The Sister

Chapter 7: A Shift in Focus

   However we managed to find our way later on, I don’t much remember and I still don’t much care. All I knew was that we had to get home fast because we were probably the only ones walking around with a gun. Presently, we heard sirens screaming across the street and my heart fell so badly, my entire body fell with it.

     I was scared to death. We weren’t even out of jail for one week before we trashed something! And coincidentally, that also had to be a car!

     For whatever reason my brain told me to keep the gun, I listened to it. It was securely tucked under my belt the entire way home. But the surprises never ended that day. They seemed to go on and on and on. The first moment upon stepping in the house, Mary growled in annoyance in front of the TV. Apparently, there was a show she was watching that had just been interrupted by breaking news….

     “We have breaking news,” the news announcer said. “Just minutes ago in Downey, California, there were shots being fired at a stationary vehicle. We are told that the driver and passenger are safe, but the vehicle was damaged heavily.”

     I remained in the hallway, my heart racing. These damn news reporters!

     “We’re now going to the scene with a live interview of both the driver and the passenger.”

     There was a moment’s pause, and then:

     “We were just ’bout to go to the park,” said some woman, “when we suddenly heard shots and it took us a minute to realize that we were being shot at. First, the back window crashed. I didn’t notice that the tire was shot at too until just now.”

     There was another pause and then the sound of a man: “I was ready to go out and play ball with my girlfriend and then we noticed we were being shot at. Scared us to death. We couldn’t move for like a minute until she called the cops.”

     I cautiously entered the living room, pretending to be interested in what was going on. I didn’t want to seem suspicious. Mom and Mary were staring at the TV. Since the shooting was so close to home, Mary’s interest must have been tweaked.

     As the interview was over, the announcer standing by the scene was back.

     “Observers around the area claim that they had not seen anybody on sight, but they heard the shots being fired from some area behind them. Right now, investigators only have the two bullets as evidence. But for now, the shooter remains unknown.”

     Not for another second was I going to stay in that room. I jolted upstairs and answered the reason to why I was home so early to Mom. And that second, I realized something else. If Martin saw the news…. I threw myself on the bed. What Moe said was right. I couldn’t just throw this gun anywhere now. Those cops and detectives would search the fingerprints and eventually find us all over again. Only instead of juvenile hall, it was more than likely that we would go to prison for attempted murder.

     I wasn’t afraid of being a coward in front of Moe anymore. Rather, I was  more frightened that I wasn’t scared. I pulled the gun from my belt and stared at it. It had cooled off completely, but the smell of smoke still weakly drifted up my nostrils. There were only five bullets left in the thing and more than anything, I wanted to get rid of them.

     And then, I had the idea of taking the bullets out of the gun and hide them in one spot. When I had the time, I would probably bury them somewhere. Then, I would return the gun to Moe and if he felt like shooting something again, he would find that all the bullets were removed.

     But before I could do anything, I heard someone coming up the stairs and I quickly stuffed the gun in one of my drawers. It didn’t matter who it was that was coming up, the gun could NOT be seen by anyone at this point.