Firecracker - A Freewrite

Boom!
It is dark outside, the street is quiet.
Boom!
All my windows are open since it is so hot. Hot beyond belief! Usually, the nights are cool. Cool enough to require a jacket or sweatshirt.
But tonight, the air is still and still sweltering late in the evening.
Boom!
Where is it coming from?
Every boom makes my body switch. The curtains are open and maybe I read just one too many mysteries or saw a crazy show on TV.
Boom!
Here it goes again. Loud. Really loud.
I feel like a target with the lights on inside to the dark outside. Everyone can see anything inside the house.
I go and turn off the lights and sit away from the windows.
Is it paranoia or is it caution?
Violence is everywhere in the papers. I hear about it. I missed it by minutes before.
In the olden days when I had a store I was working in until late at night.
I used to leave around 9 or 10, after cleaning and stocking the shelves and doing what needs to be done.
One morning, I come back to open and the intersection is closed. Crime scene tape everywhere.
There had been a deadly shootout between the police and someone who had stolen a car.
Bullets had broken the glass of the front door.
Later, as I pieced the timeline together, this all happened 5 minutes after I left the story and closed up for the night.
Boom!
Is it an idiot setting off firecrackers or an idiot using a gun?
I sit in the dark and I sweat.

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