I Heard

New York -- This is the last thing writer Gretel Ehrlich remembers before her heart stopped beating in August 1991: She was out walking with her two dogs on her ranch in Wyoming when she heard the distant sound of thunder. Knowing that one of her dogs was afraid of thunder she called him to her. "Don't worry, Sam," she said. "You're safe as long as you're with me."The next thing Gretel Ehrlich remembers is something she describes as a "coming-back-to-life dream:"I was underwater, deep in the ocean, in some kind of moribund state.

Bad love has been very good to Reba McEntire.Blessed with a voice that moves easily from a wounded-heart quaver to full he-done-me-wrong fury, she's a natural for songs about mismatched lovers, cheating spouses and unrequited passion. As a result, her albums boast more bad relationships than the average soap opera.But even by McEntire's usual standards of love-gone-sour, the songs on "Read My Mind" (MCA 10994, arriving in stores today) (( seem a tad extreme. Every song here, from the sassy "Why Haven't I Heard From You" to the maudlin "And Still," is built around a broken heart -- and while that may leave some listeners reaching for their hankies, it left me lunging for the eject button.

*TC HEBRON, Israeli-Occupied West Bank -- Their foreheads had just touched the carpets as a thread of sun reached the mosque, each worshiper in silent ritual swearing thrice "Glory to my Lord the Most High."Then the slaughter began."I heard two explosions, and then the sound of shooting," said Sharif Zahideh, 27.His chest was wrapped in gauze and his bed at the Hebron hospital splotched and red. "The man next to me was killed. Part of his brain came all over my face.""This man started shooting the lamps," added Natshi Shaban, a friend at his bedside.

For a woman who has regularly declined reunion invitations, I noticed my eyelashes were receiving unusual attention from my mascara wand that particular morning. For a woman who has cavalierly tossed high school and college reunion notices in the trash for two decades, I had to admit I was on the giddy side of nervous.Twenty-five years have gone by, I think, as I look hard at myself in the bathroom mirror of my parents' house, hundreds of miles from Baltimore. Finding the light switch here is not the effortless move it once was in the dark, and I keep forgetting whether the medicine cabinet opens from the left or the right -- reminders of how long it's been.

In the past eight years, the Rev. Willie Ray has led dozens of "Stop the killing" rallies on Baltimore's crime-ridden streets, but last night's vigil hit home harder than ever before.The victim being remembered was 16-year-old Hosea Parker, gunned down Nov. 24 two doors away from Mr. Ray's rowhouse in the 2800 block of Harlem Ave. Hosea died while the minister prayed over him on the sidewalk."When they gunned this young man down, I heard the shots. I heard his dying words: 'Go get my mother,' " Mr. Ray told last night's crowd of about 40 people, who chanted "Save the Youth" and "Down with dope, up with hope."

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- "Did you hear?""Hear what?""They might put it off for two weeks.""No. Where'd you hear that?""Right here in the lobby a minute ago. A guy told me.""A guy?""Yeah. A guy who heard it from another guy he knows.""Interesting. But I don't think it's right.""No?""Not at all. As a matter of fact, the NFL press guy just told me he'd heard that rumor and that it wasn't true.""No?""Nope. He said to expect a decision within 24 hours, one way or another.""Interesting.""Yeah. I don't know what to think.

Five of Officer Edward T. Gorwell's Western District colleagues said yesterday he never mentioned that he had been fired on when they arrived at a park where he shot a 14-year-old suspected car thief.Testifying as prosecution witnesses during Officer Gorwell's manslaughter trial in Baltimore Circuit Court, all five officers said they arrived at the shooting scene and found him standing next to a stolen car, pointing out where the carload of suspects had fled.But, in testimony designed to discredit Officer Gorwell's contention that he believed he was returning fire, the officers said he did not say the suspects had shot at him."

It was on a plane that I first saw her. She looked like Shirle MacLaine, but she was much prettier, more refined, almost ethereal looking.This girl, and I'd say she was about 26, had wonderful high cheek bones. Her face was fascinating, because it was so beautiful and without artifice. Her nose was straight, not retrousse, and her lips were not too wide as is fashionable now. Her skin was very white. Her wispy hair, almost too fine for someone her age, fell around her face like soft sculpture.

At first, some thought it was a series of thunderclaps they heard, or someone setting off firecrackers in the midst of a summer squall.But neighbor Bud Shoemaker said he immediately recognized the sound that interrupted the peace of a steamy June evening in his normally quiet Millersville community: it was the rumble of gunshots.By the time Anne Arundel County police arrived Saturday night, three people were dead and a fourth wounded, victims of a domestic dispute turned violent."I heard four or five shots," said Mr. Shoemaker, who lives several doors away from the pale yellow end-unit town house in the 200 block of Chalet Circle West where the shootings occurred.

SO THEY are finally razing the Maryland State Penitentiary's notorious South Wing, probably the most hellish place in the Free State. I say hooray! Tear it down, tear it down, tear it down!At least we know the roof is gone. A crane swooped down from above, opened its mouth and gripped the top of the South Wing in its teeth. It bit and pulled. The roof came away, while I stood in the yard and applauded. Smut and rust flakes burst from the corners of the crane's mouth as it chewed on the South Wing's head.