I watched someone die once.

She was young like me.

Married too soon and betrothed by meth.

They pulled her ponytail through a car window.

Tugged her hair so hard her body followed until the rubber band broke.

She was trying to drive away.

From her husband.

To protect her young child.

The gunshots sounded like fireworks.

And the screaming like nothing of this world.

I think it was her mother screaming but I was never sure.

It’s hard to remember now.

She hung halfway out the car window for hours.

The remnants of her ponytail pointing towards the ground.

Her arms hanging and nearly touching the old asphalt parking lot.

I watched this all from a picture window.

That looked like a high-def TV.

I kept going back to the picture window to see if she was still there.

Hanging from the car window.

She never left because I left first.

My parents were ashamed that I witnessed a murder.

Didn’t want me to tell or talk to anyone.

But I had to testify.

To what I saw.

A teenage girl and a big stocky man pulling a woman halfway out her car window and shooting her dead.

He’s in jail for life. And I think the teenage girl got out sooner.

The woman is still there in my mind, hanging from the car window.