Five years ago, my sister Sarah jumped off that
cliff.
Right before she did, she called me three times,
<
cliff.
Right before she did, she called me three times, but I was taking an exam and didn’t pick up.
When I got done, that was when I heard about Sarah, but it was too late. They never even found her body.
Back then, Mom’s eyes were bloodshot as she
glared at me, screaming, “You did it on
purpose! You wanted her dead! You’re a curse,
why couldn’t it have been you that died?”
In my parent’s eyes, I was Sarah’s killer.
No matter how many times I explained it was an
accident, their hate for me didn’t change.
The chief just shook his head, looking sad.
“Kids aren’t guilty of everything they’re accused
- of. Nora’s already beating herself up enough
<
about losing her sister. What you said could
hurt her deeply.”
Mom’s voice trembled, every word like a nail
being hammered in.
“My only daughter was Sarah! She was
seventeen, accepted to Julliard, she had her
whole life ahead of her! And now it’s gone!”
“If that girl had just picked up the phone, Sarah
would still be alive! She was begging for help,
but no one saved her, how desperate must she
have been?”
“Why wasn’t it her that died?!”
Tears were burning behind my eyes, and I
looked down, trying to keep them from falling.
I knew she wasn’t just yelling. She really wished
I had died instead of Sarah.
<
Every year on Sarah’s birthday and the
anniversary of her death, my folks would make
me kneel in front of her photo, asking me over
and over why it wasn’t me who was dead.
But, you know, I felt the same way. I hated
myself just as much as they hated me.
Why hadn’t I just answered the phone?
Maybe even God couldn’t stand having a sinner
like me on this Earth. So, He gave me the worst
way to go.
If my folks knew it was me who had died,
maybe they would have been happy.
Then it’d all come back to the surface, all the
old wounds reopened, everyone’d try to talk
Mom out of it but no one could ever get
through to her.
The chief natted Mom on the shoulder trying to
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11:10
914
The chief patted Mom on the shoulder, trying to
be sympathetic. “What’s done is done, let it
go.”
“Nora’s finished with high school and off to
college soon. You guys won’t see each other
much.”
Mom stopped what she was doing, her tone flat
with disgust.
“She’s too stupid for college, give me a break.
She’s not half the woman Sarah was.”
Chapter 2
I wanted so badly to tell my Mom I had gotten
accepted into Stanford.
But I knew it wouldn’t matter. My mom’s eyes
were always cold, like everything I ever did was
pointless.
She’d always say, “You’re nowhere near as
good as your sister!”
Just then, an assistant handed Mom a pill bottle
and a broken ring they found on the body.
The second I saw the ring, my heart jumped
into my throat.
I wanted to scream, to explain, to make my
mom see the truth.
But my throat was like something was holding it
shut, I couldn’t make a single sound.
“These were found on the victim. The ring
could help us find the family, and the meds
should give us a lead, once we check the
pharmacy records.”
