sidebar
Logo Top Banner
Home
slogan Alaska Timeline Alaska Kids About
Peer Work
Family & Community
History & Culture
Digital Archives
Narrative & Healing
Reading & Writing
Libraries & Booksellers
Teaching & Learning
Contact Us

  Search Litsite Alaska
Find us on Facebook

Peer Work

Home  >  Peer Work
Please Don't Shoot
By Craig Dylan Kimball
Genre: Fiction Level: Junior 7-9
Category: UAA/ADN Creative Writing Contest

No one knows exactly how the tattoos work, or where they come from.  Some say they're sent from the heavens to guide the people in life.  Others say there's a scientific explanation that hasn't been found yet (the latter are usually the ones who ruthlessly mock the former).  Still others, most often rural folk, say they're a conspiracy created by the Annunaki (these people are universally ridiculed by the first two groups).

What everyone does know is that they're a part of everyday life.  If not for the tattoos millions of people would never have found love. Generations have grown up listening to their parents' stories about how they found each other through their tattoos, and fantasizing about what their own tattoos might say.  In the weeks leading up to her eighteenth birthday, Risa's mother had told her the story (several times) of how she found her father. Her tattoo had said "excuse me," and it had taken her years to find him because it was so vague.

On this crisp October morning, Risa dared not open her eyes, knowing that the minute she did, she would be face-to-face with the first words she would hear from her soulmate.  Instead, she lay in bed, contemplating what might be written on her forearm.  Would it be an insult or a compliment?  Funny or tragic? Romantic or disgusting? Perhaps it would be something completely random with no context.

Finally she found the courage to open her eyes, but the moment she looked down, she regretted it.  There, in beautiful cursive and red ink on her arm, were three terrible words:

Please don't shoot.

Frantically, Risa got dressed and headed out the door in less than two minutes.  Frustrated, almost in a panic, she raced down the street, and then stopped herself. What was she doing? There had to be a very slim chance that her soulmate had ever even set foot in this town.  Just when she was about to head home, she heard a faint cry from a few blocks away:

"Please don't shoot ... "

Risa broke into a sprint toward the source of the voice, getting pebbles in the grooves of her shoes. Dogs barked at her as she passed, pedestrians scolded her, and she probably ruined the life of that 16 year old by knocking over the cart out of which he was selling snacks to pay for college.

As she ran along the sidewalk, she heard two shots - and then a scream from a nearby alley. Just as she turned the corner, she caught a glimpse of a dark figure disappearing over a rooftop. On the ground lay the body of the boy she would have married. 


sidebar
  Contact Us       LitSite Alaska, Copyright © 2000 - 2024. All rights reserved. UAA / University of Alaska Anchorage.
University of Alaska Anchorage