Family Tragedy

This is an adaptation of a piece I wrote for a Spanish class as a sophomore at Berkeley. It started out as a direct translation, but the piece quickly started to morph DRASTICALLY as I translated, reflecting my process of maturation of how I perceive myself today compared to when I originally wrote it. Back then, I both underestimated, or rather, was oblivious to how deeply this moment in my life impacted me forever. For my thoughts and feelings on it now, see this post. This is for my Creative Writing course at Los Angeles City College.
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At approximately 8:30 pm, I shut down the computer. I got out of my chair and headed towards my parents’ room. Walking by the wide open front door, I made a quick stop in the living room to chat with my older brother Andy and my cousin Wilbert. I was, strangely, in a decidedly good mood. In fact, that I had so suddenly changed my mind and eagerly decided to accompany my parents to the Laundromat was also odd since just an hour before I had said I wouldn’t.

I then sauntered over to my parents’ room. Upon entering, I cheerfully exclaimed, “I’m going with you guys!” They were indeed surprised, especially since the days where I’d go anywhere and everywhere with my parents had by that point been starting to fade into the infrequent.

BOOM! A strange noise, coming from the direction of the living room, startled us. “What was that?” we all wondered aloud. “One of the whoopee-cushions Victor brought must’ve exploded,” I offered as an explanation to reassure my parents and myself. Curious to pinpoint the source, I immediately left the room to see what was happening.

Walking along the dark hallway, I crept up slowly to the door frame that faced the living room. All of a sudden my vision turned blurry and my heart started racing—I panicked: I saw a man, of medium stature, carrying a red gas can in one hand and a gun in the other, shooting at my cousin Wilbert. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” my brother, tall and grown-up looking despite being only a 14-year-old boy, hauntingly yelled out in response.