Our Secret to Keep

I am being awakened by a knock on my bedroom door that I decide to ignore. I close my eyes again falling asleep only to be woken up again by louder knocking on my door. “Auden, Auden,” my little sister called out. I lie down on my back praying to god to make her stop and go to her room. The knocking gets louder and more aggressive. I’m pretty sure her knuckles are hurting by now. I wonder when she is going to notice that the door is open.

“The door is open,” I called out while reaching for my glasses.

The door opens and in walks my little sister rubbing her red hurting knuckles, “I want you to come with me, I want to show you something.” Iris said sitting down beside my bed looking down at the floor.

She looks very sad and scared like a kid that lost her mommy. Her green eyes are red and puffing like she was crying or something. Her hands and knees are dirty and roughed up like she was running and fell. Iris' hair is all over the place and her cheeks are red and swollen. What happened to her? Where did she come from? I have so many questions in my head but I don’t think this is the right time to ask. I check my phone to see what time it is. It’s 2 a.m.

“Where are we going?” I asked

“To Crotona Park,” she says.

“Why do you want to go there exactly,” I cringe.

She rolls her green eyes at me, I could see that she is getting annoyed already. But I just need her to tell me why we are going over there. Especially so late at night, but now that I think about it she never has woke me up at 2 a.m for anything. I know something happened but I’m just too scared to find out.

“Please you are the only person that I can trust right now,” she said softly.

I took a minute to think. Do I really want to know what’s going on or should I just let it go and put her to sleep with me? I know she is scared of something. Should I put through it again just because I want to know what happened to her? Yes, I should.

“Ok, let’s go.”

I put my rain boots on and my coat and took my phone that was charging. Damn, I only got 20% of charge ugh I’m starting to hate Android already. My sister rolls her eyes at me and walks to the hallway from my bedroom. We go out through the backyard door and run through the street to Claremont St. The park it’s very dark at night you can’t really see anything, but police still are around to check the park out.

I never like this park at night, one of the reasons is that it’s dangerous. In this park, there is always someone getting kidnapped, raped, molested or killed. Every time I come out from work I have to walk past it but the only time I walk through the park would be if I’m with a lot of people. Other than that I tried to avoid it completely. So yes, I got a feeling that something happened and I’m scared to find out what’s this weird vibe I’m feeling.

We started walking through the park, my sister leading the way. I just feel so uneasy. “I don’t want to keep on going anymore, I don’t like this park,” I say frightened of the dark.

My sister looks at me and just shakes her head. “God, we are not even there yet, and you’re already scared,” Iris said shaking her head. “C’ mon stop being a scaredy-cat,” she says with no type of emotion and a blank face. She starts walking down the park to this huge rock that we have to go around it to get to the other side.

My sister stops her tracks and says, “We’re here.” She looks straight in my eyes and just stays there, not moving one inch. I start to get this weird feeling like something telling me not to go to the other side. Whatever is behind that rock will scar me forever.

I start to walk around the rock very hesitant. Do I want to know what’s on the other side? With every step I take the more terrified I get and the more I hold my breath. I finally get to the top of the rock and there it is, a little girl about the age of 11, with pale dead skin and black hair hanging from a tree. Dead. Lifeless. Naked with stab wounds everywhere in her body and her eyes wide open with nothing in them.

I start to cry and cry till my legs get weak, and I hit the rock as hard as I can. I just can’t believe that someone can do things like this, especially to a little girl who is just starting to live. I walk closer to the little girl hanging on the tree, and I look at my sister standing next to me. I didn’t notice when she climbed the rock. I look at her awhile and start to cry.

“Why were you out so late?” I ask Iris

“I was meeting someone here and while I was walking to go to Tremont St. I saw everything she was already dead when they hang her!” She said with fear in her eyes.

We stare at each out for what seems like forever

I tell her, “We have to put her down she can’t stay like this.”

Iris looks at me with wide eyes and takes a deep breath. “How?” She looks back at the girl and looks back at me with no expression or emotion on her face.

“We are not strong enough we need to tell the police,” she says.

“But it’s not right, we can’t just leave her there,” I said desperately.

I can see in her eyes that she wants to leave, Iris is on the wrestling team in her school so she should be strong enough to hold. “Ok this is what we are going to do, I’m going to climb the tree and cut the rope. You hold her and lay her down, ok?” I nod my head and Iris nods her head. The tree is not that high, so I was confident that I could climb it “Ok, ok.”

I start to climb the tree and I see that it’s a lot harder than it looks. When I finally get to where the rope is I grab it and looked down to see if my sister was still there. “Ready?” I ask.

“Yes,” Iris says looking up at me with her hands up ready to catch the little girl.

The rope was so thick that I knew I would have a hard time breaking it. I check if I still have my knife in my pocket. I take it out and cut the rope, the girl falls on my sister's shoulder, she lays her down and closes her eyes. I climb down from the tree and look down at the little girl, my tears falling down my face. I got on my knees in front of the little girl and said a quick prayer for her.

Iris and I try to run out of the park, we see the police car again driving around the park. Iris and I looked at each other scared that we might be seen by the police. So we got down and lay flat on our stomach, looking at each other. I can see that she is scared so I grab her hand as hard as I can and assure her that everything would be ok. That there is nothing to be worried about. That we are going to get home safe. I look up to see if the police car is gone but they are still there, they stop a black man that was walking by, looks like he came out from work. They stood there asking questions for about 10 minutes. The cop let the man go and then sit on the bench.

“We are going to have to go around the park but not too close to where the little girl is lying,” I whisper loud enough for her to hear me.

“I’m really scared I don’t want to go to jail for something I didn’t do,” Iris said crying.

I hold her face in my hand, “Everything is going to be ok, just don’t think about it think about something else. Like something that would bring joy to you something that would distract you from what’s in the present. From what’s in front of you. Come on close your eyes,” I said my nodding head.

Iris closes her eyes and takes a breath. By every breath she takes, she becomes more calm, more steady. She opens her eyes and I see no emotions. That really broke my heart more, it’s like she can’t feel anymore. We got to our feet and ran to Prospect St. down the hill to where our favorite pizza place is. Made a left on 169 St., then made another left on Rev. James Polite Ave., in just two more blocks we’ll be home. When we get in front of the building I grab my sister's hand and pull her to me.

“This will be our secret only don’t tell no one,” I said looking her straight in the eyes.

“Ok,” she says flatly and starts going up the stairs to our apartment.

I called the police without saying our name and said the exact location where the little girl is. “You ok?” I asked my sister.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she said and went to her room.