The air had a slight chill in it that morning. It was a Wednesday, before school, and April and I were on the porch, waiting for mom to come out and walk with us to the bus stop, like every other morning. But she never does, I knew why, but April doesn't, she didn't see what happened last night. She didn't know what happened.
"We need to go April, if we don't we'll miss the bus." I remember telling my older sister of three minutes.
"But we always wait on mom, she always walks us." I hear her saying, her voice sounding as though she's speaking to me from behind a door, a door that has long sense been bolted shut.
"We're eleven now, we don't need mom to walk us to the bus, we know the way. Besides, maybe she just doesn't feel well today, and it's cold out, when we don't feel good she doesn't like it when we go out in the cold, why should we let her come out in it when she's feeling sick?" I know I'm sounding older than I am, like I grew up over night, and maybe I did, I don't know when it happened really, but eventually, I wasn't the girl who played tag with her sister anymore, or the daughter who baked cookies and cakes with her mom. But to be fair, after that day, mom never felt like baking cookies or cake anymore.
I remember almost missing the bus that day, seeing it at the end of the street as we walked to the bus stop, and us having to run to get there before it left. It was the first time we ever walked to the bus stop without our mother, and I know that somehow April thinks I'm the reason for mom not taking us anymore, because she never walked us to the bus again. But for some reason April never asked her why... I knew, but I was glad April didn't. I was glad that even though I was the younger sister, I could keep her safe from the darkness closing in. I would keep her safe, and if it meant that she was oblivious to the things that happened that night then so be it, I wouldn't let my sisters innocence be ruined with that knowledge like mine had been. I would do anything to keep her safe, even if it meant tearing my soul up in the process, That I knew.
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Breathe In
General FictionFollow the story of Maria-May Cooper as she lives on after a terrible incident that costs her the peace of mind she is so desperate to hang on to. SHE COULDN'T unsee what she saw, but she couldn't speak of it either. At eleven years old Maria-May u...
