I remember looking over seeing the luggage just sitting there without an owner. Emptiness washed over me realizing I felt like discarded luggage. I was taking this train; running from my problems at home.
I can barely hear the man in front of me “Mam we will be done in a moment, I still need to ask you some questions”
Another man has a tiny bag and tweezers pulling things from the right side of my face and hair, placing them in the tiny bag.
I hear the man in front of me ask “Did you see who did this?”
I numbly shook my head; I do not think I have blinked in an hour my eyes feels so dry like someone threw sand in them. I should be screaming, crying hysterically yet I have this sense of hollowed out silence.
The man next to me had just asked where I was traveling and why I was traveling alone; when I heard this loud noise; it did not register what it was till the man’s body was hurled to the floor as his head whipped back. Looking in horror slow motion I hear screams and footsteps running away.
Now I am receiving all this attention, while the man needs more of the attention then me; I am fine.
In my view I see a familiar face which at first glance does not register in my mind as pure recognition
“Honey, it is Dan are you alright?”
“Dan?” I almost said Dan who! As the fog lifted I wondered why my husband is here, we were getting a separation.
Now my husband is talking to the man who was in front of me, voices swirl around me, someone is putting a cuff on my arm I heard the whoosh whoosh as they pump it, checking my vitals he says to me. Oh another face to my left.
“Ringing in my ears” I say to the man with the cuff “Loud ringing in my ears”
“Yes mam it will dissipate in time, it is because of the gun shot”
“Gun shot? Am I hurt?”
“No mam we will have you cleaned up so you can go home with your husband”
This man took the cuff off me. Now I just hear muffled voices someone is saying “You can take her home but be sure her physician sees her immediately; we will need to speak to her again in time she may remember more”
I remember saying something yet I hear the words I am saying it is dislocated from me
“I heard a woman say I hate you and you will never hurt another woman again”
Just then I see faces in front of me again, asking me to repeat it.
SO I repeated it then someone asked “Can you describe the woman?”
“Yes” I pointed she is over there with the gun
All heads turned bodies moving another gun shot, the woman was laying on the floor. How has my world come to this? I was running to have peace and chaos still found me.
My husband took me in his arms after the man used a towel to dry me off. I found myself walking numbly with my husband, him saying to me “I am so sorry Lynn, I have been so very selfish, if I had not been so stubborn you would be home with me working in the garden.”
“I love you Dan we still need something”
“I know Lynn we will find that something together”
poems and short stories 