Safety
By Lydia Fitzpatrick, first published in One Story
A elementary school gym teacher must think quickly when he and his students hear a gunshot from within the school.
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Plot Summary
An elementary school gym class is stretching when they hear a gun shot coming from inside of the school. The teacher recognizes the noise, as does on of the children whose father served in the war and goes to a gun range. Most of the children do not recognize the sound. The old gym teacher ushers the children into his office and tell them to not make a sound. He drapes a parachute over them and turns off the lights, then hides under the desk.
Soon, they hear slow footsteps entering the gym. The footsteps go tp the locker room, where they hear the clang of the gun against the lockers. Outside of the window, the man appears, and the gym teacher can see the reflection of the exit sign in his glasses. The boy who recognized the sound of the gunshot sees a medal dangling from the gun that he recognizes as his fathers.
The boy slips outside of the room and approaches the man, who he thinks is his father. When he gets up close, he realizes the man is shorter than his father. His face is covered by a ski mask. The man asks where the boy's class is, and he says they are outside. He recognizes the man's voice and his eyes as his middle school aged brother.
The boy and his brother go outside, where a dead student and teacher are lying on the ground. The gym teacher leaves the office and follows them. The boy's brother leads him to the top of the hill, to the edge of the woods where there is a path to their house. The boy's brother begins to cry, and says that they will ask the boy why. When the boy asks his brother if he is going to shoot him, he says no, because he is not crazy, and he wants to make sure the boy tells people this.
The gym teacher runs up the hill, seeing that the boy's brother is aiming the gun at him. The boy looks towards the gym teacher, and his older brother sees the man. The boy runs into the woods. His brother shoots the gym teacher, and then himself.
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