This Brave Mom

I grew up in rural southern Mississippi, a loooooong time ago. Long before cell phones. My stepfather had a job as a trucker for a short while, and was off on a job. Mom and I were home alone together often during this time he would be on the road, a 9-10 year old girl and a slight woman, not even 5 feet tall.

My mother and I were watching TV when our dog, Mandy, who was just sleeping on the floor suddenly stood up and started growling. She went to the door and growled, then sort of woofed a little, not an actual loud bark, then went over to a window and started pacing rooms, growling and whimpering. She was just a mutt, not any kind of a guard dog, and she NEVER acted like this.

My mother was instantly on alert. She said "heinleinfan, I'm going to get my gun (a .38 pistol), you turn off the lights in the kitchen and the dining room, and look out those windows and tell me if you see anything, and stay low."

I turned out the lights and then crawled over to the dining room windows...looked out...this side of the yard had our gas tank about 10 feet from the house, and a GIANT oak tree about 10 feet to the left and past the gas tank. It was dark, but I saw a man kind of hunched over, like a cartoon character sneaking, dart from behind the tree, to duck down behind the gas tank. I called out to my mother "He's behind the gas tank, just one guy". I couldn't see anything about him, all dark clothes and a mask on and a hat.

She was at the front door at that point, perpendicular to the side I was viewing, and she opened the door and fired 2 shots into the air, not even towards where he was. The guy that was ducked behind the gas tank LIT THE FRACK OUT. I don't think I've ever seen someone run so fast.

- 

Then my mom told me: she'd grabbed the phone, of course, heading to go get her gun, but it was dead, so we needed to go get to a phone. She said we'd go on 3 and that I should run to the car, get in as fast as I could and lock the door. She did so as well, but was holding the gun still, pointed up, very clearly armed. She drove us to the neighbor's in the opposite direction the guy had run, called the cops.

When they came out to look over the place and all that, they let us know our phone wasn't dead, the phone line going into the house had been cut.

- heinleinfan