ASHES, ASHES (The Story of the Minneapolis Riots)

2.

May 31st

I went to the living room and got out my backpack just to see if I saved any snacks. Luckily, I did. There were Sour Patch Kids, mac and cheese bites, and a Coke bottle. I got out the mac and cheese bites and put them in the microwave for 30 seconds.

All of a sudden, the house felt a little hot. Maybe I shouldn't have exercised for too long...

"FIRE!!!" someone yelled. It was Jacob. How obvious.

I went to the window to check. 

"Jacob, stop lying about it," I scolded, "If there was a fire, I'm sure the alarm would've went o-"

I stopped only to see thousands of people burning five police vans and vandalizing them. Stores were looted right near our apartment. 

This was worse than the Hunger Games.

And get this: they looted Target! My mom is an employee there!

How dare they?! 

Jacob looks as if he were about to cry, and, not to lie here, I also almost started to tear up a bit. Maybe because I've been staring at the ceiling for too long. I turned to Jacob and kneeled next to him with my hand on his shoulder.

"Hey," I whispered, "At least Mom is still alive. Hopefully, she'll bring back some snacks for us on the way home."

"Yeah," Jacob responded. He had snot on his nose and was still in tears.

My phone buzzed. I took it out, and it was a notification from my Dad. I opened up the notification and read silently.

"Hey Miriam! :) How's ur day?? If it's not doing to well I understand."

I texted back, "fine, i guess 🙃 how's yours??"

After two minutes, Dad responded.

"Listen closely: The police pulled me over after I got you some dinner from Burger King...they told me that your mother was fatally shot by some looters during the protest."

Hopefully, this was a joke. But it wasn't.

I started to really freak out. I ran to my room and started bawling my tears out. Why did my mom have to die? She didn't deserve this! 

I texted back to Dad, "NOOOOOOO!!!!!! WHY HER????!!!!!! 😭😭😭😭"

Jacob knocked on my door. 

"GO AWAY, JACOB!" I yelled, "I'M TRYING TO COPE HERE!!"

Jacob responded, "No need to yell! I wanted to tell you that Dad's home."