Crime scene

Photo by EssG on Flickr

It’s not often I find myself talking about violence. But tonight I was given the answer of something I have been wondering for a very, very long time in my life. I will never have to wonder about it ever again.

For as long as I can remember I have had this “memory”. It is from when I was a very young boy, maybe 6 years old or so. I believe my family was at a Pizza Hut together in or near Battle Creek, Michigan where we were visiting my Grandma Sailor. The only visual I have from this so-called memory was a crime scene in the parking lot, where there was yellow tape and a body. Quite a terrifying thing really.

But I never knew. For about 20 years or more that vision came to my head once in a great while and I didn’t know if that was something I actually saw, a memory I construed, or perhaps something I developed and remembered seeing in a dream or movie once.

For some reason I never wanted to ask my parents. I felt they’d think I was crazy (which is partially true). All I ever wanted to know if it was true or something I made up in my mind.

Well tonight, my parents drove through town and stopped in for a few minutes. They were in Battle Creek over the weekend visiting my grandmother. While there, they actually heard gunshots fired late at night on the block of my grandmother’s house.

And then…

My mom said, “When you were younger there was a time we had to shield you and your brother’s eyes from a crime scene in Battle Creek so you didn’t see the dead body.”

I KNEW IT! It wasn’t just my imagination. It was true! I can finally put to rest a thought that has plagued me for two decades. Now I can move on to the next unsure memory.