The police escorted the sobbing men and women away, it was a tragedy. An officer was sitting on the hood of his police car crying. Smoke infiltrated the air. 4 innocent children dead, it was terrible, and the bomber had struck in a church no less.

She pulled a shoe out of the rubble, a white shoe, a very familiar shoe. The heat from the rubble scorched her hands, but She ignored the pain and dug in further, hoping that God wasn’t the cruel bastard that she was beginning to think he was. The ghost looked at her mother, wanting to be with her, sad more than she had ever been sad in her life. A strange peace descended over the ghost and it got very bright.

Mary-Ann ran through the streets toward the church, full of a potent brew of hatred, anger, and profound disconsolation. She tore through the streets, going through whatever got in her way. She heard an explosion and had a bad feeling about things. She ran out of the house hoping that it wasn’t her precious baby, her innocent perfect Laquisha. Civil rights tensions were high, and BANG!s, BOOM!s, POW!s, and so on were a bad sign, somewhere, beneath rubble, and a world away, a little girl was calling for her mother. No matter how close she got, the mother would never hear her child scream. Her child screamed her last audible scream when she exploded.

Laquisha exploded. She was singing the word "love" when a wave of heat passed over her. It wasn’t any more intense than walking outside from a cool house into the heat of summer, but that was because her skin had been seared off. She was a little thirsty from singing, and then she was very thirsty all of a sudden, then nothing. She could see her choir director mouthing the words, then a surprised look passed over his face, then fear, then, she began to feel very light. There wasn’t much noise, her ears could hear all kinds of things, but it was quiet. The explosion was a small pop to her, the compression wave from the explosion burst her eardrums. Eardrums that had formerly been hearing everyone sing the word "love" were vapor. A red mist, like the other 3 kids in the way of the blast. Not a black mist, but a red mist, like anyone else, no matter the race.

Consten Co. Blasting cap #513 was attached to dynamite charges #10073-10078. Consten Co. Blasting cap #513 was a highly reliable demolition device, it was happy to do its job. The time had come for Consten Co. Blasting cap #513 to fulfill its destiny and complete its designed purpose. Because of this, it was very happy, it had never exploded before, but it knew that it could, and it would, because it was Consten Co. Blasting cap #513 and it job was demolition. It was very happy on this occasion because it was in a building, and demolition of building is something that powerful and reliable explosives did, not that Consten Co. Blasting cap #513 ever doubted its powerful and reliable status, it was there on its label. It was a great honor to be chosen for building demolition, even greater than the honor of being chosen to explode at all. Consten Co. Blasting cap #513 heard the signal through its wires. Yes the time was now…

Laquisha was wearing all white, a white dress, a white gloves, white shoes. Dudly told her she "smel’d mighty preddy" before they started choir practice. She got in line in the sanctuary of the empty church. Their choir director got out in front of them and spoke.

"I want you to know, that with all the problems going on now, that you can always come here to the church, and come to God and be safe, now lets start with hymn number… um… 513."

She started to sing, pulling the words out of her memory and putting them in the air, it was a very beautiful noise, they had practiced a lot lately, and even though a few kids weren’t there, it was still lovely. Then she sang the word "love"

"Fix yo’ hair girl, I declare, you ain’t never gonna impress no one lookin’ like you stepped off the street." Mary-Ann scolded her child, "And put yo’ pretty white dress on"

"Why" Laquisha whined "Ain’t no body gonna be ther’ jus’ gonna be the dir’cter an’ the other kids, ain’t gonna be no other people there"

"don’t matter you is goin’ into the Lords house, you gotta dress up nice, hear." Mary-Ann fired back as she brutally yanked the knots out of her childs hair. After settling on her daughters appearance she sent her out the door with a slap on the hind-end.

"You go sing real pretty now baby, knock ‘em dead!"

"Momma, I ain’t gonna go an’ play like us’al I’ma goin’ to the freedom march, and we gonna march ‘round the town and make the country free" Laquisha said. Her mother, Mar-Ann looked at her for a moment and felt a motherly fear.

"You ain’t gonna do nothin’ like that! there gonna be some bad people there, an’ I don’t want you getting’ hurt or shot, you hear?"

"But momma…"

"Ain’t gon’ be no buts ‘bout it, you ain’t goin’. ‘sides, you got chil’ren’s choir practice, you gotta go to that"

"But momma, I cain’t make no difference in the world in a choir"

"You might, but you ain’t gonna go to no freedom parade" She leaned down and grabbed her daughters shoulders "I ain’t gonna risk you getting’ or blowed up or somethin’, hear?"

"Ok" Laquisha reluctantly gave up.

"You cain’t go to no church lookin’ like that, you’re a mess, we gotta clean you up…"