�I�ve had just about enough of you, old man,� Vittorio responded, accompanied by a menacing point of his gun.
Finally I spoke up, �Vittorio, Caolin, this is madness. You have to use reason to get through this. Vittorio is losing a lot of blood. He needs medical attention. You won�t get away from this. So why make it worse for yourselves and everyone else.� Surprisingly I was answered by silence.
Finally Vittorio said drearily, �No, we�ll find away out of this. Just let me think. Shut your cake hole and let me think.� He slumped down by the barricade and clutched his arm.
I looked over to the young woman who had entered the store with the child. �Are you okay?� I said. She nodded her head affirmatively. �And what about you?� I said to the little boy. Instead of burying his head in his mom�s shoulder like I expected, he just stared at me with big lucid brown eyes.
�My name�s Tyrone,� he said proudly.
�I�m Yvonnel and this is my son Tyrone,� the young woman stated.
�Well, Yvonnel and Tyrone, I wish we could meet under better circumstances, but I am Gretchen.� She smiled thinly and nodded and returned to her staring at Vittorio�s gun. I followed her stare and opened my eyes wide with recognition as the gun slowly slipped from his limp hand. Looking over at Caolin, I realized he hadn�t yet noticed. Suddenly Felix stood up and squared off on Caolin, �Your �friend� is dead or dying, boy. You are obviously not very good at this. So end this farce while you still can and keep your life.�
Caolin looked at him as if he had been slapped. Then his gun drooped. It looked as if he would drop it. Then the phone rang. He snapped the gun up and pointed it at Felix and said, �Listen I don�t want to hurt any of you, but I can�t be sent to jail. Dying is better than living like that. I wouldn�t survive. I need�� He snapped up the phone, still eyeing Felix. �Yeah� Yeah� They will be okay� Yes � No� I� We just want out�� Hanging up the phone, he turned to Charlie. �Is there a back way out of here?�
�You won�t make it,� Charlie said.
�If I take the boy with me I will.�
Yvonnel wailed, �Nooo!� and clutched Tyrone breaking into sobs.
�No, Caolin. Take me instead. The boy won�t keep up. Besides, they won�t shoot a nun anymore than they will a little boy.
Yvonnel and Caolin both turned on me and exclaimed together, �You�re a Nun?�
I said, �Everyone is always so surprised, I guess I don�t radiate holiness as I should and this and that. Let�s go Caolin. Are you coming?�
He stared and said stupidly, �You don�t look like a nun. I�m sorry for all this.�
�Caolin, not all nuns wear the habit, nor are we any more deserving of your touching sympathies than any other good people. The time for sorry has come and gone. Now why don�t we leave this place and you can start to make your amends that way.�
�Vittorio��
�The police will take him. It�s his only chance. He�ll be okay.�
�I don�t even know him really, he was just�there,� Caolin stated somberly as he picked up the satchel filled with the ill-gotten loot.
�Why did you do this, Caolin?� I asked with honest curiosity as I watched him stuff stray bills into the bag.
He rolled up his arms and showed me the scabs covering his forearms. I nodded and looked into his glassy eyes. I had figured as much.
�I have to shoot up between my toes anymore,� he said in a bizarre confessional. �I try to stop, but now you see why I can�t survive jail. I�ve lost everything because of this. My family, my girlfriend, my whole life.�
�Caolin, I understand. Bad choices have a way of changing lives completely. My choices as little more than a child caused me to lose the one person that should have been the most important to me in life, my own child. When I first saw you today I thought you reminded me of him. Your hair, your eyes, even your mannerisms, they are how I imagine his are. He�s probably your age now.�
He looked at me with red moisture rimmed eyes.
�But I realized something just now. You don�t remind me of him as much. That is a fantasy. I gave him up as a baby and my father sent me away to the convent for school. You remind me of myself. I have spent most of my life seeking to hide from the mistakes of youth. First in alcohol, then in isolation, finally in academics. I�ve hidden in the darkness most of my life. It�s time to find the light, let�s go. It�s time to get you help.�
�Okay,� he said like a child.
Charlie and Felix hugged me with fatherly love and told me to be careful, Yvonnel moved slowly towards the door with Tyrone, but she didn�t climb the barricade. Charlie quickly showed us to a back stock room up three steps and out a heavily barred door to the fire escape. Caolin and I stood on the fire escape. I heard what had to be Yvonnel tearing at the barricade inside. I looked at Caolin and asked him, �Do you believe in God Caolin?�
He looked at me wide eyed and said, �I�m Catholic.�
I laughed and said, �That�s not what I asked.�
He looked out into the bright sun glinting off galvanized steel roofing and said, �Anymore�only when I�m high.�
I looked into his eyes, and then down the fire escape. I started down the rusted iron steps until I heard the unmistakable sound of many footsteps running on the pavement below. Caolin quickly jerked my arm and forced me to jump the three feet or so onto the steel roof of the next door building. Running along the slippery surface as stealthily as a dump truck, I whispered to Caolin, �I can�t run anymore. Neither can you.�
He looked back at me, started to say something, but then he heard those footsteps again. Noticing the building�s fire escape he pushed me down it. Falling to my knees into the alley I rose to the sight of three policemen rounding the corner guns drawn. They shouted, �Freeze!�
Caolin looked back at me with a look of apology in his eyes, turned, threw the satchel into the alley in an attempt to obstruct the view of the police, and bolted towards the other side of the alley. The ringing sounds of gunfire crackled in the shadowed alley as bullets cut through the air. I cried out and slumped against the iron frame as Caolin�s body hit the ground hard. His bloody hand reached out of the darkened alley into the sun and pointed towards a rare cherry tree that grew surrounded by the pavement of sidewalk and street. My eyes drifted up and I sat motionless in the rain of dollar bills and cherry blossoms.
