I Was Murdered Last Thursday

I Was Murdered Last Thursday

By

Phoenix Hocking

I was murdered last Thursday.

No, no.  I wasn’t in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Nor was I involved in some nefarious, dangerous activity.  I had simply taken my dog out for his final pee before going to bed. 

I live … lived fairly close to downtown.  The neighborhood was safe enough, considering the world we live in today.  No place is truly safe, as I was soon to discover.

I was already in my pajamas, so all I had to do was throw on my bathrobe, put my slippers on, leash up Butch, my German Shepherd, and go out my front door.  Nothing dangerous about that.

What I didn’t know was that the convenience store on the corner had just been robbed. 

Butch had lifted his leg against the rose bush by the front of the house and was scratching the ground when he suddenly stopped and growled.  He turned towards the corner, his hackles raised. 

A young man came barreling down the sidewalk, gun in hand, police in hot pursuit.  Butch growled and barked, pulled the leash out of my hand, and went for the young man.  Frightened, he fired the gun.  Missed Butch.  Got me.

It took a surprisingly short time to die. 

There wasn’t time for any tunnel, bright light, or loving relatives waiting to welcome me.  Nope.  One minute I was alive and the next I was not.  I was shot directly through the heart.  A lucky shot for the shooter, but not so much for me.

I found myself watching the scene as if I were in front of the television.  Butch brought the young man to the ground, growling and snapping.  The robber had lost his gun somewhere in the melee, so the police were able to cuff him and take him away.  Others stayed on the scene, trying to revive me, but it was no use.  I was too badly damaged.

I was so proud of Butch!  He protected me with everything he had, and I was grateful he hadn’t been hurt.  He seemed to know the medics were trying to help me, so he simply sat nearby and watched.  He seemed to know I was still there, standing next to him.  He whimpered and looked at me as if to say, “what happened?”

The ambulance came and took my body away.  I didn’t much care what happened to it at that point.  My affairs had been put in order for many years, so I wasn’t concerned about much of anything, except Butch. 

The one thing I’d neglected was making some sort of arrangement for Butch.  I never expected him to outlive me.  What would happen to my brave boy now?

By this time, the neighbors had all gathered.  It felt very strange, but somehow good listening to all the kind things my neighbors said about me. 

“She was such a nice lady!”

“How awful.  Has anybody called her family?”

“The neighborhood won’t be the same without her.”

The police took names in case they needed testimony later, then they asked about Butch. 

“I’ll take him.”  Catherine stepped forward.  Now, that was a surprise.  Catherine and I hadn’t been particularly close, so for her to offer to take my dog was a bit of a shock.  Butch looked at me, then looked at her. 

“It’s okay, Butch,” I said.  “You can go with her.”

It seemed Butch would be all right after all.

As the crowd dispersed, I got to wondering about the young man who had shot me.  It took no time at all before I found myself at the police station. 

My goodness!  He was barely out of his teens!  He was frightened, and in tears, any bravado he might have had was long since gone.  He kept saying, “Is she all right?  I didn’t kill her, did I?”

I felt sorry for him.  He was just a kid.  Just a kid.  Just a stupid kid who made a stupid mistake.  In an instant, I knew the kid’s entire life story, and it wasn’t pretty.  Single mom, doing her best to make ends meet.  Absentee father.  The kid was left to his own devices with no guidance from anyone.  No money for all the things a kid his age wanted.  No, it wasn’t pretty.

The world started to get a little fuzzy like I was seeing it through a gauze curtain.  My dog was taken care of.  My family would mourn, but they’d be okay.  The kid would go through the system, and what happened to him after that was out of my hands.  What now?

So, here I am.  I’m not quite on “the other side.”  Not yet.  I seem to be in some sort of in-between place.  Caught between the world I once knew and a world ahead still shrouded in mystery.  There are others here, too.  They seem unable to let go of the world, too unwilling or too afraid to move on.  Are they doomed to haunt their relatives and friends forever?

But me, I’m not afraid.  I’m ready to see what is truly on the “other side.” 

Ah, there they are!  My mom and my dad.  My little sister who died when I was nine.  And, oh my goodness!  All the dogs I’ve loved and who went before me.  They’re all here!

The conduit between the world ahead and the world I’ll leave behind is closing.  My old world is fading, fading, fading.  All I can tell you is that it’s bright on the other side, and beautiful, and ….