In an Instant Part Fourteen

Thanks to Alexandra Fuller @alexandrajf for making this photo available freely on Unsplash 🎁

Chapter Eleven:

I am proud of you Aunt Elaina, proud of the way you fight, proud of how strong you are. I’m proud that you aren’t giving up easily, that you want to get back in front of the classroom. I see how much you miss it, when you help me with my homework. But I would be lying, if I didn’t admit, I was afraid, arid of something bad happening again. Actually sometimes I am afraid when I go to school, afraid that I could be shot. You and Mom both try to reassure that everything is going to be okay, but that’s what we thought when you walked into school that morning, everything was normal, until it wasn’t, then you were fighting for your life. It isn’t fair is it? And the way I hear the adults argue whose fault is it? Why isn’t the person who shot you being blamed. It seems kind of silly to blame the people who didn’t do it.

I asked if you ever regretted taking the bullet, that could have hit anyone of your students , and you assured me that you did not. You regretted that you had to make the choice, that somebody could walk into your classroom with a gun and open fire, as if a classroom was a war zone, and I guess in a way it kind of has become one. I attend a good school, but even that is not a hundred percent safe, I know that.

I like when you are willing to talk to me about these things, without trying to sugarcoat it. I’m twelve…