Little Sis

“I was born in 1994. My mother is a nurse, and my father is a professor. I was never meant to be anything great. I wanted to be an engineer. That was my goal in life: go to college, get an engineering degree, and become an engineer. That was the plan. But then he decided to throw a wrench in my perfect dream.

In 1998, my life changed for the better. My litter sister, Isabella, was born. She was always lovely. She liked things a certain way, and that made it easy to take care of her. For example, she would only ever be called Bell. Nothing else. 

While many parents expect their children to fight and argue, especially if they are opposite genders like Bell and me, we actually got along great. We would play games together, run around outside together, eat together, sleep together, read together, do homework together. Everything.

March 23rd, 2009. She was 11, I was 15. She was in 5th grade, I was a freshman in high school. I get home and get inside. Both mom and dad are at work. I expect Bell to get home at 3:46, like usual. She doesn’t. 

3:47-still not home.

 3:50-where is she?!

4:00-what’s going on?

I yank out my phone. I text Mom and Dad. 'Bell isn’t home. She’s 14 minutes late. Is she with you guys?'

One minute passes. 'No, she should be home.'

An hour later and we still haven’t heard a thing. We called the school, but they said she was on the bus. My parents leave work early and arrive home.

'What do we do?' I ask quickly the moment they walk in the door. I’m freaking out. She’s my little sister. I’m supposed to be with her to protect her, and I don’t even know where she is. 

'Lily, call the police.' My dad tells my mom. 'I’m going to drive around and see if I see her. She was on the bus, so she might be nearby. Got distracted by a ladybug or something silly like that.' He lets out a nervous laugh. He’s trying to lighten the mood.

'Dad? What about me?' I call out before he leaves. 

'I’m not sure, love.' He caringly puts his hand on my cheek, but he’s still rushing. 'Whatever you think is best. I trust you.' He sprints out the door and hops in his car. Mom heads over to the other room to call the police.

I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pull it out to see a text from Grace. 'Ginny, hey, can you call real quick? It’s important.'

I can’t ignore her, she’s my best friend. 'Not now. Bell missing.' I shove my phone back in my pocket, but seconds later, I feel it buzzing again. I take it out and see Grace calling me. I answer.

'What?' I don’t mean to be so annoying, but I’m stressing out. 'What could be so important that you had to call me while my little sister is missing?!'

'Well, uh…' She starts, 'I may have just seen Bell.' I suck in a breath to see what she says next. 'I was in the thrift store in the mall, and then I saw her walking with some dude. She was struggling to get away from him, so I went over to see what was going on, but by the time I got there, they were gone.'

'No, no no…!' I can’t contain my frustration. 'Thank you. Bye.' I hang up and call my Dad as quickly as possible. 'DAD!'

'What is it?' He asks with the most serious tone I have ever heard.

'Grace saw Bell. She was at the mall with some random stranger, and Grace didn’t… well… she didn’t catch up to them.'

'Shoot, I’m ten minutes away.' He shouts out of anger. 'Get your Mother. You guys are just a few minutes away. HURRY!'

I almost crash into my Mom as I run to get her. 'Mom! We need to go, now!'

She doesn’t ask any questions as I tell her to take me to the mall. I hop onto the passenger seat, and we start driving faster than we should. We pull in and race to the mall. I sprint up the stairs and see Grace looking around.

'Grace?' I call out. 'Have you seen her?'

'No, I-' She stutters and starts to tear up. 'No, I haven’t.' She sobs.

'You didn’t do anything wrong.' I pat her back quickly. 'I’m going to look around.' I start jogging around the place as my Mom tells security what’s going on. But as she’s doing that, I notice a bracelet on the ground. 

'I made this…' I mutter. I gave it to Bell a year ago for her birthday. 'She’s close.' I smile—finally, some hope. I look up to see I’m right near an exit. I rush out and see a car zooming past far faster than it should. I see a hooded figure in the driving seat and in the passenger seat… 'BELL!' I shout. 'BELL!'

Mom comes out next to me. 'What’s going on?'

'I just saw Bell, Mom!' I start to cry. 'She was in a car with some random dude.'

'Let’s go.' She runs to her car and gets out on the road. After about 20 seconds, I recognize the car. 

'That’s the car I saw, Mom!' I cry out. We’re so close. So close. The car starts speeding up so much, but my Mom doesn’t hesitate. She pushes on the pedal and keeps going. We go for about an hour until suddenly our car slows down.

'Dammit, the gas!' Mom races to the trunk and pulls out some extra gasoline we have in case of emergencies. She sticks it in the car, and we wait. 'Come on, come on! Hurry up!' I hate seeing my Mom this stressed. After a few minutes, she hops back in the car. We’re a little lost, and we have to search all the neighborhoods nearby. After around 30 minutes, I recognize the car in a parking lot.

Mom and I decide not to wait for the police. We barge into the house to see Bell on the floor.

'BELL!' I shouted, but no response. I went over to her. There was blood… everywhere. I could barely recognize her face. I don’t see her moving. I rest my head on her chest: nothing, no heartbeat.

I hear a wail from behind me. I don’t have to turn around to understand my Mom’s pain. Bell is dead. My little sister is dead.

After that day, we struggled for a long time. We all went into a dark depression for longer than we should have. Eventually, with a lot of help from our friends, neighbors, and colleagues, we got better. It will never be the same again. I’ll never see my little sister again. But I know that if she can see me right now, she wouldn't want me to be sad. She wouldn’t want me crying every night, teary about her loss, bawling because I want her back. She would want me to be happy and make the best of every situation. 

So I promise you, you can do this. You can get through this hard ache. I promise it’s not going to be easy. You’re going to need to be strong and brave. But you can do it. I know you can, for a fact. So believe in yourself and trust things will get better.”

I let out a big sigh. “What do you think?” I flop down into my chair.

“Babe.” Kean takes my hands in his. “That was so amazing, so inspiring. Also really sad, but really good.” His eyes are teary but yet also sparkly with pride. “You are going to do amazing tomorrow. So many people will be watching, millions. You are going to touch so many lives.” He pulls me into a hug. “I’m so proud of you.”

I squeeze back. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.

He rubs my back. “I can’t believe how amazing you are. I love you.”

“I love you too.”