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“Hey!” I hear Lily’s voice call me from two stories over.
“Shh!” I shush her loudly, and I think she takes the hint when she goes silent.
By now, the guy under my feet has noticed me and he’s standing there on ground level and looking up at me as I flash my light on his face.
“Can I help you?” I impose in my best tone of intimidation.
“Just sheltering from the blackout,” he says, mouth left ajar.
His voice is familiar, and I can see clearly now that he has a woman’s purse hanging from his shoulder. I can also see he has gloves on.
“Where did you get that bag?” I ask.
He looks from me to the bag in a mixture of disbelief and fear.
“How can you see…?”
I snap a picture of him just for good measure, coming as close as I can to his face.
“Did you steal it in front of the Fountain House?”
“Huh…” He gives a few steps backwards and starts to run.
“Shit!” Without thinking, I jump eight feet down to go after him and feel it in my knees.
At thirty-five, I’m not that young anymore, but I’m still fast enough to keep him within my sights even in complete darkness.
“Come back!” I yell.
He runs out of the alley and into the street, crossing the pavement at blinding speed.
“I said come here!”
Before he reaches the rest of the people trying to flee the blackout, I’m able to grab for his shoulder and hold on to the purse handles.
“Stay right there!” I command, but not only does he drop the purse to get rid of me, but also turns around to hit me with a gust of pepper spray.
My quick reflexes allow me to shield my eyes a little, but my whole face still burns.
Even though I brave through it, it’s already too late; he disappears in the anxious crowd and I’m unable to keep on following. However, the purse was left at my feet, and I take it as my trophy before heading back to the apartment building.
I wonder how I am going to get back in, since I don’t even have a way to call Sandra without a cellphone signal. But as I stumble towards the apartment building, I hear Sandra and Lily calling out as soon as I approach them.
“What the hell were you doing?” Sandra calls out from the living room window.
“Being chivalrous!” I say, holding up the purse.
When I get to the front door, princess is already there, waiting for me.
She holds a large flashlight, and shines it directly in my eyes, which adds to the discomfort of the pepper spray tenfold.
“Please don’t do that,” I grumble, grumpiness taking over.
“Sorry not sorry,” Lily giggles but turns the light to the ground.
“Tell me this is your purse,” I hand her the bag. She examines it quickly, pulling out the flowers I gave her the very next second.
“You’re a wizard!” She lets out, sounding impressed. “Was it Ben?”
