31 Days Of Halloween

Boo

I was the firstborn out of four children, three boys and the only girl who lived with grandma. I could never get any peace. Once I was born they wanted a girl they tried next year, got my brother, next year my youngest brother, then finally another year and they got their little girl.  Only she was born sick. Really sick.

They shipped her off to grandma and kept trying. Only no baby came, my parents were arguing and mother cried a lot. She would be mostly on her knees praying to a portrait of white Jesus.

I had to watch my two younger brothers. Feed, bath, clothe, teach, etc. I was there for their first steps, biking without training wheels, first day of kindergarten.

What were my parents doing? Trying to have the perfect little girl, unlike my sister whom I've only met once before.

She's short,  chubby,  with a mass of brown curls, and glasses. She had to be 4 when I first saw her. She gave me a fright bouncing into my room, "Boo!" She screeches giggling afterwards a big jack-o-lantern like grin.

After that my mother started praying harder. And harder. She and father spent their time in the basement,  the pray room. If my father wasn't at work at the hospital he was in the basement with mother.

I heard a noise downstairs. Sounds like a racoon breaking glass again. Mother and father weren't home. They took my brothers to a ball game.

I creep downstairs broom in hand like that would fight off a racoon very well. I gag and pinch my nose. It reeks down here.

I grab the string and tug on it. Glass crunch under my shoes, I grip the broom tighter the smell of rot and iron was strong in the air.

I turn the corner and nearly vomit. There's the sewn together pieces of a child. A little girl. She's got stitches all over her. She grins at me, her unfocused eyes dart around widely and one eye flops out her socket make a wet slap sound as it smacks against her cheek.

"B-Bo.." She gurgles and drools. Almost sounds like she's saying boo.

I turn around and there's my father white lab coat with a organ box in his hands, "Matt, meet your perfect sister."