Saving the Day

Dressed in a t-shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes for a day outdoors with a backpack slung over her shoulder, Gwen rang the doorbell of the Davis-Morales door. Inside, she heard the thumping of running feet before the door was swung open to reveal Miles, who was dressed the same as her except he also wore a baseball cap (though, it would be useless against the sun since he wore it backward). "Gwen!" he yelled before throwing his arms around her and squeezing her.

She gave his head a pat and remarked, "Wow, you've grown since I last saw you, huh?" It had only been about a month since she last saw her favorite kid, but Miles felt taller than he had before.

He pulled away and bobbed his head. "Mom and I went and got me new shoes last week 'cause my old ones were hurting my toes!"

Gwen smiled. "That's very cool."

He lifted his feet, showing them off to her. "They're Nikes!"

She whistled in a show of being impressed. "Awesome."

Grabbing her hand, he pulled her into his home. "Come on, let's get the money from Mom so we can go to the zoo!"

She let him guide him into the house and closed the front door behind her before Miles led her into the kitchen. It took her all of a second to realize that the cupboards were decorated with new artwork from Miles. She wondered if his parents had signed him up for some art class for the summer. If they had, she had to say it was a good choice. The paintings and drawings were all very vibrant and upbeat. It brought some nice summer cheer to the room.

"Gwen, hello!" Rio said, lifting her head above the door of her open fridge to smile at her. A moment later, she stepped away, two water bottles in hand, and closed the door. "I'm just finishing packing you kids some lunch for the zoo. "I hope you like empanadas and celery sticks with peanut butter."

"Yeah, that's great, Mrs. Morales."

The woman went to an open lunchbox on her counter and put the bottles in the mesh pockets on the sides. "Please, call me Rio," she said to her before going to a monkey-shaped cookie jar resting on top of her fridge and bringing it down. Opening it up, she pulled out a couple of subway passes and some dollar bills. "Here," she said, coming over to Gwen and putting the money and passes in her available hand. "For the subway, zoo, and ice cream."

Gwen pocket the money and passes in her short's front pockets. "Thanks, Rio," she replied.

The woman nodded and went back to the lunchbox. She closed it up and handed it over to her like she had the money. "Thank you so much for taking Miles today," she said. "He's been looking forward to the zoo since the end of the school year and Jefferson and I hated the thought of rescheduling after Miles has waited so patiently."

"It's not a problem," she reassured Miles's mom. "I hope your friend feels better."

The woman took Gwen's face in both her hands and said, "Oh, Gwen, you are a good girl."

She looked away and fought the urge to blush. She wasn't really that good. Gwen just didn't have anything better to do today. "Thanks," she mumbled before taking a small step back. "I'll have Miles back by six like we said."

Rio nodded before she turned to Miles. "Papá?" she prompted, opening her arms to her son. Without hesitation, Miles let go of Gwen's hand to throw himself at his mother, accepting her wet, smacking kisses on both his cheeks and forehead with a laugh. "Be a good boy for Gwen, got it, Miles?"

"Yeah, yeah, Mom," he agreed.

Letting her son go, she said to both of them, "See you kids later." Before she ushered them back down the hallway and out the front door. "Oh, Gwen, Miles has my friend's home number if you need to reach me!"

Gwen turned her head and waved at the woman. "Thanks, Rio, bye!"

-o-O-o-

Taking the steps up from the subway with Miles two-by-two, they laugh upon reaching the landing to the street at the same time. "No winners today!" Gwen said as she took his hand and started walking them down the street in the direction of a location of her bank's branch. She'd meant to stop for money on her way to pick up Miles, but had woken up late this morning and hadn't the time. It took a minute, but Miles seemed to realize they weren't going in the direction of the zoo as he was frowning and kept looking over his shoulder. Finally, he tugged on the hand he was holding.

"Why are we going this way, Gwen? The zoo's that way!" he said, looking behind himself again and pointing with his free hand.

She gave his hand a squeeze and smiled down at him. "I know," she replied, "we're making a quick stop at the bank first, is all. I just need to get some money in case we want souvenirs at the zoo."

His eyes went wide with interest. "Souvenirs?"

Gwen nodded. "Sure," she answered. "I don't go to the zoo a lot. I bet you don't either, right?"

His expression took on a speculative note as he turned his gaze skyward. "Mom and Dad took me twice last summer," he said, putting up two fingers for her to see, "and this is my first time this summer!"

"See?" Gwen replied, vindicated. "That's not a lot. I used to go four or five times a summer when I was a kid." She smiled at Miles and leaned down to say, like she was imparting a secret, "Though, I think I only went that often because my grandpa really got a kick out of watching the sea lions."

