Oct. 5, 1996

I remember this day clearly my younger sister remembers it too because I brought her with me. We rode our bikes into our old neighborhood crossing the busy street of Schaumburg Rd. A road we were not suppose to cross but broke the rules that day to ride back into the neighborhood we were raised in down the street from the house we were born in.

There was fear that day walking up to the door but something in the 11 year old that I was wanted to check on her and I know why. A month earlier I was reminded of the horror the two of us endured when we were younger when I was abused for the first time by my cousin. Knocking on the door I had no idea who would answer but I was praying hard. When I saw her mother’s cheerful face I was relieved and soon my best friend was standing at the door and welcoming me in. I wondered walking in was a certain someone in there. So much was still the same four years later. A large doll house still in the back of her bedroom made me smile, her bed in the same place made me feel sick, and another bedroom door that was always closed with a man sleeping in it who seemed to only come out to expose the evil inside of him. Soon an uneasy feeling came over me sitting on her bed after I began to remember what happened at her birthday party 4 years earlier, what happened on that bed, and not knowing if someone was in the other bedroom.  I looked at Ashley and asked if she wanted to go to the park like the old days. She agreed and I was glad to get out of a house that haunted me.

I covered up Ashley’s last name and phone number in case your wondering why the white pieces of paper.

I cared about her then and I care about her today.