Feeling herself flush, she kept going. The men started talking. Zoe shook the rattle.
Karen said, "Eh-eh, huh, Zoe?" and the baby grinned and drew back her hand.
Windup and the pitch.
The rattle sailed toward the back of the restaurant. Rolling on the tile floor toward the back booth. Karen ran back, startling the three men. The rattle had landed next to a shiny black loafer.
As she picked it up, the tail end of a sentence faded into silence. A word. A name.
A name from the evening news.
A man, not a nice one, who'd talked about his friends and had been murdered in jail, yesterday, despite police protection. The man who'd uttered the name was staring at her. Fear-ice-cube terror-spread across Karen's face, paralyzing it.
Lizard put his knife down. His eyes narrowed to hyphens. He was still smiling, but differently, very differently. One of the other men cursed. Lizard shut him up with a blink.
The rattle was in Karen's hand now. Shaking, making ridiculous rattle sounds. Her hand couldn't stop shaking. She began backing away. "Hey," said Lizard. "Cutie." Karen kept going.
Lizard looked at Zoe and his smile died.
Karen clutched her baby tight and ran. Past the waiter, forgetting about the high chair, then remembering, but who cared, it was a cheap one, she needed to get out of this place.
She heard chairs scrape the tile floor. "Hey, Cutie, hold on."
She kept going.
The waiter started to move around from behind the bar. Lizard was coming at her too. Moving fast. Taller than he looked sitting down, the gray suit billowing around his lanky frame.
"Hold on!" he shouted.
Karen gripped the door, swung it open, and dashed out hearing his curses.
Quiet neighborhood, a few people on the sidewalk who looked just like the creeps in the restaurant.
Karen turned right at the corner and ran. Rattling, the heavy denim bag knocking against her thigh.
Zoe was crying.
"It's okay, baby, it's okay, Mommy will keep you safe."
She heard a shout and looked back to see Lizard coming after her, people moving away from him, giving him room. Fear in their faces. He pointed at Karen, went after her.
She picked up her pace. Let's hear it for jogging. But this wasn't like running in shorts and a T-shirt; between Zoe and the heavy bag she felt like a plow horse.
Okay, keep a rhythm, the creep was skinny but he probably wasn't in good shape. Nice and easy with the breathing, pretend this is a ten-k and you've carbo-loaded the night before, slept a peaceful eight hours, gotten up when you wanted to…
She made it to another corner. Red light. A taxi sped by and she had to wait. Lizard was gaining on her-running loosely on long legs, his face sharp and pale-not a lizard, a snake. A venomous snake.
Ugly words came out of the snake's mouth. He was pointing at her.
She stepped off the curb. A truck was approaching halfway down the block. She waited until it got closer, bolted, made it stop short. Blocking the snake.
Another block, this one shorter, lined with shabby storefronts. But no corner at the end of this one. Green dead end. A hedge behind high, graffitied stone walls. A park. The entrance a hundred yards left. Karen went for it, running even faster, hearing Zoe's cries and the raspy sound of her own breathing. Plow horse…
Steep, cracked steps took her down into the park. A bronze statue besmirched by pigeon dirt, poorly maintained grass, big trees.
She placed a hand behind Zoe's head, making sure not to jolt the supple neck-she'd read that babies could get whiplash without anyone knowing and then years later they'd show signs of brain damage…
Clap clap behind her as Snake's footsteps slapped the steps. Mr. Viper… stop thinking stupid thoughts, he was just a man, a creep. Just keep going, she'd find a place to be safe.
The park was empty, the stone path shaded almost black by huge spreading elms.
"Hey!" shouted the snake. "Stop, awready… what… the… fuck!"
Panting between words. The creep probably never did anything aerobic.
"What… fuck… problem… wanna talk!" Karen pumped her legs. The path took on an upward slope. Good, make the creep work harder, she could handle it, though Zoe's cries in her ear were starting to get to her-poor thing, what kind of mother was she, getting her baby into something like this-
"Jesus!" From behind. Huff, huff. "Stupid… bitch!"
More trees, bigger, the pathway even darker. Along the side, occasional benches, graffitied, too, no one on them.
No one to help.
Karen ran even faster. Her chest began to hurt and Zoe hadn't stopped wailing.
"Easy, honey," she managed to gasp. "Easy, Zoe-puff."
The slope grew steeper.
"Fucking bitch!"
Then something appeared on the path. A metal-mesh garbage can. Low enough for her to jump in her jogging days, but not with Zoe. She had to sidestep it and the snake saw her lose footing, stumble, veer off onto the grass, and twist her ankle.
She cried out in pain. Tried to run, stopped.
Zoe's chubby cheeks were soaked with tears.
The snake smiled and walked around the can and toward her.
"Fucking city," he said, kicking the can and whipping out a handkerchief and wiping the sweat from his face. Up close he smelled of too-sweet cologne and raw meat. "No maintenance. No one takes any fucking pride anymore."
Karen started to edge away, looked sharply at her ankle, and winced.
"Poor baby," said the snake. "The big one, I mean. With the little one making all that fucking noise-does she ever shut up?"
"Listen, I-"
"No, you listen." A long-fingered hand took hold of Karen's arm. The one she held Zoe with. "You listen, what the fuck you running away like some idiot make-me-chase-you-sweat-up-my-suit?"
