The Family Across the Street by Nicole Trope

42

Gladys

Gladys hears the crack of sound that fills the air. It’s come from inside the house but that’s not possible because it sounds like a gunshot, an actual gunshot. She holds her hand over her mouth and she turns to look at the front door. It was a gunshot, she’s sure of it. ‘Oh God,’ she moans, ‘oh God, oh God.’

She should have called the police earlier. She feels like she might hyperventilate as she forces air in and out of her lungs. Someone is hurt and she could have prevented it.

And then she hears footsteps, and she sees George running, pulling Sophie along behind him. They come from the side of the house and they keep running through the open gate and then George launches himself at her, tears staining his face. Gladys nearly falls over but she puts her arms around the two trembling children and says the only thing she can say: ‘It’s all right, it’s okay.’ They are both damp with sweat, their hair limp in the heat and their cheeks red. They are dressed in their school uniforms because they were meant to leave for school, that was what was meant to happen.

‘It’s all right,’ she repeats, hoping that’s the truth.

They bury their faces in her stomach and they are both crying and trying to speak at the same time. She hears the words ‘he’ and ‘gun’, and Sophie says something about her stuffed monkey. Their small bodies shudder and Gladys feels a whole day of terror in the way they cling to her. She has no idea what’s happening inside the house. But she needs to get them away from here, they need to be somewhere safe.

Where is Katherine? Was that a gunshot? Who was shot?

‘Shhh,’ says Gladys as she holds the children and begins moving backwards, towards her own house. ‘Shhh.’