Event That Changed Your Outlook on Life

First Lost

How in the world could something so horrible, so heart wrenching happen during the night while I slept in my bed? I was eight years old, and I had spent the last four years of my life in the same house at the corner of two dead end streets. I would leave my house in the morning to go explore the woods beside my house, or ride my bike up, and down the street to my friends’ houses. On certain days my parents would take me to the convenience store where my uncle worked. I did not live in a big town where there was a lot of crime. So, I never worried that anything terrible would happen to someone I loved. Until that cool fall morning when my life was shattered because of someone else’s bad decision.

That morning when I woke up I could tell that there was something off about my mother’s voice and that she did not seem as peppy as most mornings. Usually in the mornings I would go to the bathroom to get ready for school, then head to kitchen where I would eat breakfast before my mother would walk me up the big hill to school. But on this day my mother asked me to come to the living room where my father was waiting. He looked as though he had been up awhile, but like he just got out of bed. He still had his pajamas on, his eyes were pink, and his face was glistening like it was wet. As I took my seat on the couch, my stomach started to get this uneasy feeling and my heart started racing. My mother started telling me that during the night while my Uncle Mark was working then she started to trail off. That is when my father picked up to tell me that Uncle Mark was shot last night at work. I cut him off and asked what hospital he was at. My mother and father looked at each other then back at me with tears streaming down their face and told me that he did not survive. I jumped off the couch and ran to the bathroom and vomited. My throat was burning with every hive and the tears felt like little cold bullets running down out of my eyes to my cheeks. I could...