Friday Fictioneers: Don’t Look Out the Window

When I heard the dogs barking. I knew. It was an odd time to be getting company. I peeked out the window and my throat constricted at the sight of the two uniforms approaching.

I opened the door and the look in their eyes confirmed my fear. I don’t remember much after that. There was a loud scream and my husband ran to me. He picked me up off the floor and carried me to the sofa.

“It’s your daughter”, I finally heard one of them say.
Their voices were muffled.
“Her roommate found her, a needle in her arm.”

roger-bultot-flower

PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

We lost another one this week. 28 years old. I knew her parents when I was married to my first husband. She was a little girl the last time I saw her, about 4 years old. She grew up and now she’s dead. Please someone, make it stop!
Friday Fictioneers is a weekly 100 word writing challenge inspired by a picture prompt. Click here to read other stories.

101 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers: Don’t Look Out the Window”

  12. Good story. Sad and even more so due the truthfulness of the story. Sad, the innocence loss due to drugs; and the fact that often times the first time use is the last. I like how you keep us waiting till the end for the reason for the “uniforms” visit – left us wondering why they were there.

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  13. OMG! You just about shocked me, for I have a daughter living in another city!
    Great story and a nightmare. I wonder how many nights she would lie awake thinking “Where did I go wrong?”

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  14. SO sorry about your loss, Dawn. It is sad when something terrible like this happens. You expressed it well in this story. Hopefully a cautionary tale. 😥

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  15. That “like” is a big old That SUCKS! I am so sorry for your loss, Dawn. I know all too well what it feels like to open the door to two officers. And yes, this does need to stop! (Hugs) and prayers.

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  22. Tragic story — and too real. In a nearby small town the opposite took place. A young couple, both 24, sent their preschool boys to Grandma’s house for a sleepover. When Grandma brought them back the next morning the car was home but she got no response to her knock.

    She called the police to let her in and they found both parents dead. Police investigated, but soon released a statement that no foul play was suspected — and we heard nothing more by way of explanation. But we have a pretty good idea; there are some potent (read potentially lethal) drugs out there nowadays.

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  28. Not much I can add to the other comments. I can just imagine that sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach watching those two suits approach. Powerful stuff.

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  32. My heart was broken as it was while reading this story, because you weaved the emotion into the scene so vividly. But then I read your footnote and realized this was based on fact? This is just so tragic…

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  35. I thought the story was very well written and very sad, but then I read the tragedy that triggered it. It is such an awful epidemic that touches too many people. I’m sorry for your loss.

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  36. This really hit home as I just found out one of my best friends growing up, that I had lost contact with after high school, ended her life by drug overdose a couple of years ago. I was just shocked.
    It is such a tragedy when a life is senselessly lost.
    Thanks for sharing your story.

    – Lisa

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  44. You raise them and watch out for them, then they’re on their own and you worry. What a tragedy and a waste. Years ago in my old neighborhood, long after my parents moved, we heard a boy I knew was shot down in the street in front of his parent’s home because he was high and waving a gun at the police. His own sister told the police to shoot because was afraid he’d kill her husband who was trying to help. I felt glad his mother wasn’t alive to see it. Good writing, Dawn. —- Suzanne

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  46. Hey Dawn – I had to come back and share how this post impacted me.
    When I read it last month – it stopped me in my tracks.

    I have to admit that it was kind of a downer, only because I was reading some lively pieces and we were just having this fun day. And we all know that some topics – like loss and death – and drug OD – are just downer and heavy subjects.
    anyhow, I liked the way you presented it in your fiction and then how you shared your afterthoughts about the 28 year old….. and it was a nice reminder about this horrid epidemic in our country. We soemetimes watch Drugs, Inc. and see so much of the deprivation associate with this….

    however, it really hit home this weekend – my nephew (32) died from heroin OD…
    “We lost another one this week.”
    and “Please make it stop” rings in my mind too.

    and my friend sent me a note that one thing we can all do is to speak up about it more and more – too many people cover it up and feel shame and hide it – and so seriously, Dawn

    Thanks for this piece last week. thanks for speaking up about it and I am so glad I read this because in a way, it helped prepare me for our shocking and devastating loss this past Sunday.
    I was also reading about it when I just so happened to look up “Plantation Florida 1993” – because my searches kept bringing me to two different young adults who died from OD – they both were born in 1993 in Plantation. chilling even more because the nephew that just ODd was the the same nephew with us that summer of 1993 in Plantation.

    well enough from me – but seriously Dawn, thanks again for this post and may grace and strength be with all who hurt over such losses….
    xxoo
    xxoo

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