"Those are my favorite too!" Miles exclaimed.

She laughed. "We'll have to make a point to see them then, huh, kiddo?"

He nodded as they turned off the sidewalk and went up the steps to the bank's revolving glass doors. He frowned as Gwen pushed them through the doors only to reveal that the lobby was filled with a decent amount of people waiting in lines to see the three tellers on duty. "Will this take long?" he asked.

She shook her head as she led them over to the table with the withdrawal slips. "Oh, no, not at all kiddo," she reassured as she picked up a pen and began to fill out a slip. "You'll see."

He bumped into her side, trying to peek at her slip. "What are you doing?" he asked.

She lifted it up and showed Miles her half-filled withdrawal slip. "I'm filling out a form that's for requesting money. It's the bank's way of keeping track of money going and leaving my account here."

Miles blinked. "Oh."

Finishing off her slip, she asked, "You don't go to the bank with your parents much, huh?"

He shook his head. "No," he answered, "Mom and Dad use the TYME machine."

Putting the cap back on the pen, Gwen reached for Miles's hand with the one not holding her slip. "I bet they have debit cards, don't they?"

"Uh-huh!"

She smiled at Miles as they got themselves the shortest line. "I don't have one yet, so I can't use one to get money," she explained. "My Dad says I can get one when I turn eighteen."

Standing on his toes and stretching his neck to look around the people in line in front of them to see the teller at the window, Miles asked her, "When's that?"

Gwen began to look around. Something was wrong, her spidey-senses told her that much, but what? As she continued to scan the lobby, looking for something that seemed off, she answered, "Oh, another year."

Miles gasped. "That's so long!"

She trained her eyes on a couple of men wearing the hoods of their oversized sweatshirts up. The strings were drawn tight around their faces. She wondered if it was them that was eliciting the sense of danger she felt. "You think so?" Gwen replied, almost absently to Miles's exclamation.

"Yeah!" he answered. "I'll be seven then."

Her mouth fell open as she saw the men reach into the waistbands of their jeans. "Woah—" she started only to stop short.

"Gwen?" Miles asked, concerned.

She yanked Miles down to the floor, hissing in his ear, "Down! Down! Get down!"

From where he was now crouched down behind her, he leaned against her shoulder and whispered, "Gwen, what's going on?"

She ignored his question in favor of watching one of the men shove past those in line and go up to the window of the teller where he started to wave the gun around for them to see. Realizing they probably had less than a minute before this turned into an entire shit-show, Gwen told the kid, "Miles, can you open the top pocket of my backpack?"

"Everyone down on the ground!" boomed the robber who wasn't menacing the teller. Putting up his own gun up for all to see, he yelled, "Now!"

Gwen moved from her crouch into a seated position and pushed down on Miles's shoulder to make him do the same.

His warm breath fanned across her ear as he asked in a shaking murmur, "Is the bank being robbed?"

Gwen ground her teeth together and growled, low and forceful, "Miles, my backpack, now!"

"Sorry," he replied before she felt the tug of one of her bag's zippers being undone.

Relieved he was listening and keeping some of his whits abou him, she tilted her head just so and said when the robber in charge of keeping the customers in place turned his back to her, "Good boy, do you feel my cellphone in there? I want you to pull it out."

A moment later, he mumbled, "I got it."

"Call your dad and tell him which bank we're at," she hissed back.

"Put all the money in there," the robber at the teller window demanded as he brought out a trash bag. However, he paused in his actions and turned to look down at a woman in a business suit huddled under the teller window next to him. "Hey! What the fuck are you doin'?" he roared at her. Jabbing his gun in her face he ordered, "You give me that right now you cunt!"

Trembling from head to toe, the woman offered up to the robber a cellphone.

Instead of taking it, he knocked from her hands with his foot and stomped on it as he cussed, "Fucking bitch!"

The other robber in charge of keeping Gwen, Miles, and the other bank-goers subdued stepped forward and yelled, "Everyone gimme their phones now or I'll shoot!"

"Gwen?" Miles whimpered.

She wanted to turn around and hug the little boy, but knew that would be a very bad idea after what had just happened. So, she settled for leaning back just a little so her head bumped into his as she muttered, "Shh, he's not gonna think you have one. You're just little."

His voice was still shaky as he told her, "I called Uncle Aaron by accident."

She just barely suppressed a flinch. Gwen hadn't seen him since that night where he had to pick up her drunk ass from that street corner and babysit her through the night. She knew she had to figure out a way to thank him, as long ago as it was now, because he'd really done her a favor keeping the whole thing to himself and not even insinuating something to Miles parents about her being irresponsible. Sucking in a long breath, she forced herself to calm down and asked, "What?"

