She left it there and began rifling through the kitchen drawers. The bathroom door was beginning to be forced now. It was cheap, flimsy wood. If Jimmy shouldered into it, it would break. Carolyn was to my left, the bathroom to my right. He would have to get through me to get to her.

“I think you can leave anything we don’t need.”

She didn’t respond, instead growing increasingly agitated by the noise at the bathroom door.

“What does Jimmy shave with?”

“Why, why does that matter?” she asked.

“Because I want to make sure that when he comes through that door there’s not going to be a straight razor in his hand.”

“Just a regular razor,” she said with her hands on the edge of the kitchen counter.

“Do you have it all?”

She nodded. “I think so.”

“Good. Now we need to rush down the stairs with the bag and the television. We’ll come up and get the rest and then it’s over. Okay?”

She nodded.

“Let’s go then.”

I took the television and raced down first. Carolyn was slower, but that was what I had wanted. I sprinted back up and passed her on the second-floor landing as she continued down. I grabbed the other bag and met her outside. Then we walked back up together.

“Do you have your keys?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Give them to me.”

“Why?”

“So we can leave them.”

I took them from her and dropped them on the kitchen counter. “Get the cat,” I said.

I walked out to the hallway and grabbed the fire extinguisher I had noticed when we first came up the stairs. Carolyn already held the cat in her arms when I reentered.

“Go on down,” I said.

She was frightened. “Please don’t do anything bad.”

“I won’t.”

She left just as Jimmy kicked the bathroom door. It broke away from the jamb, but the chair still held. I pulled the safety pin from the extinguisher and hoped like hell that it worked. I kicked the chair away and the door swung open. I aimed the rubber hose at Jimmy’s face and squeezed the handle. Powder shot out of it and knocked him backward so that he tripped over the toilet and crashed into the tub. I kept it aimed right at him. Neither of us could breathe, all the oxygen sucked from the room while the powder filled my mouth and burned my eyes. I could only imagine what it was doing to his. I released the trigger and threw the extinguisher on top of him, grabbed the cat box, and walked out.

Carolyn stood on the curb beside her belongings. She gazed up at the apartment with a sad look on her face. Then she looked at me.

“Why are you covered in white?”

I was coughing a little. “The fire extinguisher.”

“Is Jimmy okay?”

“Yes, he’s fine. Do cabs come by here?”

“Sometimes.”