19 – Robbery at 24/7 (1)

Stellaluna sat at the table in the cottage, across from Yannick. He held up a flash card with what she guessed was the letter F on it. “Upper-case F. Fuh.”

“Yes.” Yannick held up another flash card.

“M. Lower-case. Mmm.”

“Right.” Yannick smiled at her. “You are better.”

It was true. Stellaluna's chest swelled as she returned his smile. Maybe there was hope for her after all. Yannick held up a card. It was a vertical line with a circle on the top right side. Which one was this again? D or B? She went with lower-case B.

“No, lower-case P.”

Stellaluna's chest deflated as she groaned. She’d forgotten about that letter. Like trying to memorize the difference between lower-case D and B wasn't hard enough! Why’d they all have to look so similar? “How do you keep track of which means what?”

Yannick shrugged. “I have as a child learned. Then it is easy.” He held up a card that was a vertical line with a horizontal line on the bottom.

“Upper-case T?”

“L,” Yannick corrected. “But it is upper-case. You have that right.”

Stellaluna usually did. It wasn’t hard to figure out that upper-case letters were bigger.

“Like you the book again try?” Yannick asked, reaching for The Adventures of Kate the Cat.

“Sure.” Though Stellaluna had grown tired of it.

Yannick moved to the chair next to her. He opened the book to a random page, and pointed to a random sentence. Stellaluna leaned in, getting a whiff of whatever soap Yannick used. The scent was pleasant. Like pine trees or something woodsy. Being this close to him, smelling his soap, did something pleasant to her stomach. “You smell lovely.”

The compliment had slipped out, and she turned her face away. Hopefully he wouldn’t think she meant anything deeper than that.

Yannick turned his head away. “Thank you.”

They sat in an awkward silence for a few seconds, until Stellaluna remembered what she was supposed to be doing. She focused her attention on the book, and attempted to read it aloud. “Kate foh...uhb?”

“Found.”

Oh. Stellaluna remembered how this sentence went. “Kate found a fish bone in the garbage can.”

“You have the book memorized.”

It was hard not to, given how many times Yannick had read it to her. “I’m sorry.”

“We need new books. Have you anything easy in your library?”

“Probably not.” Stellaluna couldn’t imagine Barry having shelves of children’s books.

“We should see.” Yannick set aside the cat book.

“Yes, except Barry’s around. It’s too risky.” It was risky enough they were meeting with him home. Luckily he had yet to notice Stellaluna’s afternoon disappearances. (Well, he had one time. But she managed to convince him she was out with Zailey.)

“I can to do as if I clean. If he comes.”

“Huh?” Stellaluna had gotten better at understanding Yannick’s unique way of wording sentences, but she couldn’t make sense out of that one.

“You know… act? As if I clean?”

“Pretend to clean?” That might be doable, as long as they arrived at the library at separate times. “We can meet there later. I need a break anyway. Maybe in an hour?”

Yannick nodded in agreement, and the two took turns leaving the cottage.

~~~~~

Luke was pulling weeds when Waylon walked by, talking to someone on his phone.

“I’m going to win this race for sure,” Waylon said with glee. “Who wants some radical leftist as governor?”

Me, Luke thought. It would be an improvement over the current Jefferson governor, who supported that ridiculous bill Allison had told him about. The “Make Families Nuclear Act” or whatever it was called.

“He wants to get rid of conversion therapy, of all things. The thing that cured Sebastian!”

Cured? Luke held back a snort. He’d seen Axel walking into the house to visit Sebastian several times during his recovery, always when Waylon was out. Last time Axel was over, Luke caught sight of Sebastian on the doorstep with a crutch, watching him leave. The longing in his eyes and the smile on his face reminded Luke of Hazel. It was the same way she’d look at him. Sebastian was gayer than ever.

“I never hit Celine, even when she deserves it,” Waylon said. “But I like having that right, you know?”

“Good God,” Luke muttered to himself.

Waylon’s head whipped towards him. “What was that?”

“Nothing,” Luke said quickly.

Scowling, Waylon returned to his phone call while walking towards the back door several feet away, and went inside. It was probably a good thing. Luke didn’t know how much more of that nonsense he could listen to.

After overhearing Waylon's conversation, Luke needed a drink.

Not a beer or any alcohol. He never cared for the taste. No, he needed a large soda from the nearest convenience store. When lunchtime hit, he drove over to the 24/7 Mart to buy himself a soda.

Aside from one cashier playing on his phone, the store was empty. Luke squinted at the bright lights, and turned his baseball hat forward. He grabbed a 42 ounce cup and walked over to the fountain machine to fill it up. But what to pick? Hendi. Vanilla Hendi. Cherry Hendi. Coconut Hendi. Orange Hendi. He stroked his jaw as he stared at all the choices. Vanilla was his favorite, but it had been awhile since he had coconut.

In the distance, the door opened. Luke glanced over to see a man wearing a baseball cap, with long hair to his back. He looked slightly like Luke himself, though it was hard to see his face, because a red bandanna covered the bottom half of it.

The man whipped out a gun, and pointed it at the cashier. “Give me all your money!”

The cashier screamed. His phone clattered onto the ground.

“Right now!”

Luke ducked behind a shelf. He set his empty cup aside to call the police on his watch- right as the robber fired his gun.

“911, what’s your emergency?” a voice on his watch said.

“There’s a robbery at the 24/7 on Peach Street. He’s firing a gun.”

Another shot rang out. Luke got down on his hands and knees.

“Help is on its way.”

Luke let out a breath. He peeked around the shelf. The man still pointed his gun at the cashier. The cashier kept pressing his finger against the reader on the cash register. But the cash register just beeped at him.

“Open it!”

“It’s only my third day! I don’t know why it’s-”

The robber fired his gun again. Luke wished he had his gun. Wished he could do something other than wait anxiously for the cops to arrive. He wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans.

“We might have money in the back,” The cashier squeaked.

“Give me what’s in your pockets!”

Sirens wailed outside. A police car pulled up, and two officers climbed out.

“Who the fuck called the cops?!” the robber shouted, pointing his gun towards the door. The cashier raced into a back room.

Officer McNeil kicked the door open, gun pointed straight at the robber. A shot rang out. McNeil fell to the floor, lifeless. Officer Baum fired a shot, but the robber darted behind a shelf. The robber fired back. The bullet struck into Baum's thigh. He clutched it, swearing. The robber ran out the door. Baum limped after him, firing more shots before falling to his knees outside the door.

That robber managed to incapacitate both officers? He must be some sort of professional. Either that, or lucky. Baum spoke into his watch as he crawled back inside. He made his way to McNeil, who laid in a pool of his own blood.

Luke stood up to search the aisles for bandages, but the cashier ran back out, carrying a bulky first aid kit. He and Baum fumbled through it, gathering large swathes of bandages, and wrapping them around McNeil’s head.

“I called for an ambulance,” Baum said to the cashier. “They’re on their way.”

“Will he survive?” the cashier asked.

“I don’t know,” Baum said grimly. “He’s still breathing, but there’s so much blood...”

Since it looked like the two men had the situation taken care of, Luke decided to leave them to it, and get a drink from the nearest gas station instead.