Bonzer Words!: A Gunshot Broke the Silence
Mary Clemons wants to be a survivor.
We huddled, shaded from the summer’s warmth, in various states of readiness. Each of us, lost in our own thoughts, had our own reasons.
The young man to my left in his early twenties had been mugged late at night when walking home from the neighborhood theater. Two strangers came up behind him. While one six-foot ex-sailor, beat him; the other cheered. He had managed to dial 9-1-1 on his cell. By the time the police arrived, his assailants were gone.
The petite ninety year-old lady in the pink flowered dress was also a victim. While her son was in the drug store for some smokes, a man jumped in on the driver’s side and hijacked the car with her in it. She had sat across from him staring, frozen by fear. Half way down the block, he slugged her, opened her door, released her seatbelt, and pushed her out. The hospital bills have eaten most of her life savings.
Behind me, Martha, the woman in the tailored pantsuit, had lost a co-worker and friend. It seems that one Saturday morning, the deceased woman had answered the door never suspecting that outside a man and woman planned to steal anything of value and leave no witnesses. Until then, it had been a friendly, quiet neighborhood.
Jim, still wearing his Quickie Mart uniform, will be going to see his brother in the hospital when we finished here. It seems that three men jumped his brother after closing one night. Although he gave them all his personal belongings without a fight, they beat him until he was unconscious. Jim found him after his sister-in-law had called him, frantic. 'People are just getting downright mean.'
As for me, I guess I just watch too much news. I am not going to become Charles Bronson or anything. It just seems that one deranged shooter goes into a crowded place and takes masses of innocent lives. What if just one of them shot him before he could kill any more? I want to be one of the ones left living.
The instructor yelled, 'Come on, step on up.'
I stepped upon the shooting platform. He handed me a nine- millimeter automatic pistol.
'Here’s the clip. Slide it in here.' He waited until I followed his directions. 'Good. You have six shots. Now aim at the target.'
I removed the safety. Looked through the sights, and squeezed the trigger. A gunshot broke the silence.
© Mary Clemons
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Mary writes for Bonzer! magazine. Please visit www.bonzer.org.au
