It happened on a bright sunny day. I was only six years old. Now in the day, I can only remember some vague details of the event that changed my life forever. Except for in the night. In the night I relive the pain in my mother's voice that day.
"Run Angie, run sweetheart." Mel Brooks urgently plead to her daughter.
"Run as fast as you can my beautiful girl." She said as her voice began to fade. Blood was slowly seeping from a wound in her stomach. One of the flying bullets had hit her there. She looked to be turning more paler with every little blood that was leaving her body.
"Mommy, you're bleeding." Angie couldn't focus. She was afraid to leave her mommy alone. Her daddy had disappeared already. And she felt all alone.
Suddenly there was smoke everywhere. Angie couldn't understand what was happening. She just wanted to go back to the swing in their backyard where her uncle James was pushing her so high just a moment ago. Her mommy and daddy were sitting on the porch drinking lemonade.
Uncle Sam suddenly came running from inside the house and everything went very loud. Uncle James grabbed her and started running towards the house. That's when daddy disappeared.
"Angie sweetheart, listen to mommy. Do you remember our hiding place?" Mommy asked.
Angie nodded her head and her mommy smiled at that.
"My smart little girl. Mammy needs you to go there now. Please, sweetheart." Angie could see it was hurting her mommy to talk. "Go find uncle James. He is waiting there for you."
"Uncle James is waiting at the hiding place?" Angie asked in a small voice.
Her mommy tried to smile at her. "Yes, sweetheart he's waiting for you."
Angie wanted to run to the hiding place now. Her uncle James was there. And maybe her daddy was there too. She was scared and her mommy was hurt. She has to go call her daddy and Uncle James.
Before Angie could run her mommy spoke in a soft, pain-filled voice. "Promise me you would always be my brave little sunshine, sweetheart. Promise mommy." Mel begged her smart little girl.
"I promise mommy," Angie promised. And her mommy told her that if she promised something, she must always keep that promise.
With great effort, Mel Brooks smiled at her child. "Now run for me, sweetheart. Run."
And Angie ran. She ran to the hiding place that was hidden inside the kitchen. When she was in the kitchen the smell of smoke wanted to choke her. But she went forward to the broom closet anyway.
Inside the broom closet, behind the special bucket was a button. When Angie pressed it the door at the back of the small room opened soundlessly. Angie entered the hiding place and then first closed the door before she put on the dim light. Just like her mommy and daddy told her to do whenever they went into the hiding place.
Angie called and called for her uncle James and daddy, but they never came. Later when she tried to open the door again, it was locked. She pulled and pulled while calling for her mommy and daddy. They never came.
Sobbing, Angie decided to walk further into the hiding place. She walked for a long time. Until finally there was a door. At first, she thought it wasn't going to open like the other door, but with the first twist of the doorknob, it opened.
A bright light shone through when she pulled the door open further. She was glad because maybe her daddy and uncle will be there. Only when she stepped out into what looked like the woods, they weren't there. But there was a man lying on the ground next to the door. He was breathing evenly like someone who was sleeping.
Angie then recognizes the jacket of the man as her Uncle Sam. Without thinking about it she started shaking him awake.
"Uncle Sam!" She shouted in her small voice. "Uncle Sam wake up. Wake up."
Uncle Sam suddenly jumped up and in the process, he knocked her over.
"Angie?" He asked shocked. "Angie where did you come from? Where are your mommy and daddy?" He asked the little girl while grabbing on to her shoulders.
Angie started crying and tried to talk.
"Mommy is hurt in the living room uncle Sam... and daddy is gone." She finally got something out when her crying calmed down.
"We have to go back Uncle Sam," Angie begged her uncle.
"I'm sorry Angie, we can't go back. We have to leave now. I have been waiting for you for hours." He said with sadness in his voice.
Uncle Sam took a hold of her hand and started walking in the opposite direction of the door that would take her back to her mommy and daddy. They walked and walked until it was completely dark. That is the last thing she remembers about that day.
Now I'm here. In a place for children from the ages of thirteen too eighteen.A place where you get trained instead of educated.
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