Berkeley

How was I supposed to know what June 25, 2000 would bring. I remember that day as if it were yesterday. It was cloudy that day and you knew it was going to rain because you could smell it. It was quite in the morning, which is not a usual thing in Calloway. I had awoken to a gray room that was getting its color from the two curtainless windows above my bed. When I looked outside and saw and heard nothing, I was convinced that this was going to be a good day. So I was happy. Jamie was still asleep, so I went into the living room to watch T.V. . My favorite show was Good Times.

Jamie woke up about an hour later. He too loved Good Times. He’d sing the theme song to it every time. I would hum along because I didn’t know the words. Everything was great. It was still quite outside. The next show that came on that we like very much was I Love Lucy. It was 12:34. That’s when the streets started to become populated and the regular noise was restored. We didn’t think anything of since it was usual. But then, just an hour later. We heard gun shots. Soon we started hearing gunshots. We looked out the window and people were screaming and yelling and running, most of them were girls. Soon the gunshots got louder and more scarier. Jamie took me into his room, where there were no windows and left me in there. As I sit in his room wondering what going on I heard more gunshots, but these shots seemed to be getting closer and closer and louder and louder. I was scared stiff. All of a sudden Jamie busted in and picked up by my hands and lifted me too his shoulder.

“Jamie’ what’s going on?” I yelled.

“We got to get you out of here bro!” He said.

Nothing really prepared me for what I was about to see outside. When we got out, I looked up, and saw a riot going on. Their were a gang of Mexicans and Black people fighting each other. “What’s going on” I wondered “what’s happening”. I couldn’t get an answer out of Jamie because of all the noise going on around us. All of a sudden four Mexican me came up in front of us.