Courting Trouble

a sparking skeleton as the first fireworks went off in the night sky over the Art Museum, and the crowd oohed, aahed, and clapped. The explosion reverberated in Anne’s heart but she kept her eye on Kevin, so she wouldn’t lose him. His shaved head turned toward the hoagie tent. He was looking for her.

Anne suppressed a shudder and slid her hand into her pocket. Her fingers found the Beretta’s grip, now warm with the heat of her body. She willed herself not to be afraid and edged out of the line, going to her right, so that the line lay between her and Kevin. Everyone was looking up at the fireworks, except for him. She could see him as he faced the line. She would have to come up from behind him.

Fireworks shot hissing into the air, their launching convulsive, soaring to the heavens, where they exploded into glittery red, white, and blue sprays. They left searing white lights suspended in the air like incendiary fairies and detonated with a thunder that sent little kids covering their ears.

Anne was on the move. She walked behind the line slowly, so she didn’t lose Kevin or draw his attention in her white dress. It stood out at night. Thank God she had found him first. Ca-shoosh! Ca-shoosh! Fireworks went off with cacophonous screeching. Howling curlicues of red, green, and blue spiraled into the firmament. The colors tinged the faces around her, then they’d fall again into darkness.

Anne reached the tent and continued around the back. People stood still, transfixed by the show in the sky. Kevin was turning his head, scanning the line for her. His eyes narrowed to slits. His mouth flattened to a grim line of purpose. She felt her heart pounding.

She checked the cops’ position. They stood stationed at the cash barrel to her left. She thought about running to them right now and pointing Kevin out, but she wasn’t sure she could convince them fast enough, before he ran off, or maybe hurt somebody. She had a better idea. She’d come up from behind, stick the gun in Kevin’s back, then move him toward the police and away from the crowd, so nobody would get hurt. As soon as she had flanked him successfully, she’d yell for help. General George Washington, riding his bronze horse not fifty feet away, would have been proud.

Ca-shoosh! The air smelled of smoke. Cinders fell like blackened snowflakes. Anne snuck around the tent and got a bead on the back of Kevin’s head. She had him now. She was directly behind him, with only the rapt crowd in between. She picked up speed and moved through the crowd. Closing in at thirty feet. Then twenty. Ten.

Anne’s blood drummed in her ears. She gripped the Beretta’s handle so tightly its hatchmarks imprinted on her palm. Her hand was shaking but she ignored it. Boom! Firework palm trees in green glitter waved in the air, and the crowd laughed. She was so close to Kevin she could count the bumps on his scalp. A group of rowdy teenagers partied between them, wearing blue football jerseys and waving Heinekens and show- off cigars.

Bang! Bang! Fireworks like red pompoms flamed overhead and their red glitter dissolved to hearts glowing in the sky. The teenagers cheered, raising green bottles of beer, and Anne threaded her way through them. Their cigar smoke blew toward Kevin, wreathing his head.

Her stomach steeled. Her heart seemed to stop. She felt oddly like someone else, someone braver than herself. She inched the Beretta from her pocket.

Pow! Pow! A wolf pack of white lights detonated in a frenzy that got the teenagers hooting in her ears. Anne had almost passed them when Kevin moved away and started walking toward the tent. Even better. She’d have him where she wanted him, closer to the cops. The two uniforms remained at the cash barrel, their blue caps silhouetted in the light from the tent. It was time. Go. She drew her Beretta and held it at her hip.

“Hey, gorgeous, where you going so fast?” asked one of the football players. He sidestepped into her path, blocking her view of Kevin.

“Move, please!” Anne started to go around him, but he grabbed her arm and spun her around so quickly she almost dropped the gun.

“What’s your hurry, honey? Dontcha wanna watch the fireworks with me?”

“Leave me alone!” Anne wrenched her arm free and rushed frantic around him.

But Kevin wasn’t standing where he’d been a moment ago. She looked around wildly. He had disappeared. Only the crowd was facing her; men, women, and children looking up at the fireworks. Had she lost him? No!

