"God's Grace" by Jerria Williams

It was the night of March 5, 2008, my sister and I had a few friends over to celebrate me passing my finals. We were all having a good time laughing and dancing with one another until we heard some arguing coming from the courtyard of our apartment complex, we all went onto the porch to see what was going on. Directly across from our apartment on the other side of the pond was a group of men who seemed to be engaged in a dispute, “I heard one of the men say “c’mon bro this nigga aint even worth it!” We didn’t think anything of it and went back inside to continue the celebration. All of a sudden we heard a loud bang! We all looked at each other in question as to what the mysterious sound was, we heard another bang! This time along with it came the sound of glass shattering, we all quickly realized that the sound we were hearing was the sound of a gun being fired, as the gunshots continued we all scattered trying to get to safety, I ran forward toward my nephew who was standing in front of the TV., I yelled “get trillyin!” as I felt someone’s hand grab me by the shoulder and yank me to the ground. Ducked down behind the couch I heard “O GOD!” the words were louder than anything I’ve ever heard before, immediately panic filled my body I remember thinking o no! Someone is hurt! As the sound of the gunshots ended I heard my sister screaming “call someone! Call 911!” and at that moment I just knew my nephew had been shot. Scared and shaking I fumbled with the phone to call 911, as I put the phone up to my ear I looked over and saw my sister lying on the ground with blood all around her holding a towel to her head, that’s when I realized, it wasn’t my nephew who was hurt, it was my sister!, she had been shot in the head.

Froze in shock I hear one of my friends say “fuck that...the ambulance won’t make it here in time!”...I watch as they picked my sister up and ran out of the house with her, a few minutes passed and the next thing I heard was someone yell “come out slowly with your hands up!”, I knew it was the police and did as they asked, once they realized I was the victim in the situation they sat me on the couch and one officer asked, “ma’am can u please tell us exactly what happened?” I replied “my sister was shot in the head, a friend drove her to the hospital I need to know she’s ok, please find my sister and then I’ll tell you what happened.” The officer radioed to another officer I wasn’t real sure of what he was saying because he walked away as he began to talk, as I sat on the couch the events from moments ago played over and over again in my head, I remember thinking “god how could you let this happen?” I began to pray as I sat and waited for the news on my sister “god if you’re really up there and you can hear me, please let my sister be ok...please god!” a few minutes passed and the officer returned he said “your sister is fine, she is at university hospital, the doctors say she has been telling jokes since she got there.” The officer turned and walked away but before he was completely out of sight he turned and looked back at me with a grin on his face and a look in his eye as if to say everything would be ok. At that moment a feeling of relief swept over me and the only thing on my mind was getting to the hospital to see my sister. A few hours had passed and the sun was starting to appear, I finished answering all the questions the policed asked and a friend had come to take me to the hospital.

I could see my entire family sitting in the waiting room as I pulled up to the emergency room doors, as I got out of the car my dad walked up to me and wrapped his arms around and said “don’t worry Jerry, everything is ok.” He walked me back to the room that my sister was in, I walked through the door and as I saw my sister hooked to machines with bandages around her head, I began to cry, I walked over to her and she grabbed me and hugged me tighter than she ever had before, she said “don’t cry J, we’re ok.” And in that moment I knew god was real, and he had heard my prayer, for it was his grace that kept my sister alive.