Blonde Faith (29 page)

The back of my car hit something hard, a boulder, no doubt. Something clenched down on my left foot, and pain lanced up my leg. I ignored this, though, realizing that in a few seconds I’d be dead.

Quickly I tried to come up with the image I needed to see before I died. My mind reached toward the top of the cliff. I was grasping for Bonnie, Faith, and my mother. But none of them was around for my last seconds.

The front of the car hit something, making a loud bang and a wrenching metal sound. Chevette Johnson rushed into my mind then. She was sleeping on my new couch, safe from an evil world.

I think I smiled, and then the world went black.

WALTER MOSLEY
is the author of the acclaimed Easy Rawlins series of mysteries, including national bestsellers
Cinnamon Kiss, Little Scarlet,
and
Bad Boy Brawly Brown;
the Fearless Jones series, including
Fearless Jones
and
Fear Itself;
the novels
Blue Light
and
RL’s Dream;
and two collections of stories featuring Socrates Fortlow,
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned,
for which he received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and
Walkin’ the Dog.
He was born in Los Angeles and lives in New York.