The beams from the DineWise van slowly filled the garage as the door rose. I hit the button on the keypad, which paused it a foot above the cement floor, and I ran to the one window in the garage across from the door. I stood on my tiptoes and slammed the base of the lightsaber into the window, shattering it.
“What are you doing?” March called at me, his voice shaking.
“Hide behind the garbage cans!” I yelled back as the garage door was activated again, opening wider. I slid next to March, CindeeRae, and Madeleine, and pulled Genki down to the floor, his tail still wagging. “Quiet!” I commanded Genki as the garage door reached the halfway point, and light from the truck flooded the garage.
We huddled in the shadows of the three garbage cans, between an upright freezer and Mrs. White’s gardening tools hanging from hooks on the wall. I didn’t think Crowley would be able to see us, but that was only if he wasn’t searching. He shut the garage door before getting out of the truck and rushing into the house without even glancing around the garage.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry,” I mumbled at them as I stood and swung open the lid on the garbage can next to the house steps. I pulled Genki to the top step and held the can at an angle for him. “Come!” I said as I pointed inside. Like we were playing Simon Says, March, CindeeRae, and Madeleine followed my commands and crowded into garbage cans.
The dark room shook like an earthquake. I jolted, feeling the walls around me tight like a coffin, and realized Genki was curved around my feet, his head resting awkwardly on the hook of my heel. Then I remembered that I was hunched over in Mrs. White’s garbage can, and the rumbling was probably Allen pushing her trash to the curb.
I must have dozed off after Crowley came. He had gone into the house, leaving the door open a crack, so we could hear his angry conversation with Mrs. White. Then he tore back into the garage, noticed the broken glass, and ran out back, trying to follow our trail out the window and through the neighborhood. I assumed he hoped to catch us before we found cover or made it back to our families.
His frustrated return was followed by more commotion as Crowley and Mrs. White loaded the truck and drove away. We whispered back and forth for a bit, and decided the safest place was in the garbage cans; I was certain they would come back for the dogs and catch us all as we tried to flee. I must have fallen asleep soon after, no longer bothered by the smell of the spoiled DineWise tins and orange peels I had used to cover Genki and me.
My garbage can stopped, and I listened as Allen pushed the other cans to the curb. When I heard his car pull away, I rocked my bin back and forth until it toppled over. I pushed the lid open, the early morning light blinding me as Genki tentatively pushed his way out. March’s eyes peeked from under his lid.
I laughed at the smudge of dirt on his fingers, which hung over the can’s rim. “We did it,” I whispered, still afraid someone might hear us. “Mission accomplished!”
The lid of the last can flew back, and CindeeRae and Madeleine sprang up like a two-headed jack-in-the-box.
“We’re alive!” Madeleine cried.
Genki circled me a couple times before crossing the street to our house. Two police cars and one black SUV were parked at the curb, and Detective Hawthorne’s hulking back blocked all the light in the doorway.
I grabbed March’s arms and pulled him from the garbage can, which toppled onto Mrs. White’s front yard. CindeeRae and Madeleine had already scrambled from their bin, which had been halfway full of recyclables, and the plastic bottles and tin cans clanked onto the street. Detective Hawthorne turned toward the noise. Mom pushed past him and darted across the yard in her bare feet, even though the grass was crunchy with frost.
“Kazuko?” She stopped on the road and looked at me. “Kazu?” she said again, louder this time.
“Mom,” I said, and ran to her, leaving March in the frozen grass. She knelt and hugged me, squeezing the air from my chest. Genki jumped up on us, barking for attention. When she finally let go, she held me at arm’s length, searching my face. “Are you okay?”
I nodded my head, and she hugged me again, her tears wetting my cheek. I inhaled the scent of yuzu, Mom’s Japanese bath salts that smelled like tangerines, and knew everything would finally be okay.