In a day devoid of luck, the luckiest thing saved us. The driver’s side door of the car above flew open and hit the basketball, and I watched the orange sphere strike awkwardly off a nearby bumper before rolling all the way across the lot.

“Oh, man, I didn’t see you,” said the driver. “I’ll get it. I’m so sorry. I’ll get it.”

There was a festering pause.

“No problem,” Steve said. “I got it.” But I could imagine his icy grin.

The spiffy shoes turned and went after the ball, and I rolled out from under the car and backed away on hands and knees until I was squatting against the rear bumper of a truck several spaces away, wheezing for breath, every inch of my skin tingling in the open air. My inadvertent savior drove away. After that I heard the pained hisses of Tub maneuvering himself from his undercarriage prison.

He walked over to me, dragging his weary feet. His face was smeared with oil and his jeans were torn, and yet he was laughing.

“You know how to throw a party, Jim Sturges Jr., I’ll give you that.”

“Is it…can we…is it safe?”

Tub checked the lot, but he seemed unconcerned.

“Coach Lawrence nabbed him for practice. We live to fight another day, soldier.”

“No…I mean, the thing…is it…?”

Tub frowned.

“The thing. Hmmm. Can you be more specific?”

I clutched at the bumper and raised myself to unsteady feet. I patted the truck bed, taking solace in the cake of dust. It was real; I was not caught in a nightmare. I smeared the dust with my fingers and smelled it.

“If you lick that, we’re no longer friends,” Tub said.

With utmost caution I edged over to the empty parking space where I had been trapped. I didn’t want to get too close and so skirted out into the path of exiting cars. I was met with honking and various colorful curses, but I ignored them. The cracks on the pavement that had been made by those vicious claws moments earlier looked like the unassuming marks that came with wear and tear and age. The innocent manhole cover was right where it was supposed to be.

“That.” I pointed. “Look at that.”

Tub leaned over the disc of iron.

“This right here?”

Tub kneeled down and brought his eye as close to the cover as his gut would allow. I tensed my stomach muscles and braced for the worst.

“I see it,” he said.

The blood drained from my face.

“You do?”

“I sure do. You want me to get it?”

“What? No! Just get away!”

He pointed at a small pink spot on the manhole cover.

“Looks like Bubblicious to me. Let me tell you a secret: I’ve got gum in my pocket that’s never even been chewed, which is a big part of what I look for in a gum. But far be it from me to stand between a man and his cravings.”