I ran my pointer finger along the window of the car and drew pictures and shapes through the fog, waiting impatiently to see the colorful sign that was so familiar to me. I looked down at my fidgety feet to see the batman sneakers I got for christmas glowing up.  “Daniel put your seatbelt back on,” I heard from the front of the car. I looked out the window again at the rain, ignoring her. I loved watching the drops of salty rain run down the side of the glass and trying to guess which drop would reach the bottom first. My mom hates the rain. She says that New York during this time of year is hell. I didn’t know what that meant, but I would laugh every time she said it. As the race began and the drops started rolling down I heard her again, “I’m not going to ask you again. Put it on right now or I’m gonna take you back home!” I watched one giant drop roll to the bottom as I struggled to pull the seatbelt over my sweater. I hated the way the seatbelt scratched at my neck, but my mom didn’t seem to care.
*  *  *
The store was full of Legos, and video games, and little kids running around with toys in their hands. There were shelves upon shelves of toys; big, small, colorful, sharp with lots of plastic weapons, dolls, and Play-Doh sets laying around all over the place. Every kid’s dream. I could smell my mom’s perfume floating around the colorful store as she grabbed my hand and lead me through the crowd of people. One kid grabbed a plastic gun and started shooting at his mom, “Ha I got you!” he screamed, laughing. His mom rolled her eyes and dragged him, by the wrist, over to the checkout counter. I quickly ran over to a counter full of Legos and trailed Fredrick behind me. I zoomed through the store so fast that my mom couldn’t keep up with me. Freddie followed me like the loyal companion that he was.
“Give me that toy turtle that you keep dragging along. I’ll put him in my purse,” my mom remarked cluelessly. My friend and I were insulted, “Mom!! How many times do I need to tell you?? His name is Fredrick!” My mom ignored me and shamelessly stuffed Freddie into her purse while answering a phone call. As I ran over to a shelf full of stuffed animals my mom whispered to me through her conversation,
“Danny, you need to hurry up. I told you I would give you ten minutes to pick a toy then we have to get going.” I nervously looked around the aisle and ran my eyes up and down the shelves of hundreds of toys when I saw a police car lego set.
“Mom! Mom! I want that one! Johnny has a set just like it!” My mom ran over and grabbed it just as Frederick fell out of her purse and landed by a tall man with a black hoodie on. He ignored my turtle and continued to look around nervously. His fingers twitched and his legs shook. “Frederick!” I screamed as I ran down to his legs and looked up to the tower of the man standing over me and Freddie. I knocked into the man’s iron hard legs as his dark green eyes stared down at me.
“Sorry,” I whispered shyly as I clenched Freddie’s shell and pulled him close to my superman sweater that mom bought me. The man didn’t answer. I noticed my mom-still on the phone- motioning me to hurry up.
“Danny, leave the man alone and come over here, I got your lego set.” I quickly jumped up but then noticed what was tucked in to the man’s coat pocket. “Woah! Cool! Is that a real gun?” I exclaimed!
The man’s nervous eyes widened, and were infused with a look that reminded me of the evil villains in cartoons laughing maniacally at the thought of defeating their sworn enemies. Mrs. Finley taught me that word last week; maniacally. My dad thought it was very advanced of me. My mom’s heels clacked as she ran over to me, grabbed me by the arm, and dragged me away to the counter. Her bright red sweater scratched at my arm, but my gaze never broke from the man or his green eyes.
Suddenly, I heard horrifying screams bounce through the room like the fireworks I heard last summer when we visited my grandma for the 4th of July.
“Everybody get down!” A tall, thin, sickly looking man with thin grey hair slicked back to his shiny round head screamed. His left arm was up, and in it resided a shiny black gun bigger than my head. Without even realising what I was doing, my body slammed onto the floor of the toy store with my mother lying not an inch away from me. I could feel hot tears streaming down my eyes. I didn’t even know what I was crying about. My mom, slowly like a snail, moved her head towards my ear,
“Don’t be scared Dannie, everything is gonna be ok. Just try not to move.” I saw a look in her eyes I had never seen before. Her dark coffee eyes were shining violently, and the bags under them darkened to a deep purple. I could see every ridge, hill, and mountain on her face. Her cheeks got sucked into her mouth. She looked like a corpse. I learned that word too. Corpse. “Mommy, I'm scared,” I tried to whisper, but all that raced out of my mouth was a weak sob. The man I had seen before ran over to the family laying in front of us and grabbed a little girl by her hair. “Shut up,” he yelled.  Towards the other side of the store an old man, with a round belly, thick grey hair and square glasses jumped up from the floor, “Why are you doing this?” He exclaimed, “Please! Stop!” The men fired two shots into the man’s large belly without hesitating. My mom screamed suddenly, and instinctively pressed her hand over my eyes. I began to sob and scream. The terror filled me up inside as I saw the bloody man in front of me roll to the ground like a piece of meat. My terror grew as I realised that Frederick was no longer in my arms. “Mom, where’s Freddy?” I exclaimed suddenly. She shushed me with wild fear in her eyes. “MOM, WHERE’S FREDDIE?” I screamed louder. The tall man swiveled around, and his rough hoarse voice rung through my ears “SHUT UP!”
