The crowd

Linda Williams was a modern Snow White. She would take care of the household and cook nice meals all day, waiting for her own prince charming to come home. However, there was not a bird that would come to listen to her sing, it would faint hearing that unpleasant noise and she did not live in a magical cottage in the forest, her home was a rather standard brick house established in Birmingham, Alabama. She was kind and cared for her family and the world around her.

On that day, it was a beautiful and hot day, the woman was sitting outside watching her little ones, Tim and Chloe. They were jumping over the end of the garden hose, where Linda had put a pipe with holes in it so the water could come out with more pressure] and go up in the air rather than directly on the grass. Since they did not have a television in the house, the kids had become creative at finding games to play and It had become a habit to refresh themselves in the water jets after their mother had picked them up from school. She loved seeing her kids happy and hearing their melodious laughs resonate in the backyard. Soon, the clock would tell them it was time to go inside and clean themselves before supper. It was also at this time that David Williams would come home, but it seemed that, these days, the prince charming was arriving later and later, claiming that it had been a busy day at work and that he was extremely exhausted. Never more information, never less, but saying less would mean saying nothing at all. David Williams was a fireman and Linda liked to picture him saving children and grandparents from big fires. For those who knew the married couple, they could not remember a time when Linda and David were not together. In their youth, they were neighbors and went to the same school. As time passed, they became best friends, boyfriend and girlfriend, man and wife and, finally, father and mother. David knew Linda like the back of his hand, and she knew him the same way. That night, she fell asleep with a smile, feeling calm and happy.

The next day, after eating a sandwich for lunch, as she was preparing the ingredients for the roast that was planned for the supper, Linda realized that she had not bought onions the last time she went to the grocery store. She decided to go and do the groceries for the week while being there. The store was not very far from her house, it was about 10 minutes of walking distance. Just before the grocery store, there was an electronic shop and people were gathering in front of the televisions that were behind the showcase. Curious, she approached the group. She sensed there was a weird atmosphere. A man had made fists with his hands and looked angry. The woman beside him seemed to try to calm him but she looked worried. To be able to see the screen, Linda had to get on the tip of her toes. As soon as she did, she regretted the action. Linda did not want to see the images the news was showing. It was a group of young black people being hit by powerful fire hoses that threw them on to the ground and attacked by rabid dogs that were held hard by policemen. She could not stop looking at the television, hypnotized by the atrocities. The brutal images of the children made her think of her kids playing innocently with the garden hose, how they were happy and had fun while the others were scared and harmed.U14] She could not imagine someone hurting innocent children. Tears were forming in her eyes as she thought of children, her own and of others, being harmed by the water jets . Then the images of the children changed to give way for the firemen. And there he was, in his uniform. She could not believe that David was the one holding the hose and spraying children. She felt her nails digging through her skin as her hand formed a fist. A flow of thoughts was going in her head, making it impossible for her to think clearly : Why? Why did he do it? Was he ever the man she thought she knew? Has she ever known him? Has everything been a lie? How could he hate so much to harm pure and innocent beings? As her thoughts raced in her mind like a car about to win a racing competition, she did not notice her legs moving in direction of the fire station. She was going there by instinct , having to know the truth, hoping that what was most important to her was not a lie. She got out of her thoughts by a car horn. The said car was 3 feet from her, she did not realise she was in the middle of the street, in front of the fire station. She went in and immediately spotted David. As she got closer to him, she felt her jaw clench and her whole body stiffen. She was angry but scared at the same time. Scared that she would lose the man she loved, scared that he was not really him.