ENC 1101-B3 & B4: Writing for Discovery

The gentle breeze flows through the bare, quiet branches of the sycamore and oak trees that run along the edge of the bustling street. The busy lives of the townspeople are perpetuated below as they walk briskly along the freshly frozen, continuously cracked sidewalk. Being a small town, they find it hard to get the money to repair them.
Jerry Brian, a hard workingman, rushes down the sidewalk, weaving in and out of the slower moving patrons that occupied the walkway.
“Cold day, ain’t it George?” He said to the owner of the corner market. As he passed by in a hurry, a dozen beautiful bright orange and yellow roses caught his eye. He bought them for his dear wife, Cyndi, waiting at home for him. He had been working late a lot these days and wanted to do something nice for his wife to show her that he appreciated her.
He handed the clerk the money and received his change. As he was walking out the door, a little, old lady walked right on through the door. Holding the door open for her, she kindly thanked him and was on her way. He quickly turned around and found himself face-to chest with a towering six foot seven middle-aged male, wearing an all black, three-piece suit and shiny, black leather shoes. He noticed this first because he was afraid to look up to what he thought was his newfound adversary. There were a couple of older bullies walking around town these days. Something like loan sharks but on a smaller scale. As he cautiously looked up at the man’s beat red face, he realized it was a man he borrowed money from a couple months ago. The fearful man had been looking for Jerry since the money was a few weeks over due. Jerry’s business wasn’t doing too well for about six months now. He didn’t want to tell his wife, so he went to Joey to take out a “loan.” The “loan,” unfortunately didn’t even begin to touch the problems he was having with his self-made business, and he had no way to pay him back.
The man grabbed Jerry by the collar and lifted him almost an inch off the ground. With Jerry gasping for breath, the giant man looked him in the eye, and with a devilish smirk on his face, softly whispered, “it’s too late, Jer.”
Jerry wriggled himself loose from the overbearing grip this man held on his shirt collar but the grip he held on his life and his family still remained. Jerry didn’t know what the man meant by ‘it’s too late,’ but he knew it couldn’t be good. After he was let loose from the jaws of life, he bolted in the opposite direction. Out of breath, he approached the front door of his home. As he entered, he saw his house had been ransacked.
“Cyndi!? Cyndi!? Where are the kids!? Where is everybody!?”
Jerry is panicked. Running through every room in their house, he finally found his battered wife, lying on the floor of their bedroom, barely breathing. Jerry called 911 immediately. Cyndi was taken to the hospital.
“They took the children,” his wife exclaimed in her small, quivering voice. While on a rampant search for his children, his wife, Cyndi, of twelve years, passed away after being in a comma for several weeks.
Jerry didn’t want to get the authorities involved because he knew it would come back to him and he would be to blame. He took it upon himself to find what was left of his family.
Days later he received a phone call from a muffled voice that told him to bring the money he owed to an abandoned dock at 2 a.m. the next morning and he would get his kids back. Jerry did what the voice said because he no longer had a choice.
Alone and scared to death, Jerry walked along the creaky, broken dock. He was about half way along, when he spotted the silhouettes of a large man covering the mouths of two small children. He heard sounds of struggling from afar, but was hesitant to proceed.
“What are ya waiting for?” the man said.
“Uhh, nothing I’m coming, just don’t hurt them, please.”
The man requested that Jerry put down the money while the man walked closer with the children to pick it up. Jerry bravely snatched his children from the man and pulled out a gun. He shot the gun five times in the man’s chest without blinking.
“This is for ruining my life, asshole!”
He picked up his children, threw the gun in the water and ran in the opposite direction down the dock towards land. He hopped in the car and headed for the border. He left everything behind but at least he had the rest of his family.