew was that I’d meet her and see what sheneeded.
She was the light of my life. This didn’t mean she was perfect, but she was perfect forme.
And a gray lump of clay developed in my stomach knowing that my very existence cut into her because I reminded her ofDegan.
I didn’t know what todo.
Crossing the street, not two blocks from the movie theater, I heard aBOOM!
I looked around with desperation.What was that? A carbackfiring?
No. I wasn’t gonna gettriggered.
It would be okay. I’d beokay.
BOOM!
Closer. Not more than a blockaway.
That wasn’t a carbackfiring.
That’s anexplosion.
The air broke into sirens. Eee-o, eee-o, eee-o.
A spiral of smoke rose up from among the buildings. Close to the movietheater.
Ohno.
I. Fucking.Ran.
Fuck this shit. This isn’t happening again. Not to Degan’s sister. Not on mywatch.
Dear God, let Dani beokay.
A mass of people, screaming, ran the opposite direction I was going. Like a fish swimming upstream, I pushed my way through the crowd headed away from the city center, cars stopped in the street because of the masses of people outside. Screaming. Crying. Fingers pointed. Cell phonesout.
Ohno.
I smelled acridsmoke.
Iran.
Heart walloping.Running.
Air. Barely enoughair.
And I ran to thechaos.
A dozen police cars. Three ambulances.Stretchers.
Smoke.
So muchsmoke.
Fuck.
No.
