It
was the August 21st of 2000. Larry was
in Brooklyn , New York Lakewood , Ohio , which is a superb of Cleveland Japan
After a while
everyone was on the first floor. All of
a sudden two Japanese soldiers came through the door. One grabbed Kera and was going to use her as
a hostage. Larry saw what was happening
and ran at him. The man not holding Kera
took out a revolver and aimed at Larry. Larry
didn’t stop running, he grabbed the soldier’s arm threw it downward, and when
the gun was aimed at the Japanese’s thigh, he squeezed the trigger and the
bullet shot the soldier. He dropped his
gun, which Larry caught with his right hand.
He switched the gun to his left hand pulled out his pocketknife, opened
it up (it had a one hand opener on it) and stabbed the neck of the soldier he
just shot and let go letting the man die with a knife in him. He then saw the other soldier getting a gun
out of his pants. Larry immediately
lifted his left arm and shot the soldier in the chest (He was taller than Kera
so his chest was above Kera’s head) before he could even get his gun out. He then realized the soldier probably had a
bulletproof vest on but now he had some time.
He switched the gun from his left hand to his right hand. With his left hand he grabbed Kera’s arm and
pulled her toward him. As he pulled Kera
toward him with his left, he shot the soldier in the head with the gun in his
right. Kera was scared, as most anyone
would be when about to be taken hostage.
She buried her head in Larry’s chest.
Larry thought everyone was safe until he saw another soldier come
through the door. Before the soldier
could even take in account the people he saw, Larry shot him right in the
forehead. He then placed the gun in the
back of his pants. Larry’s uncle shut
the door and locked it; he then went back to where he was standing which was
right beside his wife. Kera’s mom had
her arms around Daniel consoling him, because he was traumatized by what he
just witnessed. Kera’s mom looked up and
said, “Did you have to do that in front of him?”
Larry
disregarded the question but the question angered Kera she just looked up and
gave a dirty look toward her mother and said, “What did you just say?”
“Kera look at
your brother he’s traumatized by what he saw.”
“I was fucking
taken hostage they were going to put a gun to my head.”
Larry cut in
and said, “Kera calm down”
“No, I won’t
let her treat you with the same bullshit she does to me.”
Larry
responded, “Kera please just stop”
“No”
Larry then
grabbed Kera again and pulled her closer, he whispered in her ear, “Kera your
mom just saw her daughter about to be taken hostage and now her son is in
mental shock. Something bad happened to
both her kids now that you’re safe she’s going to worry about the other who’s
not yet, she’s speaking out of fear Kera so calm the fuck down.”
Kera did calm
down after that. Then her mother said, “Larry,
look at what you just saved.”
This time Larry
was the one angry, “What the hell did you just say?”
“Look at what
you just saved, look at that disrespect she shows her mother.”
“She could
have died today that doesn’t affect you at all?”
“That’s not
what I mean, you just could have told Daniel to leave the room before you went
shooting people.”
“I sincerely
hope you don’t believe I could have done that.”
“Well why not?”
“Do you know
why I’m still alive? There were two
soldiers I had to run from where your standing to here which is about
15ft. How did I run 15 feet before he
could grab his gun and pull the trigger?
The answer is that he hesitated, and he was in shock that I was running
at him and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to shoot a child yet, he hesitated I
didn’t, he’s dead I’m alive.”
“What about
the other one how did you kill him before he killed you?”
“He didn’t
want to kill me until after I killed the soldier, he thought I’d be intimidated
by him when he had Kera, I shot the most frightening shot of my life tonight,
The first wasn’t supposed to kill him, it was to get Kera back and daze
him. That’s exactly what I did, then
when Kera was safe I shot.”
“What
difference does it make, before you ran you could have told Daniel to leave the
room.”
“He would have
been too scared to move, and if I did, they know I’m about to strike you never
give off that warning. If I had given
that off I would have died.”
“Well because
of that judgement my son is scarred for life.”
“Bullshit,
this is temporary.”
“How do you
know?”
“I just know”
“Now you’re
showing disrespect.”
“I’m speaking
the truth, your thinking is off and you’re too blind to see that.”
She turned
toward her husband, “Bill, do something.”
He just looked
at her and said, “I’m sorry honey I have nothing to say.”
She gave him a
very shocked look; Larry and Kera were shocked at what they heard as well
finally Larry said, “Just think about what you’re saying.”
“I have, I
always think before I talk you can’t tell me I don’t, my son is traumatized
because of your actions you could have showed better judgement.”
“He would have
been more traumatized if he saw her sister die rather than three strangers”
Kera’s mom
opened her mouth as if to speak but she couldn’t she realized Larry was right
so she looked up and said, “I’m sorry Larry.”
Kera ran
upstairs realizing there was no more argument.
Kera’s mom said, “I think I should go talk to her.”
Larry knew what Kera was doing up there so he
said, “No, she needs time to calm down and to get over what just happened.”
Kera’s mom believed what Larry said and said,
“Go up and calm her down.”
