Chapter 11
Danisha walked through the house and couldn’t find her mother. “She should have been home by now and her phone is dead.”
Danisha opened the refrigerator and pulled out a cold pressed fruit drink. She sat down as she cut the television in the kitchen on and saw that people had been shot in the department store downtown.
Tears fell from her eyes as she remembered how she felt just three years ago when she just knew that she and her mother was going to die.
~~
“Dani, I am so proud of you girl. I can’t believe you are Dr. Smith’s best patient right now. Your A1C is so much lower than it was our last visit. You really have been taking your insulin like you are supposed to girl.”
Danisha smiled and nodded her head. Fallon said, “Dr. Smith said that you are the best 10-year-old she has ever had. Please keep up the good work. I’m so happy that you are adjusting to this so well. I felt horrible when you got diagnosed with diabetes and for a long time, I blamed myself.”
Danisha said, “Mama, you know that it’s not your fault.”
Fallon held her head down and said, “I know that now but for the longest time I cried every night.” Fallon realized that the conversation was going in the wrong direction and said, “We going to the mall. You can get whatever you want. I’m so proud of you baby!”
Danisha walked into her favorite store and started grabbing stuff off of the racks. She loved to shop. Smiling and walking with more bags than she could comfortably hold, her smile was snatched from her face.
A gunshot sent the mall into a frenzy. Another shot invited death to the mall’s corridor. Blood splattered on the Foot Locker glass front. Two people were on the ground dead. Danisha would never forget how she felt as the gunman looked as he pointed the gun towards her and her mother. She saw the fire explode from the gun as she saw her mother fall to the ground.
Danisha’s heart stopped for a second as she saw her mother fall to the ground in slow motion. She looked away from her mother and towards the man with the gun that was now pointing it at her. She wanted to close her eyes, but she was frozen with fear.
She didn’t understand what happened next. She saw the man with the gun head fly backwards and he dropped his gun.
Danisha looked around and saw a man walking up from behind her holding a little girl’s hand while he had a gun in his other hand.
She noticed he had another gun tucked into his belt when he bent down to check on her mother.
The man never let his little girl’s hand go as he spoke into his phone. “We need an ambulance, she will be fine, he just hit her arm.” He turned to Danisha and said, “Your mama gonna be alright, the man just shot her in the arm. I’m going to stay her with you until the police get her okay?”
The little girl reached her hand towards Danisha. Danisha took a few seconds before she understood the little girl wanted to hold her hand. When Danisha touched the little girl’s hand her heart calmed down. In that moment she felt so safe.
Danisha’s shock faded and then she realized that her mother had been shot. She fell to the ground and held her mother’s head in her lap. Fallon blinked her eyes quickly and smiled when she looked up and saw her daughter.
Once she realized what happened, she sat up quickly and said, “You okay baby? Are you hurt?”
“No mama, I’m okay.”
Fallon said frantically, “Where is the man with the gun?”
The man with the little girl said, “He’s dead ma’am, and here come the police now. You are going to be fine.”
Fallon began to feel lightheaded but noticed the man walking away with the little girl had two guns tucked into his belt. Right before she passed out, she wondered, “Where in the world did he get those Jordan’s from?”
~~
Danisha remembered how she felt the day that she thought she had lost her mother and wondered where she was at right now.