It all happened so fast

“It all happened so fast! I panicked and reacted without thinking.  I didn’t wanna hurt anyone, but . . . . Is that lady going to be okay?”

“We don’t know yet.  She got torn up pretty bad, but we won’t know anything until she gets out of surgery and regains consciousness.”

“Oh my god!  What’s going to happen?  Am I going to prison?  Where’s Peter?”

“Calm down, Mr. Jones.  You are not under arrest.  Your son is at the hospital.”

“What? Is he okay?  I need to see my boy!”

“He is fine.  He just needed a few stitches. Your wife is already with him.  You will see him soon enough, but for now, we need to talk about what happened.”

“It all happened so fast.  I’m not even sure.”

“It’s okay, just start from the beginning and tell us everything you remember.  You were at the game . . . . ”

“Alright, umm, so it was Petey’s birthday, and all he wanted was to see the Cowboys win a game.”

“The Cowboys are his favorite football team?”

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve told him all the stories about how I got to see them in the 90’s.  Remember, how good they were back then?  Yeah, he fell in love.  His room is decked out in Cowboys shit, and he spends all his time setting up plays with his action figures, calling audibles and shit like that.  My god, my wife said he was too young for it.  I wish I fucking listened to her.”

“What happened is not your fault, Mr. Jones.”

“Yeah . . . .  So a friend from work hooked me up with some tickets.  Not great seats, but there ain’t a bad seat in that stadium.  You know it was a playoff game so the stands were packed.  And of course, the Cowboys lost, again.  Everyone was pissed, but that don’t explain why he’d do that.”

“It looks like he was some kind of religious nut.  They found a note on him talking about how everyone worships false idols and society had to be cleansed.”

“Shit! And he just had to choose today.  Are you sure my boy is okay?”

“Yes Mr. Jones, and I will take you to him as soon as we’re done with your statement.  So the game ended . . . .”

“Yeah, and I wanted to get out of there.  I told Petey to hold my hand, and don’t let go until we get to the car, no matter what.  Shit went down while we were in that open area where they sell the beer and hotdogs.  And then . . . . I’m not sure.”

“It’s okay, Mr, Jones, just tell us what you remember.”

“I don’t know what I heard first, the screams or the gun shot, but it was chaos instantly.  People shoving, trying to run away, but that place echoes and they couldn’t tell which way to run.  And that’s when I lost Petey.  I can still fill his tiny hand slip out of mine.  I couldn’t even hold on to my own son when it mattered most. 

“I turned to look for him, but the crowd had already carried him away. I started pushing through the people in the direction I hoped they took him, all the while, bang, bang, bang, the gun shots kept ringing out.  But, I wasn’t thinking about anything other than getting to my son, and that’s when I came across that woman.

“She must’ve been frozen in fear, but I didn’t think about that.  She was in my way and she didn’t move.  I shoved her to the side and she fell.  I heard her screaming as those terrified people trampled her.  I can’t say how much I wished I could take it all back.  I wish I had gone around her. I wish I had picked her back up or even blocked people until she could get up on her own, but I didn’t.  At the time, I only thought of my son.  I really think her screams will haunt me for the rest of my life.

“The gun shots kept coming, and eventually the crowd started to thin.  Finally, I saw Petey.  He was on the floor curled up in a ball.  Maybe he was so small that he didn’t get stepped on as much as that poor woman, because he was alive and crying for me.  His face was covered in blood and the only way I knew it was him was the Tony Romo jersey he was wearing.  I ran to him and covered him with my body so that nothing else could hurt him.

“The shots still sounded out.  Eventually, people stopped tripping over us and the screams of fear faded to wails of pain.  I picked up my head and looked around.  The people had scattered. I heard one more shot, so I turned to the shooter.  He was only about twenty feet away, and he pointed that big, black gun straight at me.  

“I know the place was noisy, but I swear I could clearly hear the click when he pulled the trigger. I didn’t think, I acted.  I was the linebacker charging the enemy quarterback as he pulled back for the pass.  I tackled him as he was reaching for another clip in his pocket. I threw all of my weight into that tackle and I can clearly remember hearing the crack of his skull on the concrete.  

“The next thing I remember is the cops pulling me off of him.  I blacked out.  I can’t say that I didn’t kill him.  I’m sure I did.  The cuts on my knuckles had to’ve been from his shattered skull.  But, my son is safe, and that’s all I care about.  I hope, though, I left enough of his face for ya’ll to identify him”

“Don’t worry about that.  He had his id on him.  It matches his fingerprints.  We know who he is.”

“Even still, I killed him.  I might have killed that woman.  I’m a monster.”

“Don’t even think about that.  You are not a monster.  He was.  You are a hero.  Who knows how many more he might have killed if you hadn’t taken him down.”

“Funny, I don’t feel like a hero.”