Reuben stood and gently grabbed Tamar’s hand and helped raise her from the front pew. She contemplated taking one more look inside the casket, but knew it would only break her down again. Like her grandmother had always told her, “If God had wanted us to stay looking back, He’d of put our eyes behind our heads. You got to keep looking and moving forward honey!”
            She mustered her strength and began heading toward the rear of the church, a few steps in front of Reuben. She forced a smile to acknowledge the waves and nods of those in attendance. Some she knew personally, others she recognized from church and a handful were completely unfamiliar. Reuben was taking the time to shake hands and thank those sitting near the center aisle for their support. He picked up his pace when he saw how far his wife had walked in front of him. He stretched his arm out in front of her to push the door open just as she got there. He glanced back to take one more look at the scene.
            “Wait Tamar…let’s just say a quick prayer before we leave babe,” he proposed while pulling her back from the lobby area.
            “Yeah,” she replied solemnly. “I could use that.”
He wiped a fresh tear from her cheeks.
            Meanwhile Datiel had maneuvered Rueben’s classic Chevy Caprice out of the parking lot and was now sitting at a stop sign getting ready to make a left turn. Normally he would have sat in the parking lot adjacent to the church, but the thought of his sister walking and being drenched in rain on this already depressing day didn’t sit well on his conscience. He wanted to pull in front of the church to give Tamar and Rueben a short distance to the vehicle. He looked down for a second at the radio and turned the volume down. Candace reached forward and flipped the station to 102.3, before turning it back up, she remembered that was Tamar’s favorite. After checking for oncoming cars to the right, he started to look left, but then caught a glimpse of something that made him do a double take.
             Definitely looks familiar, he thought while staring down the street. Nah, that weed got me being paranoid. All these people at this funeral, sure there are at least a couple Expo’s here.
            He squinted his eyes attempting to make out the license plate.
            “Ay Candy, does that truck look like..”
            Before he could finish his inquiry the engine in the distant truck roared to life from its idle purr and the tires began screeching, kicking up water on the wet street.
            Datiel grabbed the steering wheel with both hands and seemingly used every muscle in his leg to hit the gas for acceleration, his vision steadily focused on the rapidly approaching Expedition with the black tinted windows slowly being lowered into the doors.  The Caprice jumped from behind the crosswalk with force, but the momentum was suddenly stopped, Datiel’s sights were distracted away from the Expedition because of a louder growing car horn to his left. The hood of a blue Chevy Malibu was already less than a foot away from his door, windshield so close that he could clearly see the look of terror on the other driver’s face! Candace’s eyes grew so big that her eyebrows nearly met hairline.
            The impact of the Malibu into the Caprice flung Datiel from his seat to the center console, and Candy cracked the passenger window her head knocked against it so hard.
            Datiel thought he had regained composure fairly fast, believing his head was ringing because he could still hear the same horn. He looked up and saw the Malibu smashed completely into his side of the car, including the door.
             “Damn…stuck!!” he thought.
             The lady driving the Malibu was knocked unconscious against the steering wheel.  He frantically glanced back to his right and to his dismay the truck was still rapidly approaching, now less than twenty yards away! There wouldn’t be enough time to make it out of Candy’s door, which would put them in the direct path of the ambush anyway. He didn’t even have an opportunity to check on motionless Candace before he saw the chrome of a .45 slowly emerging from the open driver window of the SUV, and a much larger barrel already peaking out the window of the rear seat behind the driver. Despite severe neck pain and throbbing knees from banging them against the steering wheel, he made every effort to lean over to shield his non-moving passenger.