Maddie's Revolver

I was sitting in the passenger side of my car. My mom was drive all of us home from lunch and I could feel the revolver burning through the glove box. Images of that night quickly flashed through my mind causing me to scrunch my eyes tight together and flinch. 


"What's wrong?" my mother asked, concerned. I stared blankly forward for a moment before I responded. 


"Guys" I said "I think I should tell you what really happened last August"


"What are you talking about?" my dad asked peering up from the back seat. 


"You know, the night I went up to the cinder pits?" mother let out a sigh of disappointment "Thats not all that happened that day"


I closed my eyes and I flashed back to that day.

Today was the day that Maddie died........ but I didn't know that yet. 


I was walking to the snack shack to meet her after school. I knew she wouldn't get there until after me because she always stayed in her last period, art class, with Miss Linda to help her clean up for a bit. On the walk over I planned an epic way to scare her. I would hide behind the door and look out the side window. When I saw Maddie walk in the door I would grab her and startle her, maybe causing her to pee her pants to something hilarious like that. 


I came up to the snack shack and noticed it was a bit quieter than usual. I walked inside and closed the door behind me. I looked around to a silent building. Not a single person was in site, not even the counter workers. Before I could justify just how eerie it was, a bullet flew past my head and through the wall. I ducked and looked to find a young boy, maybe 14 or 15, shakily pointing a small revolver at me. I ducked behind a wall and hid behind the blue couch in the lounging area of the building. I heard the revolver go off again. 


He came closer to me and aimed the gun. I begged him not to shoot. I could tell he didn't want to shoot me, but at this point it was his only choice. He shot again and I dove under the wide framed couch clinging to the sides, trying to stick to the top of the couch like they do in the movies. I heard him on top of the couch and saw the gun reach around and point towards me under the couch. He wasn't even looking at me his hand was very unsteady. I wondered if he was intoxicated or in shock. I noticed his loose and lazy grip on the gun and made a move for it. I snatched the gun out of his hand and slid out from under the couch. I fumbled with the gun for a second trying to cock it, wishing for a split second that I had gone shooting with my dad more often when he had asked me to. 


I managed to cock the gun and pointed it at the guy who was now sitting in the fetal position on the couch. I pointed the gun at him so hard I could feel a twinge of pain in my elbow, but it didn't matter. My body broke out in a sweat and I could see the fear and anger raging together in his eyes. 


I bolted for the door.

"Wait wait wait" My dad chuckled "This didn't really happen. What are you talking about?" 


Annoyed I flung open the glove box and held up the gun. Mom swerved a bit and screamed at me to 'put that down'. I cocked the hammer and slid my fingers along the chamber making is spin, memorized by it's smoothness. 


"Do you believe me now? Can I continue?" I asked. They were silent in return.  

I swung open the door and ran out into the street. I was running as fast as I had ever ran, trying to flag down someone to help. I looked behind me and saw the guy running at me faster than I could imagine, dodging cars and trash. I pointed the gun behind me, and half way running and looking I shot. I kept running without looking back and flagged down the next car I saw. It was my best friend Rachel and our friend Lonnie. I flung myself in the back seat and yelled at them to drive away. I looked at the guy as we drove away, he was on the ground clutching his arm. Sheer panic bubbled underneath my skin.


"What the hell is going on?!" Rachel screamed once we were turning onto the next street. 


"Just drive somewhere far away and I'll tell you" I muttered catching my breathe. I was halfway on the seat and on the floor. The gun in my hand felt warm and smelt like sulfur. I dropped it to the floor of the car. 


We drove up to the cinder pit and parked. The sun was setting now and I told them everything. I showed them the gun, and together we swore not to say a word to anyone as we emptied the rest of the bullets into the dust. Police lights blurred up the dirt road towards our car. I  was sure they were going to haul me off for shooting some 14 year old kid. 


The police man knocked on Rachel's window. She rolled it down and he informed us that they were investigating for a missing girl, and we had to leave the premises. 


Rachel dropped me off at my car at school. I threw the gun in the glove box and drove home. 


Early the next morning we got the call that Maddie had been kidnapped, rapped and murdered, and her body was found abandoned in the woods. The police interviewed all her closest friends to find any clues as to what had happened. I told them that I walked home after school, and then went up to the cinder pits with my friends later that evening. The police man confirmed that were were there and I was grounded for a week for going up there without permission. 

At the time, I didn't think that Maddie's murder had anything to do with the man that attacked me.


But now I'm thinking I should have told the police what really happened. 

5.14.11

Influences:

Maddie was a friend of mine that passed away suddenly from a brain tumor, my freshmen year of high school.

A young girl in the town I live in was recently kidnapped, rapped and murdered. Her death affected a lot of the people I work with. 

I have never fired a revolver. 

Remember: None of this is real, this was a dream I had in short story format. 

The Peppermint Wind

In my tan leather lace up boots I stood and looked at my new home.
How could it have come to this? I never even imagined my life coming to this point.

I walked over to our "house", the sand crunching underneath my feet. The dusty wind blowing sand into my eyes. I sat down under the extend tarp, peered out past the desert sun, and thought about all the things we had lost.
Our home.
Our city.
Our dog.
Our hope.

I looked at each family, just living day to day in their white trash best-we-can-do huts, cooking pheasants and lizards over open fires.

Sand started to inch down my shorts and I thought about how life would be now. Now that the world was crumbling into an abyss. No more stores, grass, or flowers. No more peaceful walks on the beach, or nights in that cozy bar.

My thoughts were interrupted by an image far away. It was large, and quickly heading our way.

A tornado.

Sheer panic came over the families. All of a sudden the little man-made shack of tarps, bricks and boxes that was just seconds ago thought of a pile of trash, was now my home and only means of protection from the harsh sun. And it was about to be destroyed.

All of a sudden this insignificant lousy life that I was living, was more valuable than I could ever imagine.

Everyone ran through the empty canyon looking for a structure that might somewhat shield them from the twister headed our way.
I ran towards a large boulder that had a sort of cave-like-feel with a small ledge, and I held on for dear life. Watching the tornado come closer and closer at a raging speed, I decided I could watch no longer and turned my head.
Just as I looked in the opposite direction, I saw another tornado coming our way. We were being sandwiched between two natural disasters, and there was no nope.
I clung to the rock. My body, sweating from the panic, was surprisingly relaxed by the cool mineraly nature of the rock. It started to pour musky rain.

I closed my eyes to see pitch black, but memories flooded my vision. Images of my childhood, the ocean, my family, and my work flew through my mind like I was flipping through an open book. But then everything went black, and I could only hear one thing:

"There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.


Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.


Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends"

I took a deep breath and wished, I could cool in the peppermint wind once again. 

5.12.11

No current ideas that may have triggered this dream.

Poem by Shel Silverstein "Where the Sidewalk Ends"