I wake up to the sound of a
siren going off, vibrating painfully in my head. “Stop, stop it!” I shout into
the darkness before opening my eyes. I feel the panic rise in my stomach when I
do not recognize anything around me. My eyes pick out a tiny metal bunk bed in
the corner, a toilet, and rusty bars with seemingly nothing but blackness
behind it. When did I get here? Suddenly, it all comes back to me. The
flood of events overwhelm me, and I am no longer in my cell.
The speckless glass doors slid open, and I
casually strolled into the grocery store wearing my empty backpack. I knew that
my face showed absolutely no emotion, but my heart was pounding like a drum
inside my ragged military jacket. I looked around, paranoid that someone would
see my fidgety nervousness. There was a only bent-over, old man sporting thick
glasses, peering at the price of a bundle of flowers. I turned my eyes away
from him and walked to the medicine aisle, my backpack getting heavier by the
second. Luckily, nobody was there.
I swung my backpack onto the ground and
crept behind the counter of the pharmacy. I grabbed the first bottles in sight
and dropped them into my backpack. At this rate, it would take all night to get
enough to trade for the money. The image of my frail, coughing grandfather on
his hospital bed pushed me to work faster. I started sweeping the shelves,
clearing the aisle as fast as I could. I winced when a box fell off the shelf
and landed on the floor with a loud clank. I looked all around me, certain that
someone was going to find me. All was still. Nobody came to check out the
noise. I quickly zipped up my backpack and ran back toward the entrance. Only a
few more steps, and all would be successful. As I passed through the metal
detectors, they remained silent. I sighed a breath of relief. So the myths
about the fake detectors were true after all. I stepped out into the cold,
frigid night air.
All of a sudden, I sensed that something
was not quite right. A bright beam of light was shining directly into my eyes,
and a person who was yelling something was coming closer. I started to run in
the opposite direction, but there was another beam of light. Suddenly, I was
frozen like a deer in the headlights, unable to move my legs. This was it. The
police finally caught up to me.
“Stop! Drop everything and put your hands
up above your head! You are under arrest for thievery and drug activity!”
shouted a policeman. Next to him, I saw the old man glaring at me with a
frightening intensity. His age only reminded me of what I came to accomplish.
It was at that moment that I decided I had no
other choice. I took my gun out of my inner jacket pocket and aimed it straight
forward. The yelling got more agitated, but I could not hear what they were
saying. A painful electric shock suddenly went through my body, and I collapsed
into darkness.
That is all I remember. It seemed like it happened years ago,
but I have a feeling that it was only yesterday night, a Friday. I sink onto the cold concrete floor as I came to the realization that this will truly be the end of my
escapades, my grandfather’s only chance of survival.
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