"Stray Bullet": Thriller series #8
Edgar was a teenager, a very hardworking boy on the quest to help his widowed mom raised his two baby sisters. His dad had died from work accident which claimed over three lives at a Gold mine about 3 years ago, this had automatically graduated Edgar into a responsible young adult as a teenager - A mini dad!
Like all messed up insurance and Death benefits packages around the World, Edgar's mom; his family is yet to get the due compensation from the Gold Mine since his father's unfortunate demise. This had forced the lad to take up after school work to help his mom who works in a Restaurant in other to give Edgar's two little sisters some standard living. So as the Mini-dad, Edgar's job is simple; take the girls to the junction where the school bus picks them and drops them off, take them after school each day to mama's restaurant while he heads off to a nearby store where he works to as a sales boy.
As a hardworking lad, he use to follow his dad to the mines to do some overtime work while his father was still alive. Its just some few months away to his 14th birthday, but Edgar is now a grown up man who thinks about home and his family in his every chores.
At 14, he has an average body. Though a football player during his high school sport season, but yet to attain that full masculine of a man. He seldom has fights with his mom when it comes to lavish spending of his salary, that part yet to sink in his head as he often forgets not to overspend on Games and sport shoes. But boys would always be boys is want mama always say at the end of every similar arguments. The little girls are just 7 and 4 years respectively, so on weekends, Edgar work half day to babysit his precious sisters.
Edgar's mom was a religious woman, though the death of her husband had somewhat disorganised her faith but not completely. On Sundays, they all attend the Church few blocks down the street, during hardship before Edgar became a teenager; his dad car had to be sold for the family's upkeep. So on Sundays, the whole family takes a stroll to and from the church. Of course this os fun for the girls but for Edgar it is not fun, seeing some of his classmate and streets peers in cars makes him somewhat sad.
Towards the early months of winter, Edgar's mom caught the flu and was sick for almost a week. Edgar had to work overtime and even on weekends to get more hours payment for the family's upkeep till mama gets back in her feet he always tells the girls each time he comes home late and the little sisters are worried.
On one evil weekend, before his mom's recovery, Edgar had to rush to the store to get some groceries. Just opposite the Store was a local bank and the bank was been robbed. Nobody knew because everyone in the bank had been held hostage at gun point.
One of the robbers popped his head out into the streets and shot several warning shots in the air for people to disembark and clear the road for their escape route. With that,one of the police close by fired a returning shot back towards the bank and this got the 9 men gang angry and they all came out shooting in all directions. About 5 people had been shot and killed in the shoot out, including Edgar!
More cops had responded and in the police bank-robbers cross-fires, two of the robbers had been killed but with 7 civilians dead and over a dozen wounded. Edgar's mama had seen every thing on the news, devastated, she had grabbed the two girls and was racing towards the store for a chance if her boy was not among the victims.
By the time she got there, the bodies had been packed in body bags. One of the lady cop was pointing at Edgar's mom over a small size body bag, she yanked the Police tape with the "do not cross the line" off as she dashed towards the body in the bag. The police officers were holding the little girls as they screamed in tears looking at what seems to be their big brother's body on the turf as mama was crying bitterly shaking the body bag with only his son's face visible, yet to be zipped close.
As the cops try to take her away from the body bags, she was yanking hard at the still body of her son and heard a sneeze came from the bag;
"ACHOOO!"
For the split of seconds, everything paused. All eyes turned as Mama and son grabbed each others hands looking straight in each others eyes with tears flowing down both faces.
What saved Edger:
That morning, Edgar was about reading his small Bible when mama called for him to go get the groceries at the stall,
he had put the small Bible in the front pocket of his winter coat and the Bullet Pierce through almost and only bruised his chest!
That was what saved Edgar, saved from the bullet just like many before him, some were not so lucky, while some miraculously looked death straight in the eye and gave it the Middle Finger. This is one of those stories; similar to the story of a young soldier in WWII who came back from the dead thanks to a small Bible he had carried in his breast pocket which had stopped a German Bullet just few inches away from his heart!