Free Running the Risk by Lesley Choyce Page A

they headed for the door. I probably should have asked them to stay until the cops came, but I didn’t. I understood they wanted to get the hell out of here. I knew who they were, so I didn’t bother to ask them to stay. The police could find them for information if they needed to.
    Jeanette was holding Lacey.
    Cam was blathering. “This isn’t worth it,” he said. “I’m quitting this stupid job. Now.” He walked around the counter and kicked over a chair. Then he left. I didn’t ask him to stay either.
    When the police arrived, two officers in bulletproof vests pushed open the glass door and walked in, guns raised. I watched their eyes as they looked at us and then scanned Burger Heaven. I noticed the buzz of the lights again.
    â€œThey’re gone,” I said.
    The guns came down and the cops moved forward.
    â€œAnyone hurt?” one of them asked. Two more policemen came in the door.
    â€œNo,” I said. “I think we’re okay.”
    â€œDo you know which way they went?”
    I shook my head no.
    One of the policemen saw the bullet hole in the ceiling. “You guys had a close call,” he said. “That wasn’t a cap gun.”
    It was about then that I noticed something about the way I was feeling. My heart was still pumping so loud I could hear it in my ears, and my breathing was a bit ragged.
    But the weird part was that I was feeling great. And I’d been feeling this way from the moment the robber put the gun up to my face.

Chapter Two
    We told the story to the police and I got a ride home in a police car and went to bed. I didn’t bother to wake my parents. They would get the news from the paper in the morning.
    I didn’t sleep much. Adrenaline, I guess. I kept wondering why I had kept my cool. And why I had been absolutely certain there was only one thing to do. I knew that if Cam had tried to hit that alarm while the robberswere there, somebody would have been killed. At the time I was operating on pure instinct—and adrenaline, of course.
    Afterward, lying in bed, the rational part of my brain was thinking,
Yeah, those guys could have fired their guns at any moment
. Anything could have happened.
    I was fuzzy-headed in the morning and tired. All the adrenaline had worn off, I suppose.
    My father woke me up. He was dressed for work at the casino. The newspaper was in his hand. “Why didn’t you wake us?”
    â€œNobody got hurt. It turned out fine.”
    My mother was in my bedroom now too. “Sean, you could have...” She couldn’t finish the sentence.
    â€œI could have but I wasn’t,” I said. “What time is it?”
    My parents looked puzzled. “I think you need to stay home today,” my father said. “You need to rest.”
    â€œI don’t feel like resting.”
    â€œWe tried to tell you that job could be dangerous,” my mother said.
    â€œIt wasn’t like I was looking for trouble.”
    But I had asked for the late shift, for both Friday and Saturday night. I could have worked during the day on Sunday or even from four to ten in the evening. But I had convinced my parents everything would be okay. And I loved the fact that all kinds of weird crap happened late at night. I even liked the walk home on the dark streets. Had I been secretly hoping for something like this to happen?
    â€œWell, you’re not going back there to work,” my father said.
    â€œI don’t want to quit.”
    â€œWe’ll find you another job.”
    â€œYeah, right. Like at the casino, I suppose.” This was a sore spot. My father had lost his job with the insurance company and had taken on an administration job at the casino. He’d always told me he didn’t approve of gambling, and then he hired on to a place that was solely dependent on taking suckers’money when the odds were stacked way too high against them.
    â€œYou know you’re too young.