Close Call

The way back to the door was the most treacherous few feet Frankie could’ve possibly walked that day.

“Even with the discount, that took a pretty good chunk out of our wallet…”

“Oh, don’t worry. What’s done is done. We’ll manage.” Katie assured her after their patronage.

“Alright, but you gotta stop worrying yourself. We can’t support each other when we’re math freaking out, you remember the camel incident.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Katie shut her eyes and turned away as they approached the partition.

The instant Frankie crossed the curtain, she saw something terrifying. A few new customers had just arrived into the back of the line- customers she recognized from the one of the many days she might call the worst of her life, the time she spent hunkered down in a bloody action figure shop.

Three of them this time- Bozo’s men were as great in number as they were annoyance. Not only that, but these were some of the ones she recognized most. Like he was somehow pursuing her, Denny was there yet again, and another one she’d once attacked, Katsuhiko, she also recognized, even without the dull katana he once raised to her head. The third wasn’t so familiar to her- the old man of their gang, Go.

Of course, not knowing their names, it made little difference how much she could recall the specifics of each member. They were only threats because they could remember her from that day- what methods they might use to restrain her if they caught on, or how much mercy they might have- didn’t really matter.

“Why the hell is the boss wasting time in the Holofield?” Denny’s rude tone had not changed. “You think he’d at least let us come.”

“With all due respect, he might just be sick of you.” Katsuhiko was quick to quip back, unlike Go.

“He needs rest, I say let him have it. I’m sure there are enough people in that newfangled attraction already.”

By now Katie had assessed the situation and was perceiving the sheer shock Frankie was in, encountering Bozo’s goons in such close proximity. But as her younger sister just took another step forward, none of the marketing team so much as looking at her, she could only follow the girl’s lead.

She felt like there were ants inside her brain.

It’s gonna be fine. It’s gonna be fine. If I can’t even recognize me, how would they?

The line was nearly pouring out onto the street. In one petrifying moment, she stepped up to the door- right next to the three sidekicks, passing them only by a foot or two as she slowly reached the handle.

“Oh, that girl’s cute.”

She breathed a sigh of relief as they didn’t give her a second look, opening the door and letting it shut as she and her sister escaped.

After fleeing a reasonable distance away, right outside the nearest museum- she let out a balloon’s worth of air from her lungs.

“OHH god… please let nothing like that happen ever again.”

“That was close, yes. But- check it out, your new look worked!” Katie cheered. “Completely fooled ‘em. They were none the wiser.”

“Yeah…”

Frankie was starting to feel a lot better about this whole plan. The only thing to find out now was-

“Wait, what did they say about Bozo? Holofield?”