V1s10n

It was a normal Saturday morning, I woke to the smell of mama making her famous pancakes and the smell of maple bacon getting crunchy on the stove top. I hopped out of bed ran to throw on my shorts and my favorite ACDC t-shirt my dad had given to me a few years ago. I opened the door to be greeted by my dog, she was a golden retriever we got from my moms friend about 4 years ago now and her name was reb short for rebecca, not my personal choice but it works. I patted reb on the head as i do every morning then made my way into the kitchen where mama had just finished making the last of the bacon. “Good morning baby,” mama said with a big smile as i walked in. “Good morning it smells good,” I said while i walked to the fridge to grab the syrup. “Honey, can you believe what they are doing to the oil workers,” my dad said as he put on his utility belt and buttoned up his shirt. “What are they doing now,” my mom uttered with a mouth full of pancakes and coffee. “They’re doing away with 45% of all workers for new machines that can do the job 3 times faster.” Mama just shook her head as she handed dad a piece of bacon while she kissed him then telling him “Have a good day at work.” Before my dad left he gave my sister a kiss and hug then he came over to me and I said, “ Don't have too much fun today,” that is our inside joke we have. He hugged me but when he did i saw this dream like thing, my dad had pulled someone over and the guy he pulled over had a gun but his dad didn’t see it, the guy pulled out the gun and killed his dad. Then I heard my dad say , “Have a good day y’all,” as he walked out the front door. I had thought nothing of it, it was just a bad day dream or something so i went about my day normal. We had chores we had to get done before dad came back so right after breakfast i got right to the chores. My chores where mow the lawn, fold clothes, and clean the bathroom, which all that was pretty easy. I got it all done in about 2 hours and the rest of the day i had to myself to go outside and play video games. My mama came running into the house saying, “Kids your dad is in the hospital, he was in a shootout with a suspect and he was shot multiple times.” My jaw dropped, I was speechless, we ran to the car jumped in a sped all the way to the hospital almost crashing a few times. When we arrived he had already gone through a brief surgery to remove the bullet fragments, we walked up to the front desk and asked, “Where is Phil Canter, he just came in with multiple shot wounds.” The lady said, “He is ICU room 110.” “Thanks,” mama muttered as we ran to the ICU. We walked in and he attempted to sit up but could not, we ran over and all hugged him, all of us crying like babies. After about 10 minutes of hugging we finally let go and he told us what had happened, but before he got to the end he just fell back and his heart rate monitor was flat lining. My mom picked up April and grabbed my hand and we ran out of the room crying and as we were running out nurses and doctors were all running in 10 or 11 where in there at once. About 30 minutes later a doctor came out and said, “We tried everything but he is gone.” Me and April broke down crying and mama just fell to her knees and said, “Lord what have I done to deserve this.” We went to his room to say our final goodbyes to him then we left to go back home. “Mama,” I said as we drove home, she didn’t respond. “Can we go buy some balloons so i can send them up to dad,” I said hoping she would say yes. “Baby, i think he would love that,” she said as she turned into the dollar store. I went in and picked out 2 red balloons bc the were dad’s favorite color and took them to check out. “That will be $1.10 sir,” the cashier said while putting helium into the balloons.I handed her the money, grabbed the balloons and walked out. I gave one balloon to my sister and we let them go so dad could have them up there.