Chapter 24

October 21, 2000

Frank told her to be there by 19:00. It was his mom's birthday: her oldest brother, Louis, wanted to gather the family to celebrate it. His eldest daughter, Rachel, just had a baby, and he wanted to spend some time alone with them before the rest of the family came over. Frank's uncle lived in a family house in the city's east end, so he had the space to host his entire family.

Over the past few months, Frank had missed a lot of family brunches. When confronted about it, he admitted that he was seeing someone and vaguely explained why he couldn't just see her at a different time or invite her to brunch. His mother and sister insisted on him inviting her to their family party: they really wanted to meet her. Frank was actually thrilled about introducing her to his family, so he obliged.

She took the public transit to get there, thinking that it wouldn't raise too many questions that she wouldn't be able to answer. She had to appear like a human, and she didn't want to explain why she had no issues paying for taxis to drive her across town. She sat near the back of the bus and paid attention to the street names: she didn't want to miss her stop.

Coralis got off the bus. A middle-aged woman also got off the bus at the same stop. The bus stop was near a park and it was dark. The streets were well illuminated, but the park was not. Frank had told her to cut through the park to get to his uncle, so before entering the park, she stopped to search her pockets and purse for the paper on which she wrote the exact address.

She heard a muffled scream coming from the park. She looked up, and saw one man behind the woman from the bus, with his right hand covering her mouth, while another man was in front of her, holding a knife in his right hand. Coralis stopped searching, silently approached the man holding the knife, keeping to the shadows coming from the moonlight until she was close enough to fight him.

"I don't have anything at the bank, I swear," said the woman, as the man behind her lowered his hand so she could speak.

The man in front of her raised his hand holding the knife just as Coralis stepped out of the shadows. She grabbed his right wrist and knocked him out before he could fight back.

"Let her go," she said to the other man.

She picked up the knife from the ground with her left hand and pointed it toward him. The man let go of the woman and pulled a knife from his back. Two more men stepped out of the shadows.

"Run," said Coralis to the woman. "I will handle them."

She ran. One of the newly comers tried to go after her, but Coralis grabbed him by the collar before he could reach her. When she reached the other end of the park, the woman unzipped her jacket to pull her phone out of her purse and called the police while walking to her brother's house. Her hands were shaking, but she was glad to have put on her jacket over her purse, so the men didn't manage to steal it.

She was still in a panic when she arrived at her brother's house. She rang the bell, and Frank answered, with his uncle Louis standing right behind him.

"Mom?" he said, frowning as he took in her disheveled appearance.

"Oh Molly, what happened to you? Did you fight a bear on your way here?" said her brother Louis, as she walked in.

 "Two men jumped me when I entered the park, they wanted to take me to an ATM and make me withdraw money for them," she said, still panting. "Then a teenager who was on the same bus as me fought them. She told me to run, but two more men arrived."

"You got attacked in the park? Did you call the police?" said Louis, while Linda, his wife, took her jacket and purse.

"Yes, I called them on my way here. That girl saved my life, I really hope she's fine," said Molly, then looked at her son. "Is your new girlfriend here?"

"No, not yet. She called me before she left her place, so she should be here soon."

Frank looked at his watch, thinking that she should have been there already. He wondered if she was the girl who saved his mother. He never saw her fight, but knew that she worked dangerous jobs and had combat training.

"Good, so that gives me time to rearrange my hair before I finally meet her."

"Mom, can you describe the girl who saved you?"

"You think that's your girl?" said Louis as Molly described her.

"I think so yeah. Coralis isn't a teenager, but she could pass for one."

Molly's eyes went wide. Worried, Frank decided to go check the park. He walked outside without bothering to grab his jacket. His uncle followed him.

When they got to the park, cops were there. They walked further into it to have a closer look. They saw two ambulances with paramedics wheeling someone into one of them. Two cops saw them and walked up to them.

"Have you seen a female teenager, short dark hair, about shoulder-length, 1.60m, and a male in his twenties, short curly blond hair, about 1.90m?" said one of the cops.

"No, we haven't," said Louis, and the two cops walked away.

Frank and his uncle turned around, walked out of the park and stopped on the sidewalk by the park entrance.

"Mom said there were four guys, and the cops were only looking for one, so I'm assuming they got the other three."

"Think your girl is the one they are looking for?"

"Definitely, and I don't like how they are searching for her as if she was a suspect. I'm really hoping that she isn't badly injured, or decided to go back to her place."

"Wanna walk around the block to see if we can find her?"

As he was about to answer his uncle, he saw her silhouette at the other end of the street.

"I think that's her," Frank said, pointing at her, and started walking in her direction.

She stood at the street corner, fixing her hair and inspecting her clothes. He was glad to see that she didn't seem to be injured. She heard people approaching and paused what she was doing to look up. Coralis was relieved to see Frank walking toward her and headed his way. He hugged her as soon as he got to her, and kissed her forehead.

"Are you okay? Mom told us what happened."

He held her with both hands on her shoulders and tried to look for injuries.

"Your mom? I'm okay, I just got into a small fight when I entered the park. Some guys tried to attack a woman who got off at my stop and I helped, but how do you know? Your mom saw?"

"Helped? You didn't just help. The woman you saved was my sister," said Louis, stretching his hand to shake hers. "I'm Louis, Frank's uncle."

Coralis' eyes went wide for a second: she didn't know that the woman she helped was Frank's mother.

"Hmm I'm Coralis. Glad to see that she made it to her destination. Was she injured? How did you know that it was me who intervened?"

"I knew you were about to arrive, and the description she gave us matched yours."

"You fought four guys, only one escaped, two ambulances were needed, and you don't look injured. That's badass, call me impressed. I think I'd want to hire you to teach my wife and daughters self-defense."

They went back to Louis' house and Molly hugged Coralis as soon as she walked in.

"Thank you so much, I don't know how I can repay you, or thank you enough for what you've done," said Molly, her eyes getting wet.

"Hmm don't worry about it, I'm just glad you were able to get away from these guys."

Molly parted from her to look at her, and Frank's family introduced themselves to her.

"I called 9-1-1 when I could, but oh God, I hoped that they would get there before they hurt or kill you. The police got there quick?"

"How did you escape? They were searching for you and one of the men when we went to the park to look for you," said Frank.

"As soon as I heard the police car stopping by the park entrance, I bolted in the other direction and ran away from the park. I didn't want to get locked up or spend my entire evening at the police station, I told you that I was gonna come. When I thought that I got far enough, I turned into another street to walk back in the direction of the park, then stopped, and well, that's when you saw me," said Coralis.

Before handing her purse to Linda, she pulled a knife out of it.

"This belongs to one of the attackers. Maybe it could be of some use to you. I don't think anyone would come here to search for it."

Louis took it and gave it to his wife when she got done hanging Coralis' jacket and purse in the closet.

"To lock you up? Why would they do that? You saved my life; you didn't do anything wrong."

"It's not me that they attacked, so I can't claim self-defense. Your attackers were injured, I was not. They can get me for attacking them. The truth doesn't always matter to the court system."

"I work as a legal aid for lawyers specializing in criminal defense. If you ever get in trouble over this, better believe that I will make sure that you get a good lawyer to defend you," said Linda.

Later on, a detective called Molly, to question the 9-1-1 caller. She told him that she didn't know what happened to the girl who was there, but hoped that she was fine. Molly vowed to herself that she would protect Coralis no matter what, even if it meant not testifying against those who attacked her: she didn't want the girl in trouble, and in her eyes, justice was already served if only one fled the scene and two had to be sent to the hospital.