A few weeks later Jia steps off the train in San Francisco. Carly agreed to meet her at the station and then they’re going to cruise around town all day. This is Carly’s first time in the city so they’re hitting the tourist spots. She’s already meticulously researched everywhere she wants to go so Jia’s job is to recommend great places to eat and drink.
Carly isn’t hard to spot sitting out front in a bright pink convertible, practically beaming, while Hank sits in the passenger seat looking ill. Jia rushes to hug Carly before tossing her bag in the back seat and swinging her legs over the side of the car. “Not a fan of doors?” Carly asks.
“Nah, this way’s faster and makes me look cool.”
Cruising toward the waterfront they catch up on life. Jia thought this was going to be a fun day but before long she starts feeling inadequate. Carly works for a financial planning firm and a major company in San Francisco is considering hiring them. She won’t say who the company is but implies it’s a soda company who love holiday ad campaigns. If the car they’re cruising around in is any indication the job’s a good fit for her.
Carly keeps turning to look at Jia while Jia and Hank beg her to keep her eyes on the road. They almost hit multiple cars on the way and no less than three people flip them off. You’d think Hank would be used to Carly’s driving but he looks as green as the first time he rode in a car with her.
Suggesting brunch she asks Jia for somewhere fancy. Jia throws out a few cheaper options, afraid the money her mother gave her won’t cover things. After turning down a few options, Carly mentions she can write today off as a business expense so it’s all on her. Suddenly the options open up.
They decide on an upscale Mexican place Jia’s been to a few times. The food’s awesome and you get unlimited mimosas with brunch. Carly doesn’t need any more convincing.
As the drinks flow Carly dominates the conversation. She’s always been a talker and Jia doesn’t have anything going on she can talk about, at least not anything she can share. “Don’t get too excited, but me and Hank are thinking about moving in together.”
Jia practically snorts. “About time, you two started going out three years ago. What took so long?”
“Well I couldn’t abandon you to a new roommate our last couple years. They might have put you with a freshman. If all goes well and we get this client though, I actually might be moving out here to handle their account. I’d be on the west coast for good.”
Getting to see Carly more often would be awesome. They’ve tried to stay in touch since graduation but it’s hard when you’re living life on opposite sides of the country. It still stings. Carly’s thriving and moving forward with her life while Jia’s stuck. If they’re close they can actually see each other regularly and she can’t hide from that.
Jia turns to Hank. “How do you feel about that? Don’t you have a job where you are?”
“Nothing I can’t do wherever I am, I got hired programming for a big company but I work from home most days. I don’t think they’d have a problem with me working out here. I’d have to fly back and forth some but we can manage it.”
Time flies as they eat fajitas and drink mimosas. Once they have a half dozen drinks in them they decide it’s time to pay the check and move on. Carly has the whole day planned out in order. “We’re going to see the Golden Gate Bridge and then we’ll hang by the waterfront. Someone back home was telling me about the sea lions and I’m dying to see them.”
Thinking about how to tackle this, Jia says, “We can get to both of those without much trouble. Let’s start with the waterfront though. We can walk under the bridge and check out the vendors.” Jia’s favorite part of San Francisco has always been the sea lions. As nice as it is today, there should be plenty out. As they scarf the last of their food they decide it’s so nice they’ll walk. With how much they’ve been drinking, that seems like the safe way to go.
Hank’s quiet as they walk along. Once in awhile he’ll inject himself into a conversation but mostly he lets the girls talk. They’ve never been that close, but Jia knows him well enough to know something isn’t right. She thinks about asking, but doesn’t want to ruin what has otherwise been an awesome day. She figures Carly has to see it but she doesn’t say anything either.
As they get closer to the sea lions, Jia starts talking them up. With how close her family is to San Francisco she’s spent a lot of time here. She’s never really liked it though. Too many people. If they ever had to come into the city though all her parents had to do was tell her they’d see the sea lions and she was on board.
