“Where?”
“The blank spot on the wall next to the front windows. Use this special tape.”
Serge resumed with accelerated motion, frantically festooning case after case. Coleman slowly taped up a few strings of his own lights.
A half hour later, they finished at the same time. Serge beamed with pride. “There! Now, to set the whole neighborhood ablaze with good cheer!”
He grabbed the main power supply cable from the house, ready to plug it into the primary string of lights. “Countdown! Five, four, three, two, one-”
A screech of tires. A GTX with gold rims skidded up to the curb in front of the Davenport residence.
Serge squinted and growled.
Inside the car, heavy necking.
“Wow,” said Coleman. “They’re really going at it.”
“Mr. Snake is getting on my last nerve. Nicole is just a kid.”
“They’re going at it even more.”
Serge stepped forward for a better view. “That’s too much activity for making out. Something’s not right.”
“Maybe they’re doing it.”
“Shut up, Coleman.”
From the car: “Stop! Let go of me! I said stop!..”
“Look,” said Coleman. “He’s grabbing her wrists. Now she’s screaming bloody murder.”
“Motherfucker!” Serge was ready to blast into a sprint.
Coleman became puzzled. “Why are you stopping?”
“Over there.” Serge pointed. “The front door opened. Jim’s running down to the street. It will be better in Nicole’s eyes if her father rescues her.”
The screaming brought other neighbors out onto their porches, just in time to see Jim reach the car. He opened the passenger door and pulled Nicole free. They both tumbled backward onto the lawn.
The driver’s door flew open. Snake raced around the car, tackling Jim. He jumped on top and began smashing away with pile-driver fists. Jim covered up the best he could, but still took an ugly beating to the face. Nicole jumped on Snake’s back. “Get off my father!”
Snake turned and gave her a wicked backhand slap across the face, knocking the girl to the ground. Then returned his attention to Jim, pummeling away again.
Suddenly Jim felt Snake’s deadweight collapse on him. He slowly uncovered his eyes to see Serge standing over them with brass knuckles on his right hand.
“Daddy!” Nicole crawled over, crying, and pushed Snake off him. “You’re bleeding!”
“I’m okay, honey.” Jim got up and hugged his daughter. Then he looked over at Serge. “Thank you.”
Serge’s mouth was solemn. “You two just go in the house.”
Jim looked down. “But what about-”
“Don’t worry about him,” said Serge. “Forget all this happened. Right now you need to get inside and take care of each other.”
Jim nodded, and he and Nicole walked toward the porch steps with arms around each other.
A shuttle bus pulled up the driveway at Bayshore Manors.
The staff gingerly helped four elderly women out of the vehicle.
The facility’s director came out in alarm. “Where’d you find them?”
“A club in Ybor City,” said the driver. “With shirtless male bartenders.”
“How’d they get the shuttle bus?”
A shrug.
“Okay, take them inside. It’s getting late…”
The quartet of women shuffled into the dayroom to watch Seinfeld in syndication.
“They caught us,” said Edna.
“So what?” said Edith. “They just brought us back. I told you we wouldn’t get in trouble.”
“They’re going to do something,” said Eunice.
“No they’re not.”
One of the caregivers walked over with a look of concern. “You really had us scared. Please don’t do that again.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
The woman walked away.
Edith smiled at the others. “See?”
“Well, at least it was fun while it lasted,” said Ethel.
“What are you talking about?” said Edith. “That just whetted my appetite.”
“But they locked up the keys to the shuttle bus,” said Eunice. “We won’t be able to get away now.”
“So we’ll call a cab.”
“And do what?” said Ethel.
“We need to hook up with someone we already know, for safe harbor.” Edith got up and shuffled across the room. “So they won’t be able to track us down next time.”
“Where are you going?” asked Edna.
“To the computers.”
“I don’t think they’ll let us on after what we pulled today,” said Ethel.
“Of course they will,” said Edith. “They’re always encouraging us to get online and keep our minds sharp.”
A few minutes later, the rest of the G-Unit huddled around Edith, tapping away on the keyboard.
“Facebook?” said Edna.
Tap, tap, tap. “You can find anybody on Facebook.” A few more keystrokes. Edith sat back, gesturing at the screen. “And I just found him.”
“ That guy?” said Ethel.
Edith leaned forward again and typed. “I’ll just send him a message, and then we wait and keep checking the computer until he responds.”
“How do you know he’ll respond?”
“I hit him with a snowball.”
Two hours after sunset. Four lawn chairs sat in a row on the front yard, facing the house.
A patio table at the end, with bottles of booze and an ashtray full of roaches.
“Hurry up already!” said City.
Country took a hit and stubbed out another joint. “Stupid Christmas lights. This better be good.”
“It’s going to be great!” said Serge. He held a pair of electric cords a few inches apart. “Countdown: three, two, one!” He plugged them in.
Their faces lit up with awe at the bright, reflected light of over a thousand colorful little bulbs.
“Ooooooooooo.”
Even City and Country were impressed.
“I especially like what you did with the palm trees,” said City.
“Looks like a Corona beer ad,” said Country. She turned back to the house. “But what’s that dark spot. The lights didn’t go on.”
“That’s Coleman’s project.”
“Serge,” asked Coleman. “Can I do mine now?”
“Just one second,” said Serge. “I want to set the mood. Did you know that the first Christmas ever
