Hemlock Bay

She was singing when the bus-twenty years old if not older, belching smoke-lumbered toward her. She saw the driver, an old coot, gri

She climbed on board, banging her packages about as she found change in her wallet. When she turned to find a seat, she saw that the bus was empty.

“Not many folk out today?”

He gri

“Whose big burying?”

“Ferdy Malloy, the minister at the Baptist Church. Kicked it, just last Friday.”

She’d been lying in the hospital last Friday, not feeling so hot.

“Natural causes, I hope?”

“You can think that if you want, but everyone knows that his missus probably booted him to the other side. Tough old broad is Mabel, tougher than Ferdy, and mean. No one dared to ask for an autopsy, and so they’re planting Ferdy in the ground right about now.”

“Well,” Lily said, then couldn’t think of another thing. “Oh, yes, I’m at The Mermaid’s Tail. Do you go near there?”

“Ain’t nobody on board to tell me not to. I’ll take you right to the front door. Watch that third step, though, board’s rotted.”

“Thank you, I’ll be careful.”

The driver put his headphones back on and began bouncing up and down in the seat. He stopped two blocks down, just in front of Rover’s Drive-In with the best hamburgers west of the Sillow River, sandwiched next to a storefront that advertised three justices of the peace, who were also notaries, on duty 24/7.

Lily closed her eyes. The bus started up again. No Wrinkles Remus was in her mind again, playing another angle.

“Hey.”

She looked up to see a young man swinging into the seat next to her. He simply lifted off the packages, set them on the seat opposite, and sat down.

For a moment, Lily was simply too surprised to think. She stared at the young man, no older than twenty, his black hair long, greasy, and tied back in a ratty ponytail. He had three silver hoops marching up his left ear.

He was wearing opaque sunglasses, an Orioles cap on his head, turned backward, and a roomy black leather jacket.

“My packages,” she said, cocking her head to one side. “Why did you put them over there?”

He gri

“You’re awful pretty. I wanted to sit next to you. I wanted to get real close to you.”

“No, I’m not particularly pretty. I’d like you to move. Lots of seat choice, since the bus is empty.”

“Nope, I’m staying right here. Maybe I’ll even get a little closer. Like I said, you’re real pretty.”

Lily looked up at the bus driver, but he was really into his rock ’n’ roll, bouncing so heavily on the seat that the bus was swerving a bit to the left, then back to the right.

Lily didn’t want trouble, she really didn’t. “All right,” she said and smiled at him. “I’ll move.”

“I don’t think so,” he said, his voice barely a whisper now, and he grabbed her arm to hold her still.

“Let go of me, buster, now.”

“I don’t think so. You know, I really don’t want to hurt you. It’s too bad because, like I said, you’re real pretty. A shame, but hey, I need money, you know?”

“You want to rob me?”

“Yeah, don’t worry that I’ll do anything else. I just want your wallet.” But he pulled a switchblade out of his inside jacket pocket, pressed a small button, and a very sharp blade flew out, long and thin, glittering.

She was afraid now, her heart pumping, bile rising in her throat. “Put the knife away. I’ll give you all my money. I don’t have much, but I’ll give you all I’ve got.”

He didn’t answer because he saw that the bus was slowing for the next stop. He said, low, “Sorry, no time for the money.”

He was going to kill her. The knife was coming right at her chest. She tightened, felt the stitches straining, but it didn’t matter.

“You fool,” she said. She drove her elbow right into his Adam’s apple, then right under his chin, knocking his head back, cutting off his breath. Still he held the knife, not four inches from her chest.

Twist left, make yourself a smaller target.

She turned, then did a right forearm hammer, thumb down smashing the inside of his right forearm.

Attack the person, not the weapon.

She grabbed his wrist with her left hand and did a right back forearm hammer to his throat. He grabbed his throat, gagging and wheezing for breath, and she slammed her fist into his chest, right over his heart. She grabbed his wrist and felt the knife slide out of his fingers, heard it thunk hard on the floor of the bus and slide beneath the seat in front of them.

The guy was in big trouble, couldn’t breathe, and she said, “Don’t you ever come near me again, you bastard.” And she smashed the flat of her palm against his ear.

He yelled, but it only came out as a gurgle since he still couldn’t draw a decent breath.

The bus had stopped right in front of The Mermaid’s Tail. The driver waved to her in the rearview mirror, still listening to his music, still chair-dancing. She didn’t know what to do. Call the cops? Then it was taken out of her hands. The young man lurched up, knowing he was in deep trouble, scooped up his knife, waved it toward the bus driver, who was now staring back at the two of them wide-eyed, no longer dancing. He waved the knife at her once, then ran to the front of the bus, jumped to the ground, and was ru

The bus driver yelled.

“It’s okay,” Lily said, gathering her bags together. “He was a mugger. I’m all right.”

“We need to get the cops.”

The last thing Lily wanted was to have to deal with the cops. The guy was gone. She felt suddenly very weak; her heart was pounding hard and loud. But her shoulders were straight. She was taller than she’d been just five minutes before. It hadn’t been much more than five minutes when she’d first gotten onto that empty bus, and then the young guy had come on and sat down beside her.

It didn’t matter that she felt like all her stitches were pulling, that her ribs ached and there were jabs of pain. She’d done it. She’d saved herself. She’d flattened the guy with the knife. She hadn’t forgotten all the moves her brother had taught her after she’d finally told him about Jack and what he’d done.

Dillon had said, squeezing her so hard she thought her ribs would cave in, “Dammit, Lily, I’m not about to let you ever be helpless again. No more victim, ever.” And he’d taught her how to fight, with two-year-old Beth shrieking and clapping as she looked on, swinging her teddy bear by its leg.

But he hadn’t been able to teach her for real-how to handle the bubbling fear that pulsed through her body when that knife was just a finger-length away. But she’d dealt with the fear, the brain-numbing shutdown. She’d done it.

She walked, straight and tall, her stitches pulling just a bit now, into The Mermaid’s Tail.

“Hello,” she called out, smiling at Mrs. Blade, who was working a crossword puzzle behind the counter.

“You look like you won the lottery, Mrs. Frasier. Hey, do you know a five-letter word for a monster assassin?”

“Hmmm. It could be me, you know, but Lily is only four letters. Sorry, Mrs. Blade.” Lily laughed and hauled her packages up the stairs.

“I’ve got it,” Mrs. Blade called out. “The monster assassin is a ‘slayer.’ You know, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ ”

“That’s six letters, Mrs. Blade.”

“Well, drat.”

Upstairs in her room, Lily arranged the small Victorian table at just the right angle to the bright sun. She carefully unwrapped all her supplies and arranged them. She knew she was on an adrenaline high, but it didn’t matter. She felt wonderful. Then she stopped cold.