last night

Yesterday, sometime past 8 pm, I was at the second floor of the Turning Point building along San Jose St. talking with some friends. Suddenly we heard Tok. Tok-tok-tok. Tok. I said, "What was that?" Mark said, "Gunshots. Everybody get down on the floor." For half a second we were all stunned immobile then Ailien and I got down on the floor with the children as Mark turned off the lights. The second floor of this building has huge glass windows. We could hear people running and shouting down on the street.

Somebody suggested that we move downstairs. The walls on the first floor are made of solid cement on one side, the side where the gunshots and the running came from. Slowly, with the children's stifled whimpers, we crouched our way downstairs through the dark.

There was a meeting going on downstairs. They had a guest speaker who came from San Francisco and she was talking about how the American dream had become the American curse for some people. We, who were not part of the meeting, sat in and listened as well.

After a while, some of the men went out to the street to investigate and came back with grim news. Somebody we knew was ambushed. His car was rammed into something on the street. The window on the driver's side of his SUV was shattered. There were bullet shells on the ground.

Today I kept thinking, deep thoughts about life and living. Nobody knew that last night would be his last night on this earth. How different the lives of that man's family have become. Because of the act of one shooter. And the mind who ordered it. What has my beloved city now become?

Today I drove around with my window half down. To save gas and to remind myself, glass panes can't keep bullets out.