I woke up to the blaring of a horn. When I leapt off the hood, the source of the sound was no where to be found. I had dozed off in my stargazing. A thick fog must have rolled in over the night. Curious as to who had been my rude awakener, I felt my way through the mist, barely able to see my own feet. As I came to the fog seemed to tighten around my chest, sirens blared in the distance, my head spun. The whole scene was all too familiar.
I stumbled as I made my way through the obscure clouds. I lost my footing and a hand shot out of the dark to catch me. Lamar had come by to check in on me about the incident the other day with Hanky. When I hadn't responded to my calls, he was worried. He knew I'd always been a night owl, so he stopped by the apartment to see if anything was wrong. When I didn't answer the door, he knew where to find me. Sitting there with him, the night reminded me all to much of one I'd tried very hard to forget.
I had just come home from school. I walked down Mains towards home, towards Maitland East. As I made my way through the suffocating fog, I saw flashing lights in the distance. I assumed there had been a false alarm with the sprinklers, or a fire drill, but as I drew nearer, the sirens grew around me until they were deafening. It was then I knew something had gone wrong. My walk turned to a sprint, no longer afraid of the dangers within the fog, but rather those waiting beyond the red and blue lights.
I ran up the stairs to my hall, past the yellow tape and into the threshold. To my horror, the stretcher in the den was covered. My body stopped. I open my mouth to scream, but there was nothing there. A hand caught me as I dropped to my knees, Lamar.
That night was six years ago to the day. It happened to be the same day as the murder of Mr. Maitland's brother, so the town, occupied in their paranoia, forgot all about Mama's death. Everyone, but Lamar. He sat with me for hours, cried with me. In those moments, he helped me through the darkness.
No comments:
Post a Comment