"Can we go now, Momma?" little Susie asked, pulling on her mom's arm. Her mother did not answer, only stared blankly at the scene below. Mobs of people marched about with what looked like picket signs. Other people gathered around them, shouting angry words that she couldn't make out from this distance. This relatively small town in Missouri had never seen so much action. She and Susie were standing at the top of the only high rise building in town for Susie loved to try to find their house among the rows and rows of little boxes. The scene had gathered while they were up there, leaving her and her daughter between a rock and a hard place for the only way to get to their car was to go right past where this was happening.
"Momma?" Susie said in a frightened voice, two seconds before a gun shot went off, making her scream at the top of her lungs. Her mom grabbed her and held her over her shoulder as the tears started pouring.
"What was that? I'm scared, Momma!!"
"Sh Sh Sh," her momma whispered in a soothing tone, rubbing her daughter's hair. "It's just a bad dream, baby. It's all just one big horrible dream," she said both to herself and Susie.
"It's like the ones I get?"
"Sort of. Only in this case we don't get to wake up."
Susie looked at her with confused eyes at the same time a fight broke out among some members of each group. The little girl finally turned to look at the increasing mob of people, gasping in surprise. "Why are those ants fighting, Momma?"
"Those aren't ants, sweetie, they're people, or, at least they're supposed to be."
"I don't understand what's going on! I'm scared!!" the four-year-old child clung to her momma, alternating burying her face in her neck with peering cautiously out the window.
Her mother's legs felt like they'd been super glued to the floor. She wanted to run and hide, but she knew it was useless. The offices in this building were closed, it being Sunday, so the only room that was open was the one they were in. If she went outside then they'd be right in the middle of it. The safest thing seemed to be to stay where they were even though she couldn't help but feel like a sitting duck. What must have been police officers started pulling people apart, but it only ignited the crowd's anger even more. Now she couldn't tell who were the cops and who were the civilians for it had turned into one large moving mass that resembled the surface of the ocean during a thunderstorm.
Her and Susie became mesmerized by the unlikely symphony down below their feet. "It looks like they're dancing, Momma," Susie said with glee, pressing her tiny face against the window.
"Yeah, it sort of does, doesn't it?" her mother said with an air of disbelief. How could the expression of heated anger be so beautiful? It was so wondrously unexpected that it brought soft tears to her eyes.
"Why are you scared, Momma? It's just bugs dancing," Susie said with an innocent smile, wiping away her mother's tears.
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