Carry The Cross

Ramona Scott is sitting in the living room of her apartment waiting on her best friend Roger to bring her some iced coffee for the morning. “Sure is taking Rog longer than usual to bring my liquid crack” she thought to herself. “Maybe there’s a line at the store, I guess I could give him a-” before Ramona could finish her train of thought there was a knock on the door.

When she got up to answer the door she was greeted by Roger’s mother Regina. “Regina?” Ramona started curiously. “Come on in, what’s up?” “Have you seen that peanut headed boy of mine?” Regina asked. “He was supposed to stop by the church and pick up an apple pie that the pastor’s wife left for me”.

“You know” Ramona began. “He left to go get me some iced coffee for the morning because you know I can’t live without it, but that was almost an hour ago.” “I wonder what’s keeping him. You don’t think anything happened out there do you, Mona? You know it gets crazy around these parts during this time of the year” Regina asked.

“I’m sure he’s fine” Ramona continued. “How bout this, you wait here at my spot to see if…when he comes back and I’ll take a quick stroll to the church to pick up that pie for you.” “Stroll?” Regina emphasized. “You wanna go for a stroll in this cold weather at this time of night? You know it’s crazy out. Let me give you a ride, Mona”

“No-no, it’s fine, Reggie” Ramona stopped her. “It’ll be all of 20 minutes, maybe 25 at the most. Plus I could use some fresh air. Go ahead and relax yourself Reggie.” “Ah…okay” Regina exhaled. “I’ll wait for Roger to get back and let you go, but you hurry back, Mona. We don’t need two of y’all babies missing”. “Oh squeeze that, Reggie” Ramona replied sarcastically. “We wear the big kid panties now, we ain’t babies anymore.” “Well you’ll always be my babies” Regina replied. “Now hurry up and hurry back”.

“I’ll do my best” Ramona added. Plus if anything pops off I’ll go to the pastor’s office and get some of his military equipment to protect myself. I know he has some”. Ramona grabbed her jacket and headed out the door, making her way down the road to the church. On the way she made note of the eerie silence in the air. “Normally this side of the block is jumpin’ at this time” Ramona thought. “Did the freaks decide to not come out tonight and didn’t tell me about it?” As Ramona neared the church her attention was suddenly grabbed by a fuss coming from behind where she stood.

There was a man running behind her with a gun in his hand. From behind the man there was a police officer who was chasing after him. “GET OUT OF THE WAY! GET OUT OF THE WAY!” The officer screamed out. The man then briefly turned around and fired shots at the cop from the gun in his hand. The officer ducked behind one of the cars that separated the two and then started returning fire. As the officer shot back, the frightened Ramona quickly ran across the street where the church entrance stood.

As the police officer stood up to take shots at the assailant again he was suddenly shot in his lower abdomen by the perpetrator. Ramona let out a loud shriek as the officer fell to the ground. The assailant then turned his attention and to the frightened Ramona and started to approach her. “Please…don’t hurt me” Ramona pleaded. “No witnesses” the man uttered sneakily as he raised his gun to shoot her.

He fired off one round from his gun and Ramona ducked. The bullet that was meant for her had instead collided with the tall holy cross that stood behind Ramona in the church’s lawn. The bullet bounced off the hardened cross and hit the man in the shoulder. As the man turned around groaning in pain the police officer had come to and fired one round from his gun into the hip of the assailant, finally putting him down as the man dropped his gun.

“Ma’am…are you okay?” The officer strained to ask Ramona. “Yeah…I’m fine” Ramona exhaled. As Ramona slowly rose to her feet she looked behind her and examined the cross that was apparently not damaged by the bullet. “But…how?” She asked out loud. “The pastor” the police officer said as he arrested the assailant. “The pastor made that cross out of a special steel alloy that he brought back from his days in the military.” “I think that cross saved my life” Ramona replied as the sound of police sirens started converging on the scene.

As the police cars started to arrive to take the shooter away Ramona noticed a man lurking around the corner just behind the church. Curious as to who he was she went to the corner to examine him and found he had vanished. She looked to the ground and found a note left in his place. When she picked it up to examine it the note read:

“Move with care and caution for all of 2025 and keep Roger close to your heart - Nicholas”.

The man was the mysterious phantom named Nicholas who Roger had encountered earlier that night. A bewildered Ramona stuffed the note and her pocket as she was confronted by the police. “Ma’am are you okay?” The officer asked her. “Yes I’m fine, what about the officer who was shot is he okay?” Ramona asked. “Yes” the officer answered. “We have an ambulance on the way for him right now. Can you come down to the station and let us take a statement from you?”

“Yes absolutely” Ramona replied. As Ramona followed the officers to their car her phone started ringing in her pocket. She looked down and saw it was Regina calling her. “Hello” Ramona answered. “Mona, thank goodness you picked up. I just heard there was a shooting by the church” Regina exclaimed with concern. “Yeah it was. I was in the middle of it, but I’m okay and headed to the police station to give a statement”

“Oh have mercy, are you okay?” Regina cried. “Yes, Reggie I’m fine. Did Rog make it back yet?” “No, not yet” Regina answered. “Well when he gets back tell him to meet me at the police station. I think I have a message for him…”

To be continued.