Larry went
upstairs to see Kera but before he left he took the knife out of the soldier’s
neck and washed the blood off onto the soldier’s shirt. The blood hadn’t dry for an unknown reason
but Larry was glad that his knife wasn’t stained in blood. After he got the blood off he put it back in
his pocket and went upstairs. When he
walked through the door, Kera knew, without looking, who it was, she turned
over and said holding back tears, “Larry, Why did you save my life?”
“Because I care about you”
“Do you know why I asked the question?”
“Yes I do, you don’t want to live in a life with your
parents.”
“Exactly, there’s proof my mom doesn’t care about me.”
“Your mom was scared Kera, her daughter was almost
held hostage and her son was traumatized because he saw the whole thing”
“Oh really, It’s funny you won the argument when you
said ‘He would have been more traumatized if he saw her sister die rather than
three strangers’ something like that right?”
“Yes, Kera” he said rolling his eyes as he knew what
she was getting at and didn’t know how to respond.”
“That’s proof she doesn’t care about me.”
“I’m not here to argue with you”
“You’re not arguing because you agree”
“We know each other too well”
As she turned her head back around she said, “Yea”
Larry now knew exactly what Kera was talking about;
he came to the reality that he believed it was true, for he knew that he won
the argument exactly how Kera had said. Larry
felt really bad for Kera, seeing her cry didn’t help this. He wanted to help her, console her and let
her cry on his shoulder, but he knew Kera wasn’t the type to cry on shoulders,
he watched there helplessly. He then
lied down on the floor and went to sleep.
Kera fell asleep shortly after she turned over.
About an hour after Larry had fallen asleep, Kera’s
mom became rather worried that they’d been in there too long. She walked in the door and found Larry
sleeping on the floor and Kera asleep on the bed. She didn’t want to wake them for she still
felt a little bad. By this time Daniel
was over what he had seen. She left the
room and sat alone thinking. Daniel was
also asleep. She picked up a book and
started to read however she only saw words, What was being read was not
processing in her mind. She had too many
other things on her mind. She still
continued to pretend to read. She kept
asking herself the question “Am I a bad mother?”
She didn’t say it aloud. This made her cry. She didn’t want to go for a drive in fear of
soldiers.
About a
half-hour later, Kera awoke. She saw Larry
asleep on the floor. She looked over at
him, as a smile came over her face as it finally processed into her mind that Larry
risked his life for hers. She noticed
that the gun was still sticking out in the back of Larry’s pants. She got up and took the gun. She scrutinized it and then opened the
chamber; It had two bullets left. She
placed it in one of her drawers. She
then walked over Larry and out the door.
Her mother saw her as Kera came downstairs. She called her over. Kera gave her a disgusted look, rolled her
eyes and then continued walking. This
saddened Kera’s mom. She didn’t bother
following her; she was too disgusted with herself. Kera went down to the basement and turned on
the television. She put the channel on
MTV, which is a station made for teenage youth.
It mostly plays music. Finally Kera’s
mom rose from her seat and went downstairs to talk, to Kera. She began by saying, “Kera, I know you’re not
too pleased with me right now, and I know that you don’t want to talk to me nor
forgive me but for whatever it’s worth I’m sorry.”
Kera responded
avoiding looking at her mother, “You should apologize to Larry too, I mean
that’s bullshit he saves my life and you yell at him for it.”
“I already did
apologize to Larry”
“Good”
“Kera, I love
you, is it possible to find it in your heart to forgive me?”
“No, What you
did today was bullshit.”
Kera’s mom
began to cry, “I know, I know, I’m sorry you have to believe me though I love
you.”
She looked at
her mother and snapped “You don’t love me, you love Daniel. The only reason you
believed Larry was because he informed you of the truth about how Daniel would
feel if he hadn’t, he had to say that for you to realize it, you didn’t realize
it when he talked about my death if he hadn’t.”
“Kera, that’s
not what happened.”
“Bullshit I
was right there, I heard and saw the whole thing.”
“I love you”
“Bullshit.”
She snapped back.
Kera’s mom was
crying hard now but Kera showed no compassion Kera’s mom finally said, “I know
you don’t believe me, I don’t even know if you should, I just hope you can find
it in your heart to forgive me.”
“No I can’t,
and I won’t”
Kera’s mom got
up and left crying. Kera just continued
to watch MTV. Kera’s mom continued
upstairs in her room and went to sleep. Kera
continued to watch TV not feeling one bit bad for her mom, nobody could blame
her. Larry came down about 45 minutes
afterwards. He joined Kera and
watched. Kera turned and told Larry
about the conversation she had with her mother.
Larry didn’t say anything about it.
He thought himself it was bullshit what went on that day, but he didn’t
believe the other things Kera said, he didn’t want to argue though, he was just
happy Kera was alive, and that he had done a good thing.
Later on that
day the Japanese surrendered to American soldiers. The war was over. The next day Larry packed his things and was
ready to drive home. Kera yelled at him
to take her. Larry told her to pack her
things. Kera went upstairs and packed a lot of clothes. Larry told her to ask her parents. Kera just handed her bag to Larry and yelled,
“Mom, dad, I’m going with Larry to Ohio
Larry laughed
and carried the bag to his car. Kera’s
parents didn’t object. They didn’t want
to anger Kera any more than they had already.
Kera never did forgive her mom, but she returned to New York
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