'Berserkers'

Dear __,

Sometimes I wonder if the small town we came from is as safe as when we had left it. Did you hear about the news? Did anyone tell you what happened? There were two groups of youths of different races involved in a gang fight. There were a few who died, even innocent passersby were casualties. The story: it varies from one person to another--I can never be sure of the details, even if it's from the newspaper. How I get injected with my weekly dose of town news is when I talk to the cab drivers. I listen to their accounts like skeletons that may or may not have been the truth. The Devil's in the details. No one I knew was involved or had witnessed the incident firsthand. What one cab driver told me was this: a gang had gone to rob a shop that was owned by someone who was affiliated with another gang. There was a chase, and then a showdown. Someone had lost a hand, or an arm. They were just kids, still schooling and yet were capable of such acts of violence. It was probably as simple as it was easy for them. As if both races had lived side by side all along, under a cloud of false tolerance, false peace--a house of cards in the eye of the storm.

Weeks later, you can still see police cars with their flashing lights making their rounds in town, the matter apparently still unsolved. Mothers fearing the worst for their children when they're out late.