DESTROYED BY THE BELL

It was a little after 3:00am when a sharp ring sliced through the silence of our home."Who was it?" I mumbled in the darkness to my husband Doug as he hung up the phone."It was the police they have our house surrounded and want us to come outside.""No, Doug, don’t do it! It can't be the police they don’t order people out of their house in the middle of the night," I begged as I watched my husband pull on his jeans. I was convinced if Doug walked out that door, he would be killed by the same people who had recently killed our friend Bobby. Somehow deep inside of me I knew I was about to lose Doug."Doug Fyke! Come out of the house!" A voice ordered on a bullhorn. Suddenly, spotlights invaded the darkness of our home as Doug cautiously opened the front door. Before disappearing into the light Doug looked me in the eyes saying, "It is the police, they are all over the place, lock the door and get rid of the weed. I'll stall them just in case they want to search the place."Suddenly, I was wide awake and dutifully obeying the orders of my husband. Locking the door, I flew back into our bedroom, grabbed a small bag of rolled joints (marijuana cigarettes) and flushed them down the toilet. I also took four small glass vials and dumped out the cocaine and crystal on a mirror. Expertly, I inhaled the mixture of white powder, cleaned the mirror and flushed the vials by wrapping them in tissue. I had just managed to check on Candi and Mandy (my daughters just 1 and 5 years old) before the voice shouted."Tammy Fyke! Come outside now!"The voice terrified me. I was trembling so bad I could barely unlock the door. Trying to appear calm, I stepped into the light, not knowing I would never enter my house again. I also did not know I had fed my two small daughters the last meal I ever would, given them their last bath and tucked them into bed for the very last time.It was the ring in the middle of the night that had destroyed everything. With that one phone call my entire world had come crashing down.