Terrified

PS went to the movies with a friend tonight.  A perfectly normal thing for a teenager to do, in our sleepy suburban city with few other options. We sent her off and told her to have fun and text us when the movie was out if we needed to pick up. So, thank god, out phones were nearby when this text came in:

Movie's out.  Apparently two people for shot in the parking lot.  There are ambulances and police cars and helicopters.

OMG.  DH and I both went flying out the door,  and I broke many traffic laws heading to the theater. DH called PS on the car bluetooth so we could both hear.  She was fine. It all happened while they were in the movie and they didn't even know anything until they came out.

But still, I sobbed all the way there and most of the way home. I don't even want to imagine a scarier text.

And these things don't happen here.  I don't live in Big City.  I live in a tiny suburb with virtually no crime.  Until last spring, there had only been two murders here in recorded history.  And then one of PS's classmates was killed by her mother's boyfriend.  And now this. (We don't know the condition of the victims.)

I don't ever want to let my children leave the house again. I try not to be an over-reactor.  I tend to rely on statistics to convince myself that my children will be safe when I send them out into the world.  But this was too, too close.  A few minutes' difference, some changed circumstance--who knows what might have happened?