Chapter 45

I grinned. “Guess that’s what you call a showstopper.”

Lucy chuckled and put her damp arm over my shoulder. “Literally.”

I touched fingertip to nose and vigorously nodded my head. “Exactly.” 7

The firemen dropped us off with the EMT’s. The EMT’s took us to the hospital, me and Ray and Lucy, all of us having inhaled more smoke than both Cheech and Chong in all their movies combined. Auntie politely declined. That is to say, Auntie drew her gun, albeit one of the soda guns behind the bar, and threatened the firemen with what sounded like very painful genital mutilation.

“She looks fine,” said the fireman closest to me, just before he deposited us outside into the fresh air.

“Matter of opinion,” coughed I.

“Fine is such a subjective word,” hacked Lucy.

“Smart move,” wheezed Ray with one of his quintessential winks. “Given that I bet you have stunning genitalia.”

My hero.