It was sunny and pretty. The little boy stood by his momma and he was happy. She held his hand even though he was not a baby. There were a lot of people here, mostly grown-ups. His momma said that they would see somebody famous and that it was kind of like a parade and then after they would go for an ice cream cone at the Dairy Queen if he was good. He loved parades.

He liked to go to the Dairy Queen with his momma. Last time she laughed and laughed when he got ice cream on his nose. She was the best momma in the whole world even if she spanked him sometimes. He would ask if he could have some chocolate syrup on his ice cream. He looked up at his momma in the sunlight. She was talking to a lady in a red hat with big red lips and they were both laughing and smiling. His momma was the prettiest girl in the whole world, even prettier than the ladies on T.V. His legs felt tingly because they had been standing there for a long time and the parade hadn’t started, but he didn’t fuss. He wanted to get ice cream.

All of a sudden it got more crowded. Legs pushed against him, pushing together toward the street. Everybody was mashing him. He looked up at his momma and she was pointing and talking to the lady in the red hat. She looked excited. He said he couldn’t see. He yelled at his momma so she would hear because the people were so noisy, and he pulled on her hand. She picked him up and held him, but her fingernail was sticking him in his back and it hurt. All he saw over the heads of the grown-ups was a motorcycle and some big black cars. Everybody was waving and shouting. He didn’t see any bands or horses or clowns or anything. It didn’t look like a parade.

She put him down and people started to move away. He told his momma that he hadn’t seen the parade, but she was still talking and laughing with the lady. Then she stopped talking and turned to some people who were running toward them. One of the men yelled, “They shot him! Somebody shot at him!” His momma looked worried. He had seen shot people on T.V. before. He looked around but he didn’t see any shot people. Then he heard a siren and he thought maybe the parade was starting again.

His momma squeezed his hand. It hurt him. He tried to pull away from her but the more he pulled the tighter she held on. She was crying and there were black lines coming down her face under her eyes. She looked like a witch. He had never seen her look so ugly and it scared him. The lady in the red hat was crying, too. He looked around and there were some other ladies crying and even one man who looked like his Uncle Tommy, except he was short. Other people stared and pointed and shouted. Some were running and some were sitting down on the grass next to the street. He wanted to go away from here.

The boy asked his momma if they were still going to the Dairy Queen to get ice cream. She didn’t answer him. She just kept looking around and crying and he could feel her whole body shaking. He felt sorry for his momma because she was so sad. He knew they wouldn’t get ice cream today. Something bad had happened and grown-ups don’t eat ice cream when they are sad.

He hated parades.