Downward Spiral

I was just talking about guns and the need to survive whatever is going to happen. As in if all the power just goes out. You wake up, cold, miserable, out of gas as usual and you make it to the car. Upon cranking you realize that you have to get to a fucking gas station really quick or this day isn't going to be very good.
You make it to the station, stomach growling, realizing that you forgot your lunch and you have to get something here, not just pay at the pump, then you see it.
The little convenience store is packed. Dark, yes, and packed with cars, trying to get to the pumps. Everyone in their cars and the Indian Owner out there at the pumps. I get out, thank you for the ride to work and approach JJ, the owner .
"What the hell, man?" I ask him
"Don't know! No power, man. You help me here!" JJ shouts as he fills a car with gas.
"Cash only!" he shouts at the countless other cars. Some of which attempt to turn around, to go elsewhere, yet there is no turning around. The entire parking lot is over run with vehicles. Angry voices fill the air as one car tries to cut it, left, left, a little too quickly, bang! More shouts. More of anger than frustration. And If they only knew, from a Birdseye view for they would know the meaning of the word frustration. The roads are packed in all direction for as far as the eye can see.

It was Friday, November 12. Early in the day there had been some issue involving a gun at my brother's house. It was between him and my nephew in law. I left and went home in Columbia. Once at home, I walked to the store for a beer and was confronted by this black dude named Emmit. "Where's my money?" he asked.
The night before, he had come to the house asking for my wife, Debby. He informed me at that time that Debby had incurred a debt with him for 40 dollars and he demanded to talk to her. She was hiding in the back room. I told him to leave her alone and that I would handle the deal.
Now the next day, I'm home, in a really bad mood and being confronted once again by this drug dealer. I told Emmit that if he fucked with me anymore over that shit that I would shoot him. I had an elbow piece of conduit from a job that happened to be in my pocket and I made a gun like gesture with it in the pocket of my hoodie. Emmit immediately ran back to his corner, telling his buddies that I pulled a gun on him.
15 minutes later, the police arrive With assault rifles drawn on me and my wife. We were both outside when they got there so they ordered us on the ground, on our stomachs and handcuffed us. Then they searched the house and grounds and found no gun. Only the elbow conduit in my hoodie pocket which they paid no mind to.
After the law left, I was in no mood to be around all this mess so I went to my brother's house again. It's still only about 3 or 4 in the afternoon and he was asleep on the couch with the gun on the coffee table. I wasn't loaded but I knew that there would be trouble if my nephew showed up and saw it. He has two young daughters and is a bit overprotective. So in light of being unsure of Emmit and to keep trouble down at my brother/boss's house, I took the gun and instead of waking him, I quite simply went back to Columbia, pistol in pocket. A recipe for disaster that only dawned on me later as I recovered in the hospital.
When I got home, I was none too please with my wife, associating with these people and getting me hemmed up with a debt that I had no prior knowledge of. Angered and disturbed I put the gun on the coffee table and fell asleep on the couch.
I was awakened a while later by shouts and loud voices. The sun was just setting so I would say it was about six o'clock. This shouting and fighting in the streets and low bass pounding was nothing out of the ordinary in Columbia. But what caught my attention was the pleading of a woman for help. "No! Help! Stop!" I heard her cry, and to me at the time, I could be wrong but it sounded like Debby.
Being half asleep and realizing the situation at hand, I got up and ran out the door barefoot. Didn't even think of the gun, lying on the table.
Once outside, I saw my car was gone. My wife was also absent and again, the pleading woman continued from down the hill. I went on down and saw what I could of what was going on. Debby wasn't the one crying for help, rather it was a pregnant young black lady who I knew lived here. I was about to go back when this young man who I knew as Dominick, only by living close by for over a year, not as a friend or acquaintance, stepped to me angrily and asked me for the money I owed Emmit. I told him to fuck off, called him a nigger piece of shit, then...
BAM! I was hit from behind with more than a fist. Right in the back of my head. I tell you now that seeing stars is an understatement. I managed to turn around with my fists ready and there stood Emmit. Laughing, saying, "Come on! Shoot me now mother fucker!" I drew back to knock him out, when...
BAM! I was hit from the back again with a little too much impact. I remember hitting the ground at this point.
I remember opening my eyes to see Dominick with a baseball bat. I Tried to get to my feet, if nothing else but to run! But I couldn't do it. All I could do watch watch the black man with the ball bat.
Dominick held the bat low and as if he were a golfer, he teed off, swung and hit me in the mouth. Only a putt thank God, for if he'd of gone full force, there would be little left of my head now. Yet I was kicked in the stomach by an unknown foot and I saw shadows growing closer. I was being encircled by shadows. Another foot perched to kick and I somehow got to my feet, fist balled, ready for anything.
Then suddenly everyone scattered. I thumped my chest and screamed something, I remember seeing blood all over my shirt. I remember being dazed and my head pounding. My lip was dripping blood in the street light, I could barely stand. Then I remember Smush.
Smush is my Nice's Rottweiler. She had her ball in her mouth, seeing me, she wanted me to throw the ball for her. Then I heard, "Get in the Van you idiot!"
Then I remember being taken away from Columbia saying, "My house is unlocked! They're going to steal all my stuff now!"
only to be told "You're lucky to be out of there and you want to go back?"
Then I was admitted into the hospital at UVA hospital and kept for 3 days.

The weeks following have been difficult to say the least. I'm now staying at my brother's house. Left Debby again to fend for herself. Headaches all the time. And worst of all a harelip thing that prohibits me from whistling if I ever get happy enough to do so, and I am even uglier than before. And that is very sad indeed.