Esther was the first to end her life.
Everyone dates the demise of our neighborhood to the suicides of the Auclair girls.
People saw clairvoyance in the wiped-out elms. The harsh moonlight and the continuing decline of our auto industry. Even then, as teenagers, we put the pieces together. Yet, we still can't.
Now, we run into each other, at business lunches or cocktail parties, and we find ourselves in the corner going over the evidence one more time, all to understand those five girls. Who, after all these years, we can't get out of our minds.
The boys sat on the curb, across from the Auclair Terrance, their eyes watching as each girl got out of the car and walked up the pathway.
The youngest Esther was 13, Blythe was 14, Sylvia was 15, Lachelle was 16, and Caliste was 17. We're just ordinary boys in the neighborhood, wanting to discover what happened to the Auclair girls. They are the girls who never go out, they're like in a cage with their parents, Mrs. and Mr. Auclair, our math teacher. Many people in this neighborhood desire and inspire them. They're goddesses in this small neighborhood.
Yet my friend, Davy. He saw Esther committed for the first time due to drowning herself. We never know why she did it. But luckily she failed that attempt. When their parents saw us discussing her attempt, we ran straight to the tunnel that led through Zyian's house.
As Davy spoke from his experience, "I went upstairs, hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the Auclair girls in the shower." He smiled broadly. "Yeah, right," Larence replied. "Then I walked in, and I saw blood everywhere," Davy told them, getting a couple of chuckles from the group. "I had to tell that story but I gotta go, see you guys later, alright?"
Everyone had their own reasons for why Esther attempted suicide.
A random immigrant kid, Dominic. He stayed here in this neighborhood with his relatives, waiting for his parents to arrive from Seattle. He was the first boy in this neighborhood to wear sunglasses, and within a week of his arrival, he'd fallen in love.
The object of his desire wasn't Esther... But Lizzy Smith. When Lizzy Smith left on vacation in California, Dominic denounced and proved his love. He jumped off the roof of his relatives' house.
From that time on, the Auclair house began to change. Almost every day, and even when she wasn't keeping an eye on Esther, Blythe would suntan on her towel wearing a swimsuit that caused the knife sharpener to give her a 15-minute demonstration for free.
Zyian sat with the Auclair sisters, watching politely over Caliste's shoulder while she read. The sound of the knife against the sanding tool used to sharpen it went deaf on his ears as he got engrossed by the book, Caliste softly reading it to him.
Zyian Fontaine was well known around the household--Mrs. And Mr. Auclair loved him because he was smart and well-mannered. He was always welcome to the Auclair household to hang in their yard or attend dinner. Zyian preferred having dinner either at Tim Weiner's or the Auclair's house, but never at his own.
He would sometimes glance over at Blythe, and she'd just give him a soft smile, and he'd always return it.
Esther's parents went to the hospital. Esther did survive, yet she was still not healed from her problems. Esther was lying on the hospital bed, talking to a doctor. The doctor spoke, wanting to know why she tried to drown herself. "You're not even old enough to know how bad life gets." Esther spoke without hesitation, "Obviously, doctor. You've never been a thirteen-year-old girl."
All the Auclair girls looked so angelic, yet secretly in pain.
2 weeks later, Esther finally returned home, healthy, but her feelings were still injured. Mr. Auclair convinced his wife to allow the girls the first and only party of their short lives.
