It’s that kid. The nerdy friend. Steve. That kid Joey thought he killed, that he left for dead. Standing pointing a gun at Joey.

So this is how it is. Justice, shorthand version.

Joey raises his hands. Would this kid really shoot him? In cold blood like this?

Joey Richter will never know. Will never have to know.

Because Zack Yellin appears suddenly behind Steve, grabs for Steve’s gun with both hands, and forcefully points its muzzle down and away.

He wrestles it out of Steve’s hand a moment later, both hands wrapped around it, body-checking Steve to definitively separate him from the gun.

Steve falls back, stunned, off-balance.

Suddenly, Zack is holding the gun. Looking at Joey.

Joey looking at him.

A screech of tires. The unmarked sedan from down the street pulls to the curb. Its doors fly open. Both the white and the Hispanic cop are there on foot in a matter of seconds.

Joey’s arms are still up. He watches Zack hand the gun to the cops.

Zack. Materializing out of nowhere. Like a superhero. Right place, right time.

As the undercovers steady Steve on his feet, check the chamber, and remove the rounds, they exchange a look that says how close this was, what could have occurred.

Steve, still shaking, shows them his permit. “You don’t know what he did to me!” Steve wails. “You don’t know!”

“Take it easy, pal. Take it easy now…”

Watching it all happen, Joey finally drops his arms but stands obedient, passive, observing.

Joey and Zack continue to regard each other silently.

I saved his life, Zack realizes, the idea startling, confusing somehow.

He saved my life, Joey realizes, and the fact makes him dizzy.

The moment is dense with irony, floating around them on West 122nd.

And while the white and Hispanic cop are occupied with Steve, calming him, waiting for backup, Joey knows this is his chance to escape them.

Just the right moment of confusion, of distraction. To disappear around a corner or down a building alley. They’d never catch up to him, they’d never fire at him, because he hasn’t done anything and he is unarmed.

But escape them for how long? And to do what? Plead with Karloff for a different assignment? What difference does shaking the tail make? None.

You’d think it would have been his tail that would stop anything from happening to him. That his tail would, paradoxically, at least keep him alive.

Instead, it was the redheaded kid he tried to kill.

Joey stands there wordlessly. Waits for a cruiser or two to come and take Steve away for booking. Joey knows Steve will be released. He knows there are two justice systems. At least two.