The Story of Sylvia Likens

I used to know a girl. Her name was Sylvia Likens. I met her as a neighbor back in 1965 in Indianapolis , Indiana. I remember meeting her like it was yesterday.

"Hey whatcha doing?'

"Looking for Cray fish" I suddenly looked down into the water.

"Oh neat. I'm Sylvia"

"I'm Daniel. Have you ever caught Cray fish?"

"Back in New York we have lobsters"

"Oh"

"Can I help look?''

"Sure" I reply

We were sitting near the water collecting cray fish together. Sylvia looked at me. "Yes?" I asked her. "I have to go back to Gertrude" she said. "Baniszewski?" I asked. "Yes" she replied. "That makes us neighbors!" I said excitedly. "Bye I really must go."

I walked back to my parents house. I was happy to have made a new friend. I told my best friend all about her. She was pretty and nice. What could she possibly be doing with Gertrude? Gertrude has only ever had 6 kids. I've never heard of Sylvia being a sixth kid. It seemed weird. Gertrude wasn't much of a kids person. Even though she did have six kids and was divorced twice. I then went to my room to play cards. About an hour or so later mom called me down to eat. At dinner I hardly ate I was way too excited for the next day. I knew exactly what I was going to do. I was tossing the broccoli around my plate with my fork. "Daniel?'' mom said, Yeah mom? "You haven't eaten anything. If you don't eat go to your room" Fine with me. I walked to my bedroom and crawled under the covers. I was forcing myself to sleep. I needed to hang out with Gertrude's son so I could find out what the deal is with Sylvia. The next day I woke up and walked over to the neighbor's house and asked if Sylvia was home. Gertrude looked down at me and said "Danny, Sylvia isn't here right now she'll be back soon. For now you can hang out with Donny if you like"

I decided to stay and hang out with him. We played a board game together. A little girl knocked on Donny's door and told him it was time for dinner. I looked at Donny confused. "Who is she?"

"Oh she's Jenny Likens."

"Why is she here?"

"She's staying with us for awhile because her parents are in the circus. It's a cool deal they're paying us $20 a month"

"Oh"

What still rolled around in my mind was "Who was Sylvia Likens?"