because life isn't weird enough, i showed up at my class tonight only to find out the school had been on lock down most of the day due to a violent shooting.

a girl, rosa, was drug by the hair, at gunpoint, to the field behind my building and was then shot in the head. the shooter, her ex-boyfriend, then turned the gun on himself.

my friend - who is director of humanities and who hired me - saw the entire thing unfold. so did many other students as the man took her from the crowded gym and walked her through the building. and no one could do a damn thing to stop him.

it was hard to watch him cry - my friend that is - as he spoke of the event to reporters. he's a strong man - Coach B to those in the gym today (including rosa) - but he was powerless. they were all powerless, and yet the question everyone keeps asking themselves, beating themselves against, is why didn't anyone do something?

they're both dead and security has been stepped up on campus and i can see exactly where she died from the parking lot. it's cold, but clear, tonight and the yellow caution tape glows eerily in the full moonlight.

rosa's new boyfriend - the one she died for having - was at the hospital tonight. he was overheard joking about how he guessed he'd have to make his own dinner tonight and maybe her parents would give him his car.

i think of my son - safe and warm at his mamoom's house where he spent the day due to what i hope isn't the flu. he'll spend tomorrow there, too. safe. loved. sick, but not broken. i wonder about the 5 year old the girl left behind. i wonder if his mamoom is enough to hold him together.

the word on the street is that the rosa was running from him, her eventual killer. her mother tried to reach her by telephone to warn her he was on his way. rosa was afraid and hiding and yet, he was able to walk into a crowded campus facility with a loaded gun and drag her out.

i can't imagine what she thought as she looked into the face of her terror. all i can imagine is that little boy. maybe asleep now, maybe lying awake staring out into this cold clear night. i hope his memories are not of her fear and her humiliation at the hands of her lover. i hope his dreams are full of his mother's smile.