My eyes began to wander furiously through the scary, bloody toy store. A little kid fell down with blood shooting out of his legs. I thought I heard someone scream “James” but I covered my ears to keep the fear from growing bigger. My heart beat faster and faster. It felt like a large rock was crushing my lungs. “Mommy, I wanna go home!” I cried.
Then, I saw Freddie. His soft green shell, his black beady eyes, his adorable little claws. “Frederick!” I yelled. I felt my feet moving and my arms pushing up against the ground as I quickly stood up to run over to my friend. I could almost hear Freddie calling to me. I whispered, “I'm coming Freddie! Don’t worry!” The men looked at me angrily and pointed their guns straight at me. “Dannie, NO!” I heard a familiar voice scream. The men moved closer to me with guns never waivering. “Shoot him!” one man yelled.
“No!” I heard someone scream.
I felt something heavy jump on top of me and roll me safely onto the ground. My ears rang as two shots, louder than anything I had ever heard before, rang through the store. Something warm and wet seeped through the back of my sweater, onto my back. Something red, like paint, sprayed over Freddie. Brown hair like my mothers fell over my face as I lay there on the ground with the heavy body laying on top of me.
What felt like hours later, sirens radiated through the room. I could hear people screaming, yelling, and many more shots until nothing could be heard but the quiet whispers of the shoppers.
“Is it safe?” someone asked.
A manly, comforting voice reassured the woman, “You can get up now everything’s okay.”
I felt the fear welling up into my throat again in a mixture of tears and coughs, “Help!” I yelled, “I’m under here!”
A young man dressed in blue and black with a gun in his belt dragged me up from under the body and propped me up. I hurriedly grabbed Freddie and looked up to the Police Officer.
“Is that your mom?” I heard the cop ask. He said it so quietly and shakily that I was wondering to myself if he had even said it at all.
I suddenly realised that this officer, the body on the ground, and I, were the only things left in the store except for shelves and shelves of blown up, bloody toys.
“I-I don’t-it’s…” The words wouldn’t form in my mouth.
I looked around to the body laying on the ground. It was a woman. Her hair was brown, and she held a black phone in her hand. She was wearing a bright red sweater. It wasn’t my mom; It couldn’t be! I looked at the woman that recognized, even from just her back and I shook my head. No. It’s not mom. It can’t be mom.  She was soaked in blood and as far I saw she wasn’t breathing. A tear rolled down my cheek and I wiped it away in denial. The man walked over to the woman- just a woman, not mom- and pushed her over on her back. As he did this he winced; two bullets had pierced holes in her chest and revealed bloody flesh hanging around them. I looked at the woman's face. It was round and beautiful. It had dark brown eyes. It was the familiar face that I knew so well. The face that I knew I would see once the cop turned her over. It was my mommy.
The officer lead me out of the store and a while later my dad’s white car rolled into the parking lot. He and the officer talked as my dad helped me into the car, between terrifyingly loud sobs. The officer asked my dad if he would like to see my mother. My dad, through tears, said no. He shook the officer’s hand, thanked him, and got into the car. I don’t know what he thanked him for.
The car was silent as I watched the drops roll down the window. My sneakers were ripped and my blue spiderman sweater wasn’t blue anymore. I rolled Freddie back and forth into my lap. I could see the side of my dad’s cheek. It was swollen and wet. “I was just trying to get Freddie.” I whispered. My voice was hoarse and quiet, and my dad broke out into a shrilling cry.
I looked to my side to see the lonely seat belt hanging there. Put your seatbelt on Dannie. I could hear the words in my head. A tear rolled down my cheek as I pulled the belt over myself. It still itched my neck, but I didn’t care.
My dad slowly quieted down again. The rain stopped and the sun came out from behind the thick clouds. Mom hated rain; she would love this weather. I shook my head and wiped the tear away from my cheek. I looked down at my light up sneakers and tapped them together, but the lights didn’t work anymore.
“I was just trying to get Freddie,” I whispered again, “I just wanted Freddie.”
The car was quiet.