Ain't No Mountain High Enough

"Human Nature"

Night was settling in as I made my way through the half-empty parking lot. Shivering and sore, I tried to figure out which way to go. I stopped to take my phone out of my pocket to look at the GPS. Oh, this was embarrassing. Not to mention how worried Valerie must be. A sick feeling started to settle in the pit of my stomach. I was awful to her for something she was having a hard time with, too.

My phone's screen illuminated my face and made me squint as I tried to figure out where the heck I was. Apparently, I was still five miles from the apartment. Ugh. Just thinking about wheeling myself all the way there made me want to throw my phone out onto the highway.

"You lost?" A voice from behind me asked. It was dripping with sarcasm, and it made me freeze.

The next thing I knew, someone pulled on the handles of my wheelchair to wheel me away from the sidewalk and under a broken light post. I dropped my phone and gasped. When I looked, the silhouettes of two men were standing in front of me. Both were wearing hoodies with the hood part pulled up, but while one of them was frowning, the other was grinning like a maniac.

"Hand it over, pal," this one said.

It took me a second to find my voice. "What do you want?" I asked. My voice sounded as though someone had knocked the air out of me.

"He doesn't look like he has it on him, Harley," the frowning one said. "Just leave him alone."

I gasped again when the grinning one suddenly grabbed the collar of my sweatshirt and yanked me out of the wheelchair to toss me on the ground. I landed hard on my stomach, grunting when it for real knocked the air right out of me. Pain shot through my wrists when I tried to brace myself. Before I could even react, he pulled my wallet from my back pocket and started flipping through it.

"Harley!" the frowning one cried.

"Shut up, man!" said the grinning one. He pocketed my wallet. And I could only watch in frustration. I felt rage starting to boil again, but I could barely breathe. I definitely couldn't get up.

"Hey!"

The three of us turned our heads to someone running towards us, and, if the air would have come back into my lungs already, I would have sighed with relief. I could only gasp to breathe as my rescuer, Arjun of all people, skidded to a halt, a baseball bat in his hand.

It was like I was watching a reenactment of The Three Little Piggies. The men ran like Arjun was the Big Bad Wolf, never once looking back. But, of course, they took my wallet with them.

Without a word, Arjun dropped the bat and ran to help me back into my wheelchair. I was breathing hard. My chest felt like it would explode from lack of air. And from how angry I was.

"My wallet!" I gasped out, but Arjun waved his hand to shush me.

"Forget the wallet!" he cried. I raised my eyebrows. It had been a long, long time since I had heard him this riled up. "Are you hurt?!"

I shook my head even though my wrists still burned with pain. "No, but-"

"What are you doing out here?!"

I opened my mouth to reply, but nothing came. I couldn't find a good enough explanation, and my brain was still trying to process what exactly just happened. I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "I could ask you the same thing!"

Arjun gestured harshly at the HEB polo he was wearing. "I WORK HERE!"

And the fascinating saga of me being an idiot continues! I clamped my mouth shut and stared at my hands.

Arjun picked his baseball bat off the ground and strode back over to me. For a split second, I thought he might beat me to death with it. He sure had murder in his eyes, but I wasn't sure if it was for me or the robbers.

"Answer my question," he said, this time in a much calmer tone. There was still ice in it, though. "What are you doing here? Where's Valerie?"

I huffed out a sigh, my breath turning to mist in the air. Suddenly I felt so exhausted I just wanted to give up on life right there. "We had a fight, okay? I just want to go home."

Arjun rolled his eyes and handed me the bat so he could wheel me through the parking lot. "I'm on break, so I guess I can drop you off."

"What about my wallet?!" I cried.

"I'll call the police as soon as you're in the car," Arjun grumbled back. "And then you're going to explain what happened with Valerie.

That was the last thing I wanted to talk about, but I agreed nonetheless. I was too tired and sore to argue about it.

After I was in Arjun's car, I sat there feeling sorry for myself while Arjun called the police. With the doors shut, his voice reached my ears muffled, and I could barely pick out what he was saying as he paced back and forth by his car, the baseball bat in his hand.

Ugh, what a night. I leaned back in the passenger seat and rubbed my hands over my face. First I really blow it with Valerie, and then I get mugged. I was lucky Arjun was there at that moment, but who knew what would happen next.

A moment later, Arjun got in the driver's seat with a long, weary exhale. "You have a lot of explaining to do," he said. He tossed my phone at me, and I grimaced at the cracks that now decorated the screen. "You're lucky they didn't do something worse to you."

"I'm not sure how tonight could have gone any worse," I replied. I couldn't take my eyes off of the broken screen of my phone.

"Yeah, well, it's going to get worse if you don't shut down your bank account." Arjun started to pull out of the parking space. "I'm taking you to the emergency room."

My eyes widened. "What the heck for?"

"To make sure you're not seriously hurt!" he cried.

I bit my tongue to keep from complaining. Arguing would just make both of our tempers blow. I kept silent and turned on my phone. Underneath the cracks, I saw I had a number of texts from Veronica, Keto, and Arjun all asking where I was. I only paid attention to the ones from Valerie, who was starting to sound panicked.

Her: Randall, please.

Where did you go?

You better answer me!

Randall, you idiot!

ANSWER ME

And you know what? She was probably out driving around looking for me. I sent her a text to let her know I was okay, and I was with Arjun, but nothing more. I didn't have the strength to apologize.

"All right," Arjun said as he pulled out onto the highway. "Start explaining, right now. And it better be good."

I turned off my phone and closed my eyes, piling up whatever energy I had left. "Okay, okay," I said, breathing out. "It went like this..."

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Thanks for reading! Happy New Year!

Listen to "Human Nature" by Michael Jackson

Peace✌️~ A.J.