The hallway was silent.

I looked out around the door from the bedroom to make sure it was empty. I knew the guy with the AK -47 was somewhere in the house looking for me. To live, I needed to see him before he saw me.

I said to myself, “David, you have to make this shot count. You only have one rock for your slingshot.”

Fortunately for me in the next moments, he poked his head around the corner and I nailed Goliath right in the eye with my last rock.

By J. C. Gable

*****

A Utah Winter

The hallway was silent, very different from the mayhem the children usually produced. My daughter Cathy’s favorite game was to run down the hall and execute a summersault and land in the middle of the beanbag chair. I would hold my breath for fear she would smash her head aganst the wall – luckily she never did. The baby tottered  back and forth, laughing the whole time. My teenager sat on the couch clapping at ruckus. I was sure Cathy would be a candidate for the Olympics.

The winter weather and the thought of three sick children with wet feet and fevers, from playing in the snow was more than I could take. Instead I let them wear the hall carpet into shreds’. Kid are kids after all.

Carmel Westerman