friend lingering with the girl, then started heading back in his direction.
As Melody stood, Sweat Jacket slid in front of her, blocking my view of her face, and as I ran into the grass to reposition my angle, the other two guys were now at their buddy’s side and the four of them were in a circle. The noises of the park—the flow of water from the enormous fountain, kids playing and shrilling, booming music coming from some distant point—masked what was unfolding before the public. Even from my distance they just looked like friends chatting. But when Sweat Jacket started nudging his friends, and his friends responded with inflated laughter, and Melody reacted by bowing her head and shaking it slowly, I knew things were progressing. I grew up around people who could smell vulnerability and preyed upon it for nothing more than entertainment. That’s what these guys were, future wards of the state.
I flicked my unlit cigarette into the grass, mumbled every profane word I’d ever learned as I slid closer to the scene, still out of range of their conversation. But watching their interaction, there could be no doubt as to what was happening. And as parents walked by with their kids, they stepped up their pace and pulled their children to their sides, a few frat boys looked over until one of Sweat Jacket’s buddies stared at them, stepped once in their direction to indicate they should mind their own business, and compliance was delivered in the form of indifference. Turns out no matter where you go in this world everyone is the same.
I didn’t see a thing.
I didn’t hear a thing.
I don’t know nothin’.
Then Sweat Jacket reached out and touched Melody’s shoulder and she jerked away like the tips of his fingers were aflame. She stepped to the left and one of the other guys leaned in, forcing her back toward their apparent leader, and for a few seconds she nervously bounced between the three of them like a human hacky sack.
When Sweat Jacket grabbed her elbow, she yanked it away and managed to slip out and abandon them at a good clip. I walked in parallel with her a hundred or more feet away and kept my eyes on the guys. Let her go, I thought. Do not follow her. With Melody now twenty or so feet in front of them, Sweat Jacket cracked a joke for his buddies that I could not hear, grabbed his crotch in an exaggerated manner, and then the three of them were right on her tail.
I followed Melody, and as we made our way back to Broadway, I knew exactly where Melody was heading: the parking garage. She would look over her shoulder every five seconds to see if they were still close behind, and having grown up in a neighborhood with a class order determined by bullies, I knew this manner of showing her fear would keep them interested. And then the final turning point: Melody slipped across a six-lane intersection next to the garage before the light changed; the guys didn’t make it in time, had no choice but to let the traffic pass. This is where I would have expected them to move on, to yell some lewd comments in her direction, wave her off, and return to their wasted world.
But they waited the light out.
As I ran across the street a half block away, dodging cars in every lane, I voiced vulgarities I had no idea were in my vocabulary. I knew Melody’s exact destination, almost right to the specific parking space; all I had to do was break our triangle apart and cut off the hoodlums before they could get to her.
I reached the western stairwell and ran up the steps so fast that I fell into the door and the sound as it flew open reverberated throughout the garage like a gunshot. Melody emerged from the eastern stairwell, moving as quickly as she could in her sandals, aimed right for her car. I let her get out of sight, then sprinted for the stairwell she’d just exited. I opened the door, slid to the left and closed the door gently, watched Melody through a small square window, catching my breath as quietly as possible. I was certain she was going to make it, that the timing of all of this would work, until the heel of her left sandal gave way; she lost her footing but not her momentum, and tumbled across