Green Jacket lunged.
Everything happened quickly.
The biker stumbled against the motorcycle.
The motorcycle tilted.
He tried catching it.
Too heavy.
The black machine crashed sideways.
The old man went down with it.
His leg disappeared beneath the frame.
Daisy gasped.
Nobody heard her.
The biker pushed against the handlebars.
The motorcycle barely moved.
Green Jacket laughed.
Martin appeared in the doorway.
“Hey!”
The men turned.
Martin took one step outside.
Black Hoodie pointed toward him.
Martin stopped.
He reached for his phone.
The third man ran toward the convenience store door.
Martin backed inside and locked it.
The man kicked the bottom of the glass.
The biker shouted:
“Leave him alone.”
That brought Green Jacket back.
He walked toward the old biker.
The biker was still trying to free his leg.
Green Jacket shoved him flat against the pavement.
Daisy pressed herself against the vending machine.
Go away.
That was what smart children did.
Stay hidden.
Do not be noticed.
Do not become part of anything.
Green Jacket opened the bed of his truck.
He reached inside.
When he turned back, he was holding a wooden baseball bat.
Daisy stopped breathing.
The biker saw it.
His face changed.
Not fear exactly.
Calculation.
He looked toward Martin.
Then toward the highway.
No cars.
Snow.
Darkening sky.
Empty road.
Green Jacket approached.
The biker said:
“Son, you don't want to do this.”
“Don't call me son.”
“Fine.”
The biker’s voice stayed calm.
“Then walk away.”
Green Jacket lifted the bat.
Daisy looked at Buttons.
Buttons looked back with one plastic eye.
Something entered her mind.
Not a plan.
A memory.
Her mother sitting beside her inside their old car six months earlier.
Cold rain against the windshield.
Daisy crying because they had seen an injured dog beside the road.
Her mother could not stop because the car barely ran.
Daisy remembered asking:
“What if nobody helps him?”
Her mother had said:
“Then somebody has to become the somebody.”
Daisy had not understood.
Her mother explained:
“Everybody waits for somebody else to do the brave thing.”
“Sometimes you have to be the somebody.”
Daisy stared at the biker.
The bat rose higher.
She ran.
Her shoes slapped wet pavement.
The biker saw her first.
His eyes widened.
“No!”
Green Jacket turned.
Daisy did not stop.
She dropped beside the old biker.
Then threw herself across his chest.
The man froze.
So did everyone else.
The biker’s hands immediately came around her shoulders.
Not to hold her down.
To shield her.
“What are you doing?”
His voice sounded terrified now.
More terrified than when the bat was over him.
“Sweetheart, move.”
Daisy shook her head.
Green Jacket stared.
“What the hell?”
Daisy reached beneath her coat.
She pulled out Buttons.
The teddy bear’s remaining eye reflected the gas station light.