Complete the short story/flash fiction, that has the following opening:
I was six-years-old when I had to become a man.
I had gone downtown with my mother to go shopping. She wanted to buy me some new clothes for my older sister’s high school graduation. Well, half-sister, if truth be told. Mom divorced her first husband due to the abuse that he heaped on her and Cindy. It had been a nasty divorce, apparently with threats and even a restraining order being issued before everything was settled.
Mom actually met and fell in love with one of the policemen, my eventual father, who ended up guarding her during one particularly nasty event where he ex was busy stalking her. My father ended up taking a bullet saving my Mom and I guess that was it. Nothing says love like throwing yourself in harms way for someone else. They got married within months but it took a number of years before I came along. They both felt that they weren’t ready.
I didn’t know the man who stopped my mother on the street that day. I hadn’t seen him before either in pictures or at any of the family events to which we had gone. I knew something was wrong, however, as my Mom grabbed my hand and held on tight, too tight, all the while screaming at the man to leave her alone, to just walk away and leave her alone.
I heard a loud noise and something wet splashed on my hand. My mother’s grip became quite loose as she collapsed on the sidewalk. I looked at my hand but didn’t realize what the red stain was. I can look back now and recognize that it was the end of my childhood, but back then, back then it was just a crazy coloured raindrop that had fallen from the sky.
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A Writing Prompt A Day 