Fallen Angel From Revenge to Redemption by Deborah R. Brandon

with the shooter. The sheet was already pulled over his head.
    We worked for hours on the Omar and finally got him stabilized. I washed my hands and pulled off my face mask. I went and checked on all four patients who were all in recovery. As I walked out of the recovery room, I pulled off my scrub cap and walked into the employee locker room. I leaned against the wall and sank to the floor and buried my face into my hands and cried. This man had destroyed his family and for what. I knew the numbers on this situation all too well. In the great United States of America, one- third of its women are the victims of criminal domestic violence. We have more shelters for animals than women and children who find themselves in a violent situation. I continued to sit there on the floor as all the information I knew about criminal domestic violence flooded through my head. Alaska, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Missouri, Arizona, Georgia and Tennessee where the top ten states in regards to domestic violence. After a long moment, I wiped my eyes with the back of my hands. I walked over to the sink and turned on the water, then grabbed a handful of paper towels so I could clean my face.
    Just as I was finishing up, Lamar walked through the door.
    “We saved them all,” Lamar said.
    “Amen to that,” I said back releasing a pent up breathe. I wish we could have helped in some way before all of this. I talked to her the other day, I missed it,” I said beating myself up.
    “This is not on you Shanice,” Lamar said as he approached me and began to rub my back.
    “You started a relationship with her that day. She felt safe enough to come down to the Help Center with her baby brother. Kids are often told not to discuss family business with people outside of the home. This is not on us. I won’t allow you to do this to yourself,” Lamar finished and was quite it for a few minutes.
    “Look our shift was over hours ago, let’s go look in on the victims and go grab something to eat,” Lamar suggested.
    On cue, my stomach started to grumble. I did have enough class to be shame faced but only for a minute because Lamar doesn’t know how to let things slide.
    “I will take that as a yes,” Lamar said walking towards the door, with me following.
    “Oh this may not be the time to tell you but Darren is still in the waiting room,” Lamar added.
    “Oh my God. I totally forgot he was out there. He is probably waiting on news regarding the injured officer? Not to mention Omar and Alyssa, he has got to be feeling the weight of this just as badly as we are,” I said.
    We walked into each of the rooms and I checked vitals on each of the patients. They were all resting comfortably. I recited something that I had learned for myself as I walked into each of the rooms.
    “You are a blessed and highly favored child of God. You are beautiful and wonderful made, even the number of the hairs upon your head are numbered. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. You are made to be the head and not the tail.  To lend and not borrow. You are blessed when you go in and blessed when you go out. You are blessed in the city as well as in the country. Everything that your hand touches will turn into a success. If God is for you, who can be against you, I recited from memory over each of them as I went from room to room.
    Sometimes people needed a blessing spoke over their lives. I can remember a time when I was in the mist of my storm and those same words were spoken to me.        

                ~Shanice~
    Help others to achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours. –Les Brown
    As we walked up front, I could hear a woman speaking in broken English. She was upset and the ER registration personal wasn’t being very compassionate.
    I quickened my pace, so I could help defuse the situation.
    “What seems to be the problem?” I asked.
    “Apparently she either has an illness that needs to be