Chapter 7

I started a new routine: one that my parents approved of. I went to work faithfully every morning as a mechanic; I played with my kids after work until they and everybody else went to bed; and I became a vigilante after midnight. The couple of hours of sleep I got between 10:00 and 12:00 o'clock was all I needed, and I eventually outgrew that need.

At midnight, I put on whatever working clothes I had chosen for my mission that night. Either I dressed as a regular working stiff out on the town if I was looking to attract muggers, or I dressed in a skin-tight black outfit I called my "ninja suit" to go after rapists, etc.

On this particular night, I had dressed for clubbing, and left for the wilder side of town. I was following the scheme I had developed from that adventure in Dearborn. I went into a randomly selected saloon and sat down at the bar. I ordered a beer and waited for something interesting to happen. Often, nothing happened, but this time I got what I was looking for: a young woman sat down beside me.

As usual, I didn't know if she was a B-girl or not. She ordered a martini when I offered her a drink, and that didn't tell me very much. After a few minutes of conversation, I happened to notice that she had a narrow band of lighter colored skin on her left ring finger. Maybe she was a recent divorcee, and had just stopped wearing her ring. I didn't think it was polite to ask this so soon after meeting Liz.

Anyway, we talked a while before we left for another saloon. Along this street, the saloons were so close together that we could easily walk from one to the next. It was now approaching 2:00 AM, and I was expecting trouble. We came to an alley and a hand snaked out and grabbed Liz by the arm. She was jerked into the alley and another person pointed a gun at me and ordered me into the alley. It was a woman with the gun!

I didn't react belligerently at that point because I could not see what was happening to Liz. Currently, I did not know whether or not she was in on the mugging. I wanted to find that out before I acted because I did not want to hurt her if she was a victim like me.

The woman with the gun ordered me to proceed her to the other end of the alley. I could see a dim light back there, and that would give me another advantage when it came time to fight. Liz and her captor had to be back there by now since they were not visible in the alley.

When I reached the end of the alley, I saw a dim light bulb hanging over a door that was just closing. The woman with the gun ordered me through the door into an empty room. She flipped on a light, and I could see Liz being held at knife-point by a man in his 20s. The woman with the gun seemed to be about the same age.

Liz and I were held at gun-point by the woman while our wrists were bound with cable ties. That was a relief to me because I could easily break loose any time I tried. Once we were tied, the woman went through Liz's handbag to see what was worth stealing. She grunted in disgust when she found $47 and no credit cards. She was really pissed when she found no drugs in the purse.

Likewise, my pockets were checked, and all I had was $64 and some loose change. I can't imagine what they were expecting, but I thought they were getting about what they could expect in the way of money. The lack of drugs seemed to irritate our captors all out of proportion to the situation. I figured that they were both a little bit high and were looking for something that they could hit on.

This had gone on far enough as far as I was concerned, so I twisted my wrists and broke loose the tie that was holding them. I moved as fast as I could and slapped the gun from the woman's hand. I'm not sure what surprised her the more: me breaking the cable tie around my wrists or me slapping the gun from her hand. The gun went flying to the far side of the room and the woman screamed as she grabbed her broken wrist with her left hand. The bones in her wrist were shattered, and I figured that she was in for a long and painful rehab before she got much use from that wrist.

Meanwhile, the man jumped at Liz with his knife. He was not as fast as he should have been, and I was able to grab the knife blade with my left hand. A quick squeeze and twist pulled the knife from the man's hand. I squeezed a little tighter and broke the knife blade. Obviously, I was not cut during the process.

I drove my fist into the man's solar plexus and laid him out on the floor. Some blood came out with his breath, so I knew that he needed an ER as soon as possible. Both of our assailants were completely out of action, so I had plenty of time to call the cops and EMS on Liz's cellphone. Liz and I stood outside to wait for the emergency response. I had picked up the gun before we left the room, being careful not to affect its use as potential evidence.

This time, the cops beat the EMS people, and we were in the process of telling our story to the cops when the medics arrived. We spent an hour with the cops telling and retelling our story, but they finally let us go when we promised to come by the police headquarters to swear out a complaint against the two would-be muggers.

This was just another day at the office as far as I was concerned, but Liz was pretty shaken by the whole affair. I took her home and wound up spending the night with her, yes, in her bed. I did find out that she was recently divorced and was out for a Saturday night of drowning her disappointment. I did call home after 8:00 AM to explain that I was tied up and not available for church. I promised to tell all when I got home, and Mom said that she would take the kids to church with her and Dad. That let me off the hook and left me some more time to spend with Liz.

I ate breakfast with Liz, and I drove the two of us to the police headquarters to finish up the paperwork. I'm not sure how much the attack had to do with it, but Liz and I hit it off so well that it was late in the afternoon before I returned home, and Liz went with me.

Liz was enthralled by Billy and Mary, and she got along well with Mom and Dad. Okay, I admit it: I was smitten by Liz. She was good looking without being a raving beauty, and I was also attracted to her by her attraction to me. Very quickly, we two became an item, and I neglected my crime fighting just so that I could have more time with Liz.

I didn't neglect my job, but I never asked for overtime. Oh, I helped out when things got tight at the shop, but the manager could see that I was never happy with the added hours. I even turned down the position of assistant manager of the repair shop because it would cut into the time I had to spend with Liz and the kids. I couldn't help but laugh by the way Dad reacted to my refusal of the promotion: he was torn between thinking that this was another aspect of my lack of ambition and my protests that it would cut into the time I had to spend with the kids.

Well, as expected, Liz and I were married within the year. Mom and Dad were amazed to find out that Liz had been married to a very rich man, and he had been cheating on her. She got a fantastic divorce settlement in cash and securities that made her independently wealthy for life. Between her money and my money, there was no need for me to work, but I kept up my job at the Ford dealership. That made my father happy.

Before we were married, I did tell Liz the story of my adventure with the recombinant DNA samples and the fact that I was essentially safe from any sort of injury. I also told her that my ability had been passed on to the kids, and that was what had caused the breakdown of my first wife. Liz was appalled at what had happened to Janice, and she swore that she would not fall victim to that idiocy if we ever had the children which she wanted. That was music to my ears!