That shriek got a rousing reaction. Those earnest intellectuals suddenly came boiling toward me in a red wave of wrath. There was a scrawny blonde, built like the ruins of Pompeii, in the lead.
"Let me have him, girls!" I heard that scrawny blonde whinny. "Ten years ago I took some jujutsu lessons to help protect me from men. Now I want to see if I wasted my money."
I guess she never did find out if she wasted her money. Before she could get her girlish talons into me some lily-livered flunky pulled the main light switch.
In the thick darkness I barreled my way through the screaming mob. I didn't stop until I climbed into my car. Somebody plopped down into the seat beside me just as I hit the starter.
"Better roll it out of here fast!" a girl's voice yipped excitedly in my ear. "There's a berserk gorilla loose in there!"
I wanted to explain that the berserk gorilla wasn't loose in there any more. I wanted to say, Look, sis, that berserk gorilla is me. But, judging from the way the riot was building up, I just didn't have the time to spare. I rolled out of there fast.
It wasn't until we swung into the lighted boulevard that I realized I had picked up the furious little female with the striped hair.
She recognized me at the same instant. "Yipes!" she squalled. "The bearded Gargantua!" She drew back her foot and aimed a quick kick at my shin. Her open-toed sandal whizzed by my leg and thudded into the dashboard. She grabbed her foot and squalled some more. "Crumpled it up like a balsa kite!" she screeched. "Bones sticking out all over! Stop this chartreuse tumbrel! Let me out of here!"
I stopped the car. The mood she was in I felt she just wasn't safe to have around.
"I don't want to rush you, sis," I said, "but there'll probably be a broom coming along any minute. Maybe if you crawl out fast you can grab a ride home."