Anne plunged into the crowd around the tent. She couldn’t lose Kevin, not now. She searched the mob but he wasn’t there. Had he gone on the other side of the line, like she had? She let the Beretta slip back into her pocket.

Ka-BOOM! Ka-BOOM! Silvery streams sprayed all over the sky, as if heaven itself had sprung a huge leak, as the fireworks segued into the finale. Ka-BOOM! Ka-BOOM! The sky erupted into rapid-fire explosions, like a war zone. Ka-BOOM! Ka-BOOM!

Anne hurried to the tent, looking everywhere for Kevin. His shaven head, his black T-shirt. People stood riveted, cheering. No Kevin. She wanted to scream with frustration. She thought fast. Time for Plan B. She had lost sight of Kevin, but she would not lose him. She turned and looked for the cops, to tell them. They’d call for backup; he couldn’t be far.

Suddenly Anne was grabbed from behind and her right arm wrenched up behind her. Something sharp cut deep into her back. She was about to scream when she heard a hot voice at her ear, against her cheek.

“Don’t scream or I’ll drive a hunting knife through your heart.” It was Kevin.

Anne froze with fear. Her shoulder seared with pain. The knife dug into her back. She wanted to scream but he’d stab her on the spot. She couldn’t reach her gun with her left hand. Even if she could, she couldn’t shoot in this crowd. She didn’t know what to do. Her heels left the ground as Kevin lifted her up by her arm and propelled her forward, away from the tent and the police. The knife sliced between her ribs. Anne struggled to think through her terror.

Kevin cranked her arm up farther. “You’re coming with me. You won’t get away from me this time. You’re mine, now. Finally.”

Tears of fright sprang to her eyes. He was breaking her arm at the shoulder. The fireworks erupted into their high-decibel finale. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The sky was a canopy of white lights, smoke, and thunder. Anne prayed to God it wasn’t the last sight she’d see.

Kevin put his cheek close to hers, driving her forward with the knife. “You bitch, I dreamed of you every night. I looked at your picture every minute. I wrote to you, called you, bought you gifts. Flowers, jewelry, poems, candy. I gave you everything I had. I was devoted to you, dedicated to you. “

Anne tried to make sense of what was happening. She had to survive. The knifepoint drilled into her back, now hot and warm with blood. Her blood.

She tried not to panic as Kevin hurried her through the crowd to the street, shoving her toward the apartment buildings and the grove of trees and bushes at the dark edge of the park. Nobody was around. Trees blocked them from view. Maybe she could reach her gun. Get off a shot without hurting anybody else.

Kevin’s breath grew heated. “I loved your face. I loved your body. I loved every inch of you. I would have done anything for you. Anything, Anne.”

Ka-BOOM! Ka-BOOM! Kevin was taking her past the bushes. Heading around the back of an apartment building toward the Expressway. Anne could feel the weight of the Beretta in her pocket. It banged into her thigh. Could she wrap her hand across her body?

“You played me, you fucking bitch!” Kevin’s voice shook with pent-up rage, unleashed. “You threw me away! You sent me to prison! You know what that’s like? You know what I went through in there? Because of you, you fucking bitch! I hate you! I hate your fucking guts!”

Anne blocked out his words; they paralyzed her. She had saved herself from him once before. She could do it again. She forced herself to wait for the right moment. It would come. She would get the gun.

Ka-BOOM! Ka-BOOM! Red, white, and blue lashed through the leaves of the trees.

“I’ll love killing you, Anne. Love every single fucking minute of it. I’ll make it last forever. It’ll be the best sex of your life.”

Anne felt a bolt of sheer terror. Kevin was forcing her toward a deserted stretch by the Expressway, strewn with trash and litter. They were almost at the back of the building. Nobody to see them here. Her eyes filled with tears. Her gut told her this would be her last moment on the planet. She had nothing to lose. No one here to get