She turned to watch the door, sure the men would burst in here after all the commotion, but nothing. She got up and went to stand by Scotty. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Come help me. We’re going to quietly move that desk to the wall, okay? I’ll stand on it and see how close we can get to the window.”
The desk was an old, sturdy wooden desk and heavier than an elephant as far as Becky Lee could tell. She leaned against it and pushed. It moved maybe an inch.
“I’ll help.” Scotty pushed with her.
The desk slid another inch or so. Great, in about twelve hours they’d have it moved. She stood up and stared at the desk, willing it to be lighter.
Hope sprang up inside her. “The drawers. We’ll take out the drawers.” She tugged on them and placed each one on the floor. She realized if they stacked the drawers on top of the desk, they’d get more height that way, too. She dumped the contents of the drawers on the floor.
She and Scotty shoved the desk across the floor, slowly and steadily, trying not to make any noise. They placed it under the window, then Becky Lee stacked the three drawers on top of the desk. She climbed up on her makeshift ladder. She was so close.
She scanned the room, looking for something else to use. She saw an old wooden file cabinet in the corner of the room. Bingo.
They repeated their process of pulling out drawers, then shoved the file cabinet over to the desk. They leveraged it on top of the desk, and the two of them grabbed the cabinet and upended it to stand upright.
“Stand back in case all this topples over.” Becky Lee used the desk drawers to get on top of the four-drawer file cabinet. She could see out the window now. Her heart dropped when she realized the grate on the window was screwed in place. She tugged on it, but it didn’t budge. All this work for nothing. She climbed down to the floor.
“You can’t get the window open?”
“The grate is covering it. It’s screwed in place. I need to find something to get it unscrewed.” She walked over to contents of the desk scattered on the floor. A small metal ruler, that might work. A letter opener. She shuffled through the mess.
“Look.” Scotty held up a screwdriver.
She leaned over and kissed him. “You’re my hero.”
She scrambled off the floor and climbed back up to the window. Each screw fought back but she finally won. She held her breath and tugged on the grate.
It didn’t budge.
“Listen you stupid grate. I didn’t do all this for you to just stick there.” She tugged on it again and the bottom of it swung loose. Then, to her surprise, she was holding it in her hand. She turned the lever on the window and it swung open. She looked down and saw a closed dumpster below the window.
This was going to work.
Her heart raced and she was afraid the men would return at any moment. She climbed down to the desktop. “Scotty, I’m going to help you climb up here. You’re going to go out the window and I’m going to hold your hands and let you down as far as I can. You’ll have to drop the rest of the way. Can you do that?”
“I can do it. I can.”
She helped him climb up on top of the file cabinet, and she stood carefully behind him. She grabbed the windowsill with one hand and held her other hand down for Scotty to step into. She boosted him up until he could wiggle out onto the window frame. He swung one leg outside.
“Okay, I’m going to squeeze up here with you and hold onto your hands. I’ll lower you as far as I can.” Scotty wiggled out the window and hung on. She rested her stomach on the window sill, grabbed both his hands and lowered him as far as she could.
“Okay, I’m going to let go. You still have about four or five feet to drop to the dumpster.”
“I’m ready. Let go.”
She shut her eyes briefly. Theresa Jean, look after your son. She opened her eyes and let go. The boy dropped to the dumpster. He stood up and gave her the thumbs up.
Now, she just had to lower herself as far as possible and drop. Scotty had climbed down to the ground, out of the way. She wiggled and pushed off the file cabinet to get out the window. Her movements sent the file cabinet and drawers crashing to the ground. In a panic she wriggled through the window, lowered herself outside, and held onto the window opening. She looked below.
You’re going to be fine. Becky Lee swore she heard Theresa Jean’s voice. She let go and dropped down onto the dumpster, hoping she didn’t break anything. She landed with a thud, lost her balance, and fell on her rear. She didn’t have time to stop. She sat up and climbed off the dumpster.
She took Scotty’s hand in hers, glanced quickly both directions, flipped a coin in her head and chose left. They raced off down the street and dodged into the nearest alley, hoping if the men ran outside if they heard the crashing noise, they wouldn’t see which way she and Scotty had headed.