Emma's side

Emma Herrock
29 September 2009

When I was on vacation in Texas, playing with a BB gun, I accidently shot my sister. I know, sometimes it is hard for me to believe too, but it happened and I will live with that memory for the rest of my life. Thank goodness nowadays it is a hilarious story and not an extremely depressing story. Every year my family goes to my great-grandparents house in Corsicana, Texas for vacation. My great grandparents passed away many years ago, but we still go to their country farmhouse as often as we can. It is one of my favorite places to be and the whole point of going to Corsicana is to do absolutely nothing. There is seventeen acres of land split into what we call the big pasture and the little pasture and there is a little bit of land left over with a red barn, grey barn, garage and house with a concrete porch where you can see some of the best sunsets ever. One has not seen a sunset until they see a sunset from that porch. The family members who attended this trip were my immediate family: Mom, Dad, my sisters Caitlin and Olivia and my brother Owen. The other family members there were my cousins Maggie and Carlie, and my Grandma who has a name but we just call her Grandma. A special mention goes to the dogs: Maya and Rosie.

So this is what went down on that beautifully vivid yet astonishing day. My parents had left to go to Wal-Mart for groceries for the week and Grandma and Owen were inside watching television. Some may say we had adult supervision because Grandma was there, but she is actually just another kid so that really meant zero oversight. Carlie and Olivia were playing catch in the yard while Maggie and I were sitting on the porch chatting about life and what not. Maggie and I both had BB guns and we were trying to shoot random things we would see in the yard. We would aim for the white fence, the chain hanging from the tree, the tree, the ground over by the gate leading to the little pasture and whatever else of interest we were able to find. On the concrete leading to the garage there were two bikes parked and ready to ride. On one of the bikes, there were bars that made a triangle below the seat of the bike and I decided that I wanted to try and shoot a bullet through that triangle. Too bad I didn’t think about the fact that the bullet might miss and then hit the dirt, bounce off the concrete and keep going, but that is exactly what happened. As I shot the bullet, got it through the triangle I might add, it ricocheted off the concrete and hit Caitlin who happened to be standing close by and was about to get on the second bike to go for a pleasant ride down the street. Little did she know that bike ride would not be very pleasant after all.

After I shot the BB gun I saw Caitlin stop very quickly, throw down the bike and start to feel her back. At this point I knew I had shot her and honestly I was hoping she would not figure out it was me who shot her, or that I had shot her at all, really. I was hoping that maybe she thought a bee had stung her and that it was not actually the sting of a BB pellet being shot into her back. Very sadly for me, Caitlin turned around, saw me holding the BB gun and knew immediately what happened. She was not happy to say the least, and I was scared. At first, I was scared about whether or not she was okay and if we needed to go to the hospital. When I knew she was okay my next concern was about what might happen to me. In the state of my fear I had the nerve to ask Caitlin, “Did I shoot you?” Of course I shot her! Who would ask such a question? Obviously the crazy fool who shot someone in the first place! That would be me, of course.

Since Mom and Dad were still at Wal-Mart, we all ran into the house to see what Grandma had to say about our little issue and if Caitlin needed to go to the hospital. I thank God every day that there was no blood anywhere. Blood and lead poisoning were my two main concerns but since the BB pellet did not break skin, there was no way for lead to get in or for blood to get out. It just left a very small yet painful mark on Caitlin’s back. Now that I think of it, I doubt there was lead in the BB pellets anyway. So once I knew Caitlin was okay, my next bout of fear came from knowing Mom and Dad were almost home and they would probably not be too happy with me. They came home pretty soon after the event took place and they actually handled it a lot better than I thought they would. They never yelled or got extremely angry with me. I think once they knew Caitlin was fine it was not quite as scary, but of course they were shocked.

Luckily, our Corsicana trip was not ruined and we had a great time doing nothing and watching the sunsets. Caitlin was never given the opportunity to shoot me back and that is perfectly alright with me that she never does. She was actually very forgiving of my actions on that day and has spoken to me ever since, which is a good thing. The fact that I shot my sister will never be forgotten by me or my family. The story was sent in mass text or email as quickly as the actual shooting took place and I will never live it down. Even now we could be talking about something completely off the subject of shooting anyone and someone will say, “Remember the time Emma shot Caitlin with a BB gun?”