Hats

The cool, brisk April morning breeze hit me as I came out. The sun was rising slowly over the hill; it looked as if it were magnified a thousand times. There were no clouds in sight. My dad came down the outside stairs hauling our luggage. We had about three suitcases filled with ‘stuff.’ We were going up to Vermont for a little vacation. We decided to drive to enjoy the scenic route, so we got in our SUV early, leaving around 6:00 a.m.

“Have all of your stuff, Dan?”
“Yes, mom,” I said for the twentieth time.

My dad, mom, and I decided to stop at a mall along the way at quarter to nine. Mom decided we needed to buy some warmer clothes. The April sun was still as bright and big as it was just a few hours ago. As we parked our car, we noticed that security guards were on high alert. They seemed to be walking everywhere, looking around. One passed by me and kept his hand on his gun. He had an eerie look in his eye: one of panic or uncertainty.

“We should leave,” my mom said.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” my dad replied.
“Yeah, I wanna see what’s going on!” I replied.

We decided to stop a security officer and ask what was going on.

“It’s nothing, sir. You can go in” was his reply.

So we did. The mall was crowded, much as we expected for a Saturday. Everyone was zipping around. One older lady almost ran me over with her scooter! My mom immediately went off to some store, leaving my dad and me to fend for ourselves. He decided to go to a fishing store in the mall, and I went over to a music store.

The music was blaring in the music store as I entered, so I didn’t know what had happened. I only saw a bunch of people running past the windows, partially obscured by posters promoting new albums coming out. Along with everyone else in the store, I ran out to see what was happening.


“Everyone get back!” bellowed a security officer.

There were about fifty people standing around. A group of security officers were shooing all of us back from a Subway in the south end of the mall. The mall had two floors: the bottom end where I was contained mostly food shops. The second floor of the mall was where most of the shopping was done, as well as the north end of the first floor.

A swarm of men with shields came rushing towards us. They were dressed in black from head-to-toe. They pushed past us towards the Subway, where they even pushed the mall security officers aside. One of the men in black came back and talked to someone who appeared to be the head of the mall security. It must have been an order to get everyone out of the mall because that’s what they started doing.

“What’s going on?” my mom asked, anxiously.
“We just need everyone out of the mall,” the man replied.
“That’s a damn lie!” came a voice. Other people echoed his sentiments.

As the crowd downstairs was being rushed out, we looked up and saw the men in black going through stores, pulling people out and down the escalator. The woman in the scooter went flying past me!

As we were almost out, I noticed my dad wasn’t with us.

“Where’s Dad?” I asked my mom.

She hadn’t noticed he was missing.

“He probably just got caught up with all the people. I’m sure he’s back there.”

It seemed to me that if he were back there, he would have found his way up to us by then. Once we got outside, we began to worry. Why wasn’t he coming out with the rest of the crowds? It was as if we were hard to find; we were standing off to the side of the door.

Then we heard it. A gun shot. Then another one, and another, and another. Screams outside went up like mad. Ambulances started to arrive and the paramedics went in with stretchers. My mom’s eyes were filled with horror.

The paramedics quickly came out, each of the stretchers containing a living person. I looked up and noticed the sky had become overcast. I didn’t recall any rain in the forecast, and we had only been in the mall for about twenty minutes. It was an eerie look. The media trucks rolled up and reporters started trying to get interviews.

One of the stretchers rolled right by me. My dad was laying on it with his eyes closed. My mom ran along side, and I followed closely behind her. But the two paramedics wouldn’t let us go near the stretcher. My mom explained to them who we were, but they wouldn’t let us near him or ride in the ambulance. My mom’s whole demeanor changed. He was rushed in the ambulance and taken to the hospital, about fifteen minutes away. We rushed to our SUV, which was parked two rows over from the entrance, and followed the whaling sirens as it sped towards the hospital. Once there, the ambulance and my mom pulled into the Emergency Room area. He was brought in by the paramedics through the back; we went in through the front. After about ten long, grueling minutes of waiting, we were finally taken to his room.

In his room were quite a few beeping machines, but no other patients. The shades to the window were drawn, the room lights off. The nurse came in and said he was resting and to try not to disturb him. He heard that, because he rolled over and smiled.

“What on earth are you smiling about?” my mother said appallingly.

He pointed to the table next to him. On the table were three winter hats, exactly what we had gone into the store for.