Entry #521207, added on 06-28-08 @ 7:45 pm EDT
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| Part Two - Chapter Two: Yellow Bandana | Entry #521207 |
Chapter Two
Paramedics shouted instructions at each other and asked questions over a hand-held radio. They pounded on David, stuck needles in him and loaded him onto a gurney. The shouting and pounding, though muffled when the doors of the ambulance were shut, left me trembling. The flashing lamps atop the ambulance and police cars gave me a headache, even in broad daylight. I sought Les as they drove away with David and Ed inside. He grabbed me and held me close.
Richard jumped in Ed's truck to follow. Tears ran down his cheeks, something I had not seen before, and it frightened me even more than I already was. I wondered if Les could drive the blue car so we could get to the hospital. I started to ask him, when two uniformed police officers came over to us.
Les answered their first question, “I don’t know what happened. We were at the checkout counter and heard the shots. They just started shooting, for no reason.”
"What about your sister?" asked an older gray-haired officer.
"I saw a man with a yellow bandana around his head. He had a gun," I said.
Another, younger officer nodded his head and said, "That's what a couple of other people said. I'm glad you paid attention.”
Then he asked, "Where were you?"
Les interrupted, "Isn't my mom supposed to be here for this?"
"You mean questioning your little sister? Not if she's a witness." the young officer said.
"Man, she's only ten years old, besides she was in the store with me, just like I said." Les replied.
"Is that true?" asked the older officer.
I nodded. I saw the young officer shake his head. He had dark hair, dark eyes and a mustache, and looked about the same age as David, barely nineteen. He looked around the parking lot. His eyes rested on the blue car which David drove to the store. He pointed at it and asked, "Is this y'alls car?"
I started to explain, but Les squeezed my hand, and said, "No sir, I don't know whose car that is, it was here when we walked up." Les softly pulled my head to his side as if to comfort me.
"How'd you get up here, then?"
Les said, "We walk everywhere. This ain't that far, mister. It's easy compared to some places. Our school is farther away from where we live than this. Sometimes we take the bus, though."
The young officer scanned Les with an up and down motion of his head and eyes, but then said, "Well, we'll give you a ride to the hospital. Maybe you can call your family when you get there. We might need to question you some more when your mom arrives. It's legal for us to do it without her, but we'd rather her be there.”
I asked him, "Are you a rookie?"
He laughed and said, "How did you guess?"
I smiled, but said nothing. He looked new, somehow. Most cops I saw had a different look about them, like they were tired of it all.
A clap of thunder followed by deep diminishing rumbles startled me. I hadn't noticed how the daylight vanished underneath the city's imposing towers, as dark, swirling clouds loomed above them. Large drops of rain splattered across the Lucky-Mart parking lot and actually kicked up dust.
The young officer said, "Y'all jump in the backseat."
Les and I crawled into the squad car. The older officer radioed, “One-thirty-four to central dispatch.”
“Go ahead one-thirty-four,” a voice blared back.
“This looks like a drive-by. Nothing more to add to the suspect description I gave you.“
“Ten four, one-thirty-four. Are you back in service?"
The windshield, hammered by pelting rain, thrust the sound of it into the car. The young officer reached over and turned a knob, apparently to increase the volume of the radio.
The older officer said, “Negative, We're en route to John Peter Smith hospital with the gunshot victims’ family. There is a blue, two-door 55 Ford Fairlane parked in the lot here that may or may not have something to do with all this. Can you run the tags?”
“Go ahead,” said the voice at central dispatch.
“H as in Henry, V as in Victor, B as in Baker, nine, two, nine.”
“Received, one-thirty-four. The computers are slow at the moment, but I’ll advise as soon as I get the report.”
I buried my face in Les's chest as we rode in the back of the squad car. He cried softly holding one hand over his eyes, his other arm around me. More sirens screamed as emergency vehicles swished down the street. Horns blared, and water splashed high when a bus rolled close to the curb as the rain pounded the roof and windshield.
I forced it all from my mind and thought only of David. He teased me a lot so he could laugh when I got mad. I wanted so much at that moment to hear him laugh again.
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© Copyright 2008 L. A. Powell (UN: lisapowell at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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Content Rating Notice: Recommended for Readers 18 Years and Older Only
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