Run, Duck, Dive

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My 16 year old daughter has her first job at a local discount store. I got a phone call from her a few nights back, that I never ever expected to get. At the other end of the phone was her meek little voice, kinda scared. She said, Mom, I'm okay, but I didn't want you to hear this from anybody else." There's been a shooting at work. One boy came in and shot another one dead. My area has a side door and we just ran out, so we are all fine. But the store is on lock down. You cannot come here." She knows me so well, my first thought was to jump in the car and race down there as fast as possible. Grab my little girl and hold her as tight, as she can stand. It gave me a big knot in the pit of my stomach, My knees were week. Nothing like this had ever happened in our area, it is usually nice and quiet. I had thought she was perfectly safe, that the area she was in was a good area. Questions appeared in my head, should I have not let her go out and earn her own money when she asked? Protected her a little longer? That's just it, when they are little, like 2, 5, 8, or 10. I can protect them, only let them around people I know, go places I go. When they are bigger, it is not so easy. When she came home, I did grab her and hold her tight. I am proud of her, she said when they heard the shooting start they ran outside. She kept her head and was quick to respond. There were 4 or 5 shots fired. The boys were only 16 years old. I bet their parents expected to see their kids come home that night too. But neither will be home, one is going to jail, the other to a morgue. It is so sad that a 16 year old boy felt the only way to resolve their problem was to grab a gun. The incident turned out to be over a girl, one boy had slept with the others girl and got her pregnant. She asked me, anything like this ever happen to you. Nope, I worked from the time I was 14 in various places, Never had to dodge a bullet. I did buy her a taser, I told her it would not stop a bullet, but might give her a minute to run, duck and dive away from the situation, whatever it may be. I also said a nice long prayer, thanking God for bringing my little girl home and protecting her. Anything like this ever happen to you? photo is pixabay