gOnE...iN a SpLiT sEcOnD

So today is one of those days when you really realize how unpredictable life is! And how helpless and exposed you are to that little known fact! Yesterday around 2:30 pm, my sister, my cousin, my mom and I were lounging around in our living room replaying the day’s events when suddenly we heard 6 gunshots right outside our front door. We sat glued to our sofa stunned for a good few seconds not wanting to believe those could possibly be gunshots when my dad comes running out of his room and all we heard him say was “(to my cousin) someone fired at your car!” Without any hesitation we ran outside only to find not-a-single soul on the street…no bullets…no damage to the car...no witnesses…no nothing. Apparently as soon as the so-called gunshots went off, my dad woke up and managed to sneak a peak at a van, dark green, caravan-looking van with people struggling inside…fighting maybe (?)…and then the van reversed in a hurry almost running into a car coming from the other side of the road and then sped away. So while we're outside searching for any clues, my sister kept glancing over at our neighbor’s house right across from us. Well a little introduction of our neighbors...we have this Hispanic family that lives right across from us. And every day after work there’s always someone or the other from the family sitting outside their garage chilling, listening to some serious authentic Mexican tunes, drinking, or grilling…it’s always either the “senior” dad (the grand dad) or his 30-something year old muscled up son watching his kids run across the front lawn. Although at times their music got uncomfortably loud, we ignored the inconvenience because frankly they’re so kind, friendly, and entirely innocuous. For us the 30-something son happens to be more of a watchdog of the neighborhood. Just the other day we had this insane, idiot teen drive on our street at 80 freakin mph…I kid you not, the 30-something son jumped out of his chair, chased the car on foot, made the driver stop the car, and yelled at him and threatened him to slow down..."there are kids in this neighborhood, you a$$h*le" he yelled. Now if that was me in the car I would have certainly wet my pants…but at that moment I felt so safe and relieved to have this man in our neighborhood. So anyways, back to yesterday, we were outside trying to figure out what really happened when my sister said to me “that’s really weird, there’s no one sitting outside our neighbor’s house, usually there’s someone or the other always there, and I even see a chair but no person” She insisted we walk over to our neighbor’s house to check and see if they heard or saw anything unusual...I mean someone had to validate those gunshots for us…after all we didn’t manifest the gunshots…and my dad did witness a struggle right before…but I conveniently ignored my sister's attempt…my argument - let’s not bother these people, I’m sure they didn’t hear anything. It was then my sister spotted this incompetent cop driving on our street. She ran over to the car to stop him only to hear him yell back at her “what’s the problem, I don’t have time, talk fast”…WHAT DID HE JUST SAY??? Sir, be nice…that’s all I could think of saying to him…my sister is not flagging you to get your digits…so after hearing what we “thought” happened, he scoffed at us (of course he thought we were making this up…at 2:30 on a Wednesday afternoon!?! ...seriously?)…and goes “gunshots? I don’t think so…I didn’t hear any gunshots? I was only two streets down” By this time, I’m already irate, this man thinks we don’t have anything better to do on a Wednesday than approach a random cop and report gunshots. He continued to scope the territory all the while scoffing and laughing…asks my dad “sir, did you say you saw a struggle? Did you see someone shooting at some person?” to which my dad replied “no I didn’t witness the actual shooting if there was one but I do know I heard gunshots, witnessed a struggle inside the car, and my guess is someone shot at someone”. To which he goes “well I hope they killed each other!” PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT DID THIS MAN JUST BARK??? I’m infuriated…obviously this man, this cop, was not interested in doing his job. Anyhow after 15 minutes of uncovering no evidence whatsoever, we returned to our nest still puzzled over the recent events of the day. Another 15 to 20 minutes passed by and all of a sudden, a plethora of cop cars filled up our street along with a Detective car and a Homicide Unit SUV. We ran outside wondering what happened this time only to find out that there actually were gunshots, and someone was murdered…someone no other than our sweet 30-something year old Hispanic son/neighbor! He was the one who got shot, right in front of his house, while he was sitting on his chair, a victim of a drive-by. So what really happened was by the time we made it outside following the gunshots, our sweet neighbor had managed to drag his almost lifeless body inside the garage but he didn’t make it to his house…he died on the way…inside the garage…6 gun shots…and to this hour (the clock just struck midnight) I still can’t get over the fact that he’s dead…and what’s worse is the entire time we were outside, he was battling to live…right there...only a few feet away from us…and my sister kept insisting we go look inside…AND I DIDN’T…none of us did…we could’ve saved him…we could’ve called the paramedics on time…because there was no one present inside his house at the time he was shot…unfortunately his wife discovered his dead body a good 10 to 15 minutes after the incident. ALL THIS TIME we could’ve saved him AND WE DIDN’T...COULDN'T….no matter how much I try, I can’t get the thought to escape my head…in all of 15 years we’ve been here, I’ve NEVER exchanged a single word with this man yet I’ve always admired him…his courage…his attitude...his efforts to keep our street safe…especially his fatherhood skills…all to end one afternoon over a stupid argument...one man decides to lose all sanity and kills him!!! What has become of this human race??? I swear…no hint of mercy remains…no conscience exists anymore…no heart beats…I mean I do admit I’m not fully aware of the entire story and for all I know, it could’ve been a personal vendetta but still! Yesterday watching CSI take pictures of the crime scene and then carry his body in a plastic bag just gave me the chills…bad chills…my first time witnessing a live crime scene…so close to home…I can’t tell you how scary it is to be this close to all the real drama. It’s so sad, in all these years we never bothered to talk and yet at his death I had nothing but words for him.

Keep smiling...cause we can be “gone…in a split second”…

signed: Thinker-Bell