The little girl watched me with a sad mixture of fear, shock, and anger.

An officer kept her from running over as we placed her life on the right-of-way next to the road.

It wasn’t my fault that her father and his girlfriend shot up heroin while the mortgage went unpaid.
That the eviction notices burned with the rest of the unwanted mail.
That her mom was in prison and her dad was now on his way there.

But that didn’t stop her from looking at me. Blaming me.

I couldn’t have felt more ashamed if I’d just put down her pet cat in front of her – the calico that had been shipped off to the pound less than a half hour ago.

It wasn’t my fault, except to her.

That’s what matters.

Police are still investigating the body of a 21 year old male found dead yesterday from what appears to be a self inflicted gunshot wound.