"His name was first!" Miles whined. "I was scared and I saw it and—"

Gwen jabbed him in the stomach. He was getting loud and that was not good. The bank robbers were looking especially twitchy now that they'd collected a dozen or more cellphones. It appeared they were beginning to realize they'd perhaps not thought out whatever their plan was as well as they'd thought. "Oh, for the love of—" she complained only for Miles to poke her back on the shoulder.

"He's talking on it," Miles whispered.

Gwen hissed over her shoulder, "Be very slow and bring it close to your mouth so you can tell him our location. We'll hope he tells your dad where we are. I'm sure he already knows it's being robbed…"

There was a bout of silence followed by Miles whispering the name and location of the bank. A moment later there was a quiet click and he murmured into her ear, "I told Uncle Aaron and hung up."

Relief washed over Gwen. Hopefully, the police would be here soon then. "Good boy," she praised. "Hide it in your pocket now, okay?" she told him as her spidey-senses tingling intensified.

"Hey, what are you kids doing?" the robber watching them all demanded when his eyes landed on a moving Miles.

Thinking fast as he approached them at a clipped pace, Gwen forced her eyes wide and cried, "Sorry! He has to pee, please don't hurt us!"

He stopped a little over a foot away from them, a mean scowl on his face. "Stupid kids…" he complained.

The other robber, who was starting on filling another bag with money ordered, "Take them to the bathroom. I don't want to smell his piss."

He looked away from Gwen and Miles to his partner. "Len—" he started only to be cut off by the other.

"Now!" he boomed.

The robber's body tensed, but he listened. Gesturing for them to get to their feet, he said, "Come on, kids."

"Gwen?" Miles warbled from behind.

Feeling it was now safe to, she reached behind and grabbed one of the kid's hands. "It's okay," she reassured Miles as she carefully pulled them into a stand. "You can go pee and everything is going to be just fine."

Miles gave a very small nod and pressed himself flush against her as they approached the robber who guided them out of the lobby and down the short corridor to the bathrooms. When they reached them Gwen was going to follow Miles into the men's bathroom since he was still holding her hand so tight, but the robber laid his arm across the door, stopping them. "Whoah, whoah, you stay here with me," he said to Gwen.

"Gwen?" Miles said, eyes huge and scared.

She crouched down to his height and took his face in her hands. "I'm going to be right here, okay? Everything is going to be fine."

Miles's lip quivered, but he nodded and this time, when he went to push open the bathroom door, the robber let him. Standing back up, Gwen brushed imaginary dust from her shorts and decided to train her attention on the men's room door. She didn't want to accidentally get on the bad side of the robber by looking too much at him or just around in case he thought she was looking for an escape. Slowly, a minute passed, then another. The robber began to shift from foot to foot. Finally, he looked at her and demanded, "Why the Hell is he taking so long?"

Gwen shrugged. She was getting worried herself, though. Miles hadn't really needed to pee as far as she knew. Even if he had decided to use the bathroom, he shouldn't still be in there. "Maybe he had to do more than pee," she suggested. Chancing a glare in his direction, she said, harder, "He's six, by the way. He could also just be crying in a corner of the room scared of out his mind."

"Mother—" the robber started, only to stop. Shooting out, he grabbed Gwen's arm and growled, "Come on, let's get the lil'shit." She let herself be yanked into the bathroom (like there was any other choice right now), however, once they were in, the man's grasp on her went abruptly slack as he gave a short cry of pain and fell to the floor. Staring at his figure splayed out in front of her, Gwen tried to process what had just happened when she felt Miles's skinny arms wrap around her middle. "Gwen!" he cried, "we're gonna be okay! The Prowler's here!"

She looked up from the robber's prone form and felt her heart stutter. Standing in front of her was the Prowler, staring straight down at her and Miles. Unthinkingly, Gwen muttered, "I wish you'd just called your dad." As she wrapped her arms around Miles and pulled them aside, allowing the villain, and Miles personal hero, to leave the bathroom. Taking off her belt, she looked to Miles and suggested, "Why don't you sing me some Ricky Martin while I take care of this guy so he can't hurt us if he comes to?"

Grinning like all was well with the world again, Miles began to belt out, "Ella es una mujer especial, como caída de otro planeta…" While Gwen, for her part, took the gun off the robber, turned on the safety and took out its bullets and pocketed them before she used her belt to tie up his legs.

While she wasn't familiar with the song Miles was singing, she did join him once he hit the chorus for a second time. Mostly to help drown out the screaming and shouting from the lobby (though, it was catchy). Hopefully, that would die down once everyone there realized the Prowler was only here to take out the robbers, not join them. Or at least she could hope so, right?

How did you like the first half of this story guys?

Thanks a million for reading!