The Girl Who Jumped

That Winter Day

Introduction

It was the end of January and a small town in New York just had a big snow storm.
Margot St. James lived in a small farm house in the middle of nowhere. She lived with her mother, father and older sister, Claire. She had only one neighbor, Dustin Ross, who was a couple years older than Margot.
"It looks like we got a good 4 feet, hunnybun." Did I mention my dad calls me hunnybun and I call him Pop.
"Do you need any help shoveling ?" I said willingly. "I'd love some. You do the cars." Said Pop.
After about 10 minutes of layering up in snow gear, we headed outside. It was so difficult to walk anywhere, since we got so much snow. It took a good three minutes to just walk across the driveway. Sadly, the snow was too fluffy so I couldn't use my new sled I just got for Christmas. After rolling around and having some fun, I got a great idea. I wanted to jump.
We live near the mountains, so we have a lot of hills. Since there was so much snow, you could practically jump off anything and you wouldn't get hurt.
At first I jumped off the railing on my deck. It was so much fun. But then I wanted to jump off something bigger, and I knew just the place.

The Red Shed

When Claire and I were younger, Claire and some of the other neighborhood kids, like Dustin, would jump off the roof on the side of the shed. I only did a few times because I was so scared and it was pretty hard to get up there. The only way you could get on the roof was either by climbing or having someone help boost you up. Then once the boys were up there they would show off by doing backflips off the roof, into the snow.

But I'm eleven now and there's more snow covering the ground than before. I thought to myself, "I can do this." I climbed, jumped, pushed, I just wasn't tall enough nor strong enough. But I wanted this so bad, it looked so fun. I turned around, and I walked the premises, hoping there was another way.
From the corner of my eye I could see something, I didn't know what it was, I could barely see anything from my Bala Clava, so I turned around to investigate. It was just him, Dustin, disappointedly, I just turned back towards the shed. No one really talked or cared about Dustin or his family. I felt bad for Dustin, but my mom told me not to waste my time.
Dustin was born into what my mom calls, "A troubled family." His parents don't have much money and they are usually out partying, leaving Dustin home alone and unsupervised, which is never good for a fifteen year old. I guess you could say he raised himself. I don't know much about the topic except what my mom told me. She said,"Hun, don't ever get yourself involved with people like that. They like getting into trouble. They like running into the law. Please, leave them alone." I never understood what she meant by that. All I know is, I smell and hear a lot of weird things from their rundown trailer home up the street.
I guess it should of bothered me that he was in my yard, but he wasn't bothering anyone, but he was staring at me. What would I do anyway? Violence was not an option in my house, I'd get in major trouble. I was raised to be polite and proper. But he kept staring at me! So I said, "Hey, Dustin, how's it going?" Dustin just kept staring at me. Now I was annoyed and frustrated.
I refocused on the goal here. I needed to get on that roof. I walked around the shed and on the back of the shed was a long, green and yellow ladder. I knew there would be major consequences if anyone, especially Pop, saw me use his ladder by myself. But I was really tempted and desperate. So I grabbed the ladder off the side of the shed. It almost fell on me, it was so tall. It was surprisingly really heavy and really hard to carry. I had to set the ladder on the ground to rest every foot or so, since I kept getting winded. Finally, I made it to the other side,to the roof. I leaned the ladder on the side of the roof and I stuck it in the ground. I made sure it was balanced on the ground because the last thing I needed was to fall off and get hurt. I carefully climbed up the ladder and onto the roof, it felt so good! My whole yard looked so different. The view was amazing!
I could see Dustin about twenty feet away, looking at me and laughing. I figured it was because he could tell I was having so much fun. My mom banged on the kitchen window to get my attention. She gestured for me to get down, but I wasn't done, I hadn't jumped yet. I could see my mom getting ready to come outside. I knew if I wasn't off the roof by the time she got outside, I'd be in trouble.
I guess I'll jump next time.
I carefully and slowly started climbing down the ladder.

"An Accident"

"I don't know I was on my way outside to tell her to be careful and she wasn't there!" Nelle, Margot's mom, reported to the town sheriff, hysterically. Now loudly crying Nelle said, "I walked around the shed...and-I--I... I saw... her. In the snow." The sheriff had to make sure he heard the facts right,"Mrs. was she- was she already-- unconscious?"
Nelle reported back, "Ahh--yes sir. I think so."
Nelle couldn't take it anymore, it was too soon to be talking about-- her daughter and conveniently the ambulance was leaving.
The sheriff had to finish his official report, so he went on to talk to Margot's father, Mark. "Sir, was there anyone else at the scene of the crime?" asked the sheriff. "Not that I know of. Well, I was in the driveway, on my John Deere, snowplowing. But sir, that things so loud---I--I-- didn't even hear--her." replied Mark, now too with the hysterics. But of course no one could blame him, he just lost his daughter. Even when the paramedics said that they "shouldn't give up hope, she could be in shock or a coma," they already knew Margot was gone and was not coming back. You could see the hurt in their eyes, and the confusion of what had really happened to their daughter.

The only person that actually saw the "crime scene" was the sheriff. Nelle said that she wouldn't want anyone to have to see that.
Nelle told Mark that there was "a lot of blood, she... nobody... could of... survived that."

Throughout the next few months, Margot's death was the only thing on the small town's news stations and the newspaper, it was the only thing people talked about. There was so much hurt for such a small town. Margot's family got many flowers, sympathy cards and apologetic phone calls, but nothing would bring their precious baby girl back to them where she belonged.
She was eleven. She had hopes and dreams. She had a long and happy life ahead of her. But something, or someone, got in the way. Of course, everyone has their own superstitions and ideas about the real cause of her death. By this point, Margot's family knew they weren't going to get the answers they wanted. Margot's case never closed, but the detectives stopped investigating, or her case was "put on hold", as they told Nelle and Mark. Margot's family just wanted their baby girl to rest in peace, they wanted this madness to end. Eventually, it did, almost a year after her death. The town became quieter and her family tried to keep Margot's memory alive.

The detectives had few leads on what happened, they had few facts. Eventually, the detectives filled Margot's case as "an accident." But one person knew the truth on what really happened. No, no one else, not even her family will ever know the truth. They will continue believing it was an honest accident and continue blaming themselves.