The water ran down my body like when water runs down an umbrella. The beads dripped down from my black hair to my white toes. And I just stood there. Like a freak. What else could I have done. I still blame myself. Banging on the door. Even though I was only nine. It's traumatizing to hear the screams of your family and not being able to help. The family you just had dinner with. Swam with, laughed with, joked with. Yet I stood there, soaked in deafening screams and this water coming from the tap. I stepped out of the shower, subconsciously holding my breath. I don't know what was going through my prepubescent mind. Probably terrified. I slid on my new ninja turtle shoes, and my white tank top, and my boxers given to me by my uncle Harley. I looked at the doorknob, it was so quiet, a definite contrast to the slitting screams I had just heard. But then my tiny fingers reached for the doorknob, and I turned my hand to open the door. I opened the door and found my brother lying on the floor beneath my feet. He had been banging on the door. And I didn't help him. Just imagine what would've happened had I twisted the doorknob a little sooner. What would've happened. Those words still haunt my mind, echoing like a yell through a rainforest. Good simile Tom. Tom. "Tommy you might want to take a shower you're sweaty from playing with George." George was my best friend. My beautiful mom had saved my life yet I wasn't grateful. Standing there with my fourteen year old brother lying red on the floor beneath me had seemed to make the world stop. I skipped over his body and ran to my mother's room. Blood scratched the wall for infinity almost. It's hard to get out. Well, that's what George said. I live with him now. He says I'm the brother he never had. His mom had a miscarriage. So she said she got rid of my family because she wanted me. I still have the vague memory of my old family. And it still haunts me. I seldom see my old family though. If my new parents leave for work, sometimes I sneak into their room and pry the floorboards up.