Nearing the water, they pass an abandoned building with the windows broken out and the door hanging open. Jia happens to look inside where she sees two men being held at gunpoint by another. None of them are moving, though the man with the gun seems focused. The men being held at gunpoint are wearing matching jean jackets. One’s Hispanic while the other’s a bigger black guy. The man with the gun’s wearing a mask that covers his face but is otherwise dressed like a businessman. His lips move like he’s saying something but between the sound of the water and how far they are away, Jia can’t make out what. Jia immediately jumps out of view, pulling Carly and Hank with her.
Afraid one of them is going to yell and blow their cover, Jia shoves a hand over each of their mouths. She gives them each a look that she hopes says, “Trust me,” before slowly removing her hands. Peeking around the corner, she can see the man with the gun shoving it in one of the other guys’ face.
She grabs Hank by the wrist and pulls him close enough that he can get a look. She decides not to show Carly. She isn’t good with stress. Jia still remembers a few years ago a frog got into their apartment. She walked in to find Carly literally sitting on top of her desk. She refused to get down until Jia caught the frog and removed it from the apartment.
Dialing 911 on her cell phone Jia’s relieved when she gets a quick answer. She whispers into her phone that there’s a man with a gun holding up two other men. She tries to describe their location but she only has a vague idea where they are. It’s hard to give the lady on the phone a great idea. She gives the okay to ping their GPS so hopefully the cops can figure it out.
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Suddenly a gunshot rings out. Hank moves to get a hand over Carly’s mouth before she can give them away. Jia doesn’t want to look through the window and see what happened but the 911 operator heard the shot as well and she needs to know. A quick glance allows for a sigh of relief. One of the men’s now on the ground crying while the other leans over him. Neither seems to have been shot, at least not yet.
Jia looks around her environment, considering options. The next gunshot might be more serious. She doesn’t have a weapon and even if she did, she doesn’t know how to use one. She does notice the man with the gun’s facing away from her.
Looking to Hank and Carly, she says, “Stay here,” before handing her phone to Hank. “If this goes bad, run and don’t look back.” Carly’s eyes go wide. She’s always been pale but now she’s whiter than snow. Hank manages a nod. He seems to be holding himself together. Jia’s happy to see someone is.
A few feet into the building there’s a box of crates that could make good cover. Going out so much at night, she’s gotten used to operating quietly in recent weeks and she’s confident she can get there without issue. The other half of the way to the group’s going to be the tricky part. Even if she gets to the crates that leaves at least ten feet to cover without being seen or heard before she’ll reach the man with the gun.
Even if she’s quiet there’s no guarantee one of the men being held up won’t see her and give her away. She could wait; she probably should wait. There’s still no sound of sirens though which means help isn’t close. Things seem to be escalating inside. The man with the gun’s getting more and more agitated. Jia thinks she hears something about just giving it up.
Reaching the crates ends up being as easy as she thought it’d be. Hugging the shadows she sneaks along the wall until she’s in their shadow. She’s slightly taller than the stack so she ducks down to stay hidden. So far so good on the quiet front.
Brushing against the crates, she feels something poke hard into her side and break the skin. It takes everything she has to stifle a yelp. Pulling back and looking down, she sees a rusty nail sticking out of a crate, now covered in her blood. She prays she wasn’t heard. Glancing around the side of the crates, none of the men seem to have taken notice.
The man with the gun jams his pistol into the other men’s faces. He seems distracted and Jia figures this is as good an opportunity as she’s going to get. Taking one last deep breath for courage she moves from behind the crates and starts tip toeing closer. She’s ten feet away and no reaction. Then nine feet and nothing. Eight feet and still nothing. Seven feet and no reaction.
At the six foot mark, where she’s almost close enough to make a move, the man on the ground notices her and they lock eyes. He doesn’t say anything, he’s not trying to give her up. It’s enough though. The man with the gun turns and sees her out of the corner of his eye. He spins, trying to center his gun on Jia. Her life flashes before her eyes and all she can think about is why didn’t she wait for the police?
