The station-wagon swerved around the corner (as it had all the previous), jolting and jarring its passengers from one side to another. Tom and Alona, in the back seat, were thrown next to each other at near regular intervals, wondering how long their luck would last. With a final, sharp turn of the wheel, Ritchie half-drove, half-skidded off Central and into the back alley known as Seltsam Way.
"There it is!" he shouted.
"This isn't a cavalry charge, dear," Betty muttered, having braced herself in the passenger seat as best she could throughout the horrible ride.
"Now we'll see what's going on around here!" he replied.
It was when a man dressed in a lab coat plunged from the sky and slammed into their hood, pitching the car forward and then back onto its wheels as the body rolled off the windshield and into the alleyway behind them that Ritchie finally applied the brakes. The wagon skidded to a stop, turning as it slid until the vehicle became lodged in the narrow alley. After the occupants caught their breath, Betty spoke.
"I think you hit him," she said.
"I didn't hit him, he hit me!" Ritchie replied.
"Look at the hood! The car's totaled!" Tom cried.
"He fell on us! How could I know he was going jump and land on my car?!"
"Who are they?" Alona asked, looking past Tom as they sat pressed against the door.