Melissa O. Fuller

October 13, 2019 | 6:45 PM

This guy
I’m sure he saw it
he looked at us
back at the building, frantically
then watched as we disappeared into the yellow.

The driver
his head turned 180 degrees
when he heard her scream.
Blood on her hands
fright on his face
the courage slowly leaving our bodies.

She got off her shift late
so we started the bar hop without her
promised to pick her up on our second stop.
We got to the door, heard the noise
pushed it open, she was on the floor.
I jumped into the space between her and his fists
Vicky picked her up
Paula picked up shoes that were caught by his face.
She ran to the closet
pulled down a box.
I swear I didn’t see anything
only heard a shot.

She wiped blood from her nose
her mouth
ears.
Stood in victory
as the years of abuse, disappeared.
She grabbed her purse, she ran,
we followed
out to the waiting car.

“Where’d you get a gun?”
yelled cabbie.
We looked at each other,
then down at the gun
as she fumbled around in realization.

In fear it would release
cabbie reached over,
grabbed the gun and pulled off.