A woman screams behind her. That would be Carly. She hopes Hank kept his word and they’re running. Jia reaches toward the gun, trying to get her hand on his arm before it can fully be trained on her.
Out of nowhere the second man being held up jumps forward and rushes the gunman. He’s a large, thick guy and he hits his assailant like a ton of bricks. They go skidding across the ground and the gun flies out of the shooter’s hand. Jia makes a move for the weapon and kicks it into a corner. The two men roll back and forth, evenly matched. Jia decides to change the odds.
She waits until the shooter’s on top, circling behind him while he’s too occupied to do anything. She aims a hard kick right at the back of his left knee, driving all of her weight forward. The man screams and falls away. He grabs at his leg, rolling back and forth.
The man who did the tackling fights his way to his feet. He gets in a kick of his own, causing another scream from the now injured attacker. The attacker lays there and stops moving around. He’s not going anywhere. The large man turns to Jia. “Damn girl, that was one hell of a kick. Thanks for your help. I don’t know what we would have done otherwise. Name’s DeMarcus.”
He reaches out, offering a handshake which Jia gladly accepts. DeMarcus asks her to wait for the cops to help explain what happened and she obliges. So much for her and Carly’s fun day.
Carly rushes into the alley and practically tackles her. Introductions are made and within a couple of minutes the police arrive. The man with the gun’s taken away in an ambulance but doesn’t seem willing to give up any information. He’s clearly in a lot of pain though.
The cops take all their information as well as that of DeMarcus and his friend. It doesn’t take long to get their statements. Seems like a pretty straight forward mugging, though Jia notices DeMarcus is a bit vague about what the man wanted. She doesn’t have a clue what he was after, she couldn’t hear enough of what the man was saying. The police inform them they’ll be in touch if they need anything else before departing.
Jia looks over her small puncture wound and swears. Rusty nail equals tetanus shot and that’s going to hurt more than the nail did. She tries not to be too upset. Compared to what could have happened, they got lucky. There's still time for a bit of sightseeing if they can get back in the mood. She figures the tetanus shot can wait until the next morning. No need to further ruin their trip.
The rest of the day’s a blur. At least watching the sea lions cheers them up. Getting drunk helps even more. By the end of the day they’re actually able to laugh about it, at least a little. Arriving back at the train station that evening Carly gives Jia one last hug. “I’ll let you know how the interview goes. Not a great first impression of San Francisco, but I think I might still be willing to give it a shot. After all, my best friend’s here.”
Jia tries to get some rest on the train. This was supposed to be a day of rest but she may be more exhausted than she was when she left. First thing in the morning she needs to hit up a local clinic and get that tetanus shot. She’s not sure when her last vaccine was so better safe than sorry. She texts her parents what time she’ll be arriving in Napa so she can get a ride home. No need to walk five miles if she can avoid it.
She thought about calling them earlier in the day to tell them what happened but she was afraid they’d want her to come home right away. She wasn’t going to miss the rest of her day with Carly.
Exiting the train, she’s surprised to see her mom waiting. Her dad has always been more the pick your kid up from the train station late at night parent. She’s relieved to see her mom and squeezes her tight before they head to the car. On the drive home she considers keeping this story to herself but finally decides to open up.
She tells her mom everything. She talks about how scared she was, about how she thought she could handle the situation. She even admits that if it weren’t for Demarcus intervening she’d probably have ended up dead. She’s admitting it to herself as much as to her mom. This is the first moment she really thinks about how dangerous things got.
After a long silence her mother asks, “So just to be clear, you found yourself in an incredibly dangerous situation where a man was pointing a gun at several other people. Instead of waiting for help you decided to get involved and try to help them yourself. Is that about right?”
The only thing Jia can think to say is, “Yes,” which results in a loud a sigh from her mother.
“You really are my daughter, aren’t you? Alright, we’ll start your real training tomorrow. If you’re going to put yourself in dangerous situations, you’re at least going to know how to handle yourself when you do.”