A memory

A figure in a hooded coat reaches for me. He is dark and he blocks out the sun. He grabs me. I do not feel the pain. I am not afraid.

Somewhere, a woman is screaming. Words that fill the air with fear.

Footsteps. A man grabs the hooded figure and throws him. He hits the wall with a crack that echoes everywhere and makes me shiver.

The woman is still screaming. Hands cradle me and rock me back and forth.

The man- my father strokes my hair. “You’re safe now.”

But I am looking at the hooded man lying dead near the wall, and my father’s touch makes me afraid.