God's Grace

"Kyler, I think you should hear the whole story," Mr. James said, "Stand up and walk over to the door." Since I arrived here I noticed a spot on the door that had been plastered over, and I was guessing that it was a bullet hole. "That spot right besides the curtains," Mr. James said indicating the spot, "Was made by a bullet before we moved here, by a Driveby*." I ran my hand over the spot on the door and whistled.


"And over there," said Mr. James pointing to the window, "Move the curtains aside and look for it." It didn't take me long to see it. It was cracked glass that was being held together by some duct tape. The Driveby had popped of a shot about six months earlier and it had crashed through the window and lodged itself into the arm of the sofa. If the bullet had been an inch higher it would have passed through the opposite wall and into Mr. and Mrs. Mullen's bedroom and may have injured or killed one of them. But by God's wonderful mercy he allowed it to hit the couch.


Mr. Mullen waited on the porch while Mrs. Mullen unloaded the groceries from the car. Just then a car drove by and 'Pow!' a shot went off.


Today we drove by a sort of memorial for a gangster that had been killed in a gang fight. He was sixteen. It was marked by a light pole with a piece of paper attached to it. And a stuffed animal of Winnie the Pooh was taped to the pole. It almost made me cry. One the paper were a lot of stuff written on it, I only caught two words, "Senseless Death."


**A Driveby is usually a gang that drives by and just pops off a shot for no reason, these are very common out here but through God's wonderful mercy I haven't witnessed any Drivebys yet.


Kyler