Boy

At about 2am we were woken up to a banging sound.

BANG

Jay was on the side of the bed that was closest to the window.

BANG

We were both deep asleep.

BANG

I grabbed his arm and we both rolled to the floor on my side of the bed. 

BANG 

Then we  rolled again a few more times.

BANG 

Both of us trying to lay on top of each other. 

BANG

To protect each other.

BANG

We ended up with his lower half on my lower half and my upper half cradling his head. 

BANG

We did this in absolute silence, except for the banging. 

BANG

The banging was slow. 

BANG

One second at a time.

BANG

It took a few additional seconds to fully wake up once we had stopped rolling and the banging had stopped. But, when we did, we both kind of laughed a little and sat up and looked at each other in the dark. We said “what was that?” “weird!” “it must have been fireworks!” and then we got back into bed.

We faced each other. Noses almost touching. Holding hands.

Less than a minute later the lights and sirens of emergency vehicles started. We both jumped out of bed, flung open the curtains, and looked out the window.

There was a man in a pool of blood and three police officers standing over him. Feathers were flying through air. He had been wearing a down jacket. The white feathers were landing in the pool of dark red blood and on the officer’s black uniforms.

The bright street lights were acting like spotlights, and we could see everything from our slightly elevated position. 

One flight of stairs up.

We were close to him.

If we could have walked through our window and straight to him it would have taken four long strides.

They ripped the jacket off of him. Flung it away. Another officer ran up and they started to do CPR. I knew we were watching him die. There was too much blood. He was too limp. Too bent in the wrong directions.

Less than two minutes later an ambulance arrived and they lifted his limp body onto a gurney, it looked like he had no bones. No structure. They ran to the ambulance and took off with their lights flashing and sirens blaring.

The police began looking for bullets. Examining the holes in the doors and windows of the apartments behind where the man’s body had been. They were tracking red foot prints across the concrete. They were out there until about 6am with the street blocked off.

The maintenance men for the apartments came at about 6am when the officers left They cleaned the mess. Swept the feathers. Scrubbed the blood out of the concrete, but not completely. They put pieces of wood in the windows and doors that had bullet holes in them.

The news said it was a 19 year old Howard student that had been killed. He was shot over a dozen times at close range with a rifle. There are no suspects. The news report said it was random and that they were looking for a black SUV.

People came all day and stood, and stared at the spot, and cried, and left flowers.

And I sat in my window immobile and watched. 

And silently wept with them.

He was just a boy.