"I-my baby."
"Your baby should shut the fuck up, understand? Your baby should learn a little discipline, know what I mean? No one learns discipline how's it gonna be?"
Karen didn't answer.
"You know?" said the snake. "How's it gonna be the puppy learns discipline when the bitch don't know it? You tell me that, huh?"
"That's-"
He slapped her face. Not hard enough to sting, just a touch really. Worse than pain.
"You and me," he said, squeezing her arm. "We got things to talk about."
"What?" Panic tightened Karen's voice. "I'm just visiting from-"
"Shut up. And shut the goddamn baby up too-"
"I can't help it if-"
A hard slap rocked Karen's head. "No, bitch. Don't argue. You notice what we were eating back there?"
Karen shook her head.
"Sure you did, I saw you look. What was it?"
"Meat."
"Veal. You know what veal is, sweet-cheeks?"
"Calf."
" 'Zactly. Baby cow." Winking. "Something can be young and cute, go bah-bah, moo-moo, but it don't matter shit when people's needs are involved, you know what I'm saying?"
He licked his lips. The hand on her arm moved to Zoe's arm. Pulling.
Karen pulled back and managed to free Zoe. He laughed.
Tripping backward, Karen said, "Leave me alone," in a too-weak voice.
"Yeah, sure," said the snake. "All alone."
The long-fingered hands became fists and he inched toward her. Slowly, enjoying it. The park so silent. No one here, dangerous part of town.
Karen kept retreating, Zoe wailing.
The snake advanced.
Raising a fist. Touching his knuckles with the other hand.
Suddenly, Karen was moving faster, as if her ankle had never been injured.
Moving with an athlete's grace. Placing Zoe on the grass gently, she stepped to the left while reaching into the big, heavy denim bag.
All the things you had to carry.
Zoe cried louder, screaming, and the snake's eyes snapped to the baby.
Let's hear it for distraction.
The snake looked back at Karen.
Karen brought something out of the bag, small and shiny.
Reversing direction abruptly, she walked right up to the snake.
His eyes got very wide.
Three handclaps, not that different from the sound of his feet on the steps. Three small black holes appeared on his forehead, like stigmata.
He gaped at her, turned white, fell.
She fired five more shots into him as he lay there. Three in the chest, two in the groin. Per the client's request.
Placing the gun back in the bag, she rushed toward Zoe. But the baby was already up, in Doug's arms. And quiet. Doug always had that effect upon Zoe. The books said that was common, fathers often did.
"Hey," he said, kissing Zoe, then Karen. "You let him hit you. I was almost going to move in."
"It's fine," said Karen, touching her cheek. The skin felt hot and welts were starting to rise. "Nothing some makeup won't handle."
"Still," said Doug. "You know how I love your skin."
"I'm okay, honey."
He kissed her again, nuzzled Zoe. "That was a little intense, no? And poor little kiddie-I really don't think we should take her along on business."
He picked up the denim bag. Karen felt light-not just because her hands were empty. That special sense of lightness that marked the end of a project.
"You're right," said Karen as the three of them began walking out of the park. "She is getting older, we don't want to traumatize her. But I don't think this'll freak her out too bad. The stuff kids see on TV nowadays, right? If she ever asks we'll say it was TV."
"Guess so," said Doug. "You're the mom, but I never liked it."
A bit of sun came down through the thick trees, highlighting his black curls. And Zoe's. One beautiful tiny head tucked into a beautiful big one.
"It worked," said Karen.
Doug laughed. "That it did. Everything go smoothly?"
"As silk." Karen kissed them both again. "Little Peach was great. The only reason she was crying is she was having so much fun throwing food in the restaurant and didn't want to leave. And the eh-eh worked perfectly. She threw the rattle, gave me a perfect chance to get close to the jerk."
Doug nodded and looked over his shoulder at the body lying across the pathway.
"The Viper," he said, laughing softly. "Not exactly big game."
"More like a worm," said Karen.
Doug laughed again, then turned serious. "You're sure he didn't hit you hard? I love your skin."
"I'm fine, baby. Not to worry."
"I always worry, babe. That's why I'm alive."
"Me too. You know that."
"Sometimes I wonder."
"Some gratitude."
"Hey," said Doug. "It's just that I love your skin, right?" A moment passed. "Love you."
"Love you too."
A few steps later, he said, "When I saw him hit you, babe- the second time-I could actually hear it from the bushes. Your head swiveled hard and I thought uh-oh. I was ready to come out and finish it myself. Came this close. But I knew it would tick you off. Still, it was a little… anxiety-provoking."
"You did the right thing."
He shrugged. Karen felt so much love for him she wanted to shout it to the world.
"Thanks, babe," she said, touching his earlobe. "For being there and for not doing anything."
He nodded again. Then he said it:
"The things we do for love."
"Oh, yeah."
His beautiful face relaxed.
A rock. Thank God he'd let her go all the way by herself. First project since the baby and she'd needed to get back into the swing.
Zoe was sleeping now, fat cheeks pillowing out on Doug's broad shoulder, eyes closed, the black lashes long and curving.
They grew up so fast.
Soon, before you knew it, the little pudding would be in preschool and Karen would have more time on her hands.
Maybe one day they'd have another baby.
But not right away. She had her career to consider.