The Girl Across The Street

It was a cold, gloomy day, low 20 degrees fahrenheit, the sun was covered, there was a small hint of light beaming through the clouds, the wind was howling you could hear it through the crackling of the windows which made it shook back and forth like anThe shops were closed. gry monsters. We had never seen this kind of  weather in Miami, Florida but today we did.There were no cars, only the loud sound of the motorcycle engines bearing down the quiet streets. Sidewalks were empty you could hear the feet of the rat running down the sidewalk looking for his next meal and the autumn colored  leaves falling and settling on the cold gray sidewalk. Street lights flickered off and on and the emptiness of the street and the gloominess of the day gave it an eery feeling.

Something was about to take place. What was the question on everyone’s mind. It was too still.  For this day in and this town in Miami, was strange. Normally there would be people walking, running or  jogging on the sidewalks. Usually the streets and sidewalks would be crowded with people, children screaming, dogs barking, whistleblowing, coming in and going but today it was strange and odd, even the weather was mystified.

         December 13, 2013, the day when everything changed. I stared out the window even though there were nothing to see, only the small hints of wind that blew across the concrete sidewalks. It was still 20 degrees. After a couple hours, it roused to a high 70 degrees. I knew I wouldn’t see children out in the streets playing, or hear people laughing as loud as the thunder that shook the whole earth. I  use to  see a lot of action going on when I was six years old, while standing on my stool with my head peeking out the curtains, I kept looking at them, I remember wondering, and thinking”  “what would it be like to be outside at this very moment? this was always my past time. Now that I am older I don’t do it as often as I use to.

Today, I did it because I was very bored.  I remembered, there was a little girl that I  use to see always walking across from her house to the playground to play with the other children from the neighborhood.  I would see them but never played with them, we were not allowed to go outside, so me and my brother always pretended we were outside.  On this particular day I was trying to find something to do and past the time away, so, I went to my favorite hang out, my window, and peaked my head out the curtains.  Only this time there was no more playground, no more kids to watch, no more noise to hear, no more screaming, no more children laughing the time away, no more pretending.  Just stillness across the streets.

As I peered through the curtains I saw a familiar person running across the street, I looked again, no, it could not be, I said to myself, I looked again, it was!! It was that same little girl  I used to see years ago, in her same shabby boots, torn up washed out blue jeans, with a patch on the left knee.  Except this time she was all grown up, and running fast, as though she was running from something or someone. She ran out of her house and screamed “Shut up!” to someone that I couldn’t see. I was curious of what had happened to her and her family so I ran outside and found my standing position and stood there motionless staring at her every movements and actions.

I wanted to help but I just stood there and watched. I remembered two years ago before things started to change there was a very happy atmosphere in our community, anyone could live there without any problems. The family that lived in the house across from ours was a very generous and caring family. It appears they had no problems. So what was going on? Why did she she ran out of her house with such speed? What was wrong? All these questions were running through my mind. I was curious to know.

I remembered her dad drove her to school, her mom cooked for her because I could smell it in the air and her siblings who made her laugh when she was depressed. But not today her siblings didn’t come out and comfort her neither did her parents but except her giving a bad attitude. I remembered I was there doing the same thing as when I was a little girl. Everything changed about her she became happy to sad nothing could explained why, except her family.

It was about 2:00am when I heard many police cars,ambulances and also fire trucks that rush into the community surrounding her house. I was very thrill and confused of what had happened, of course not a surprised party not that I could think of, but it was a huge accident. Not until then, when a police officer came and knock on our door then interviewed my parents if they knew why that girl killed herself in her own backyard. When I heard the word suicide my heart broke into thousand of bit and pieces. My mind just turned into a disaster thinking Oh My God, how could this happen to this particular girl. I ran up stair to my room, covered a blanket over my head and started screaming then stopped and cried. I told myself I did not know how to help this poor little girl that young of an age. I once tried but I didn’t succeed but failed.