For Sally.

“Can you keep a secret?” Sally asked, one autumn evening. 

We had been sat in the waiting room for the last half hour waiting for information about her father, Brian. He had left the house, for reasons unknown, but he never returned on time. Instead, her mother, Louise, received a call from the hospital. Apparently, his brakes had failed to work so he went barreling into a convenience store a couple towns away. At the time, Sally and I were sitting on kerbs waiting for the cars to cover us in the rainwater from the road’s puddles, making towers from crispy red leaves, and playing knock and run through the local streets. Sally’s mother had called us in with panic choking her, as well as tears causing her to trip over the first few steps leading towards the house. Her turmoil lay bare on the pavement for all the neighbours to witness. Surprisingly, Sally refused to react. Only muttering a quick ‘let me grab my coat’ before storming up the steps while I consoled Louise beside a moulding brick wall. Upon arriving at the hospital, Louise didn’t hesitate to demand to see her husband as Sally and I slowly followed along. 

So half an hour later, with the absence of any new information, Louise left to find a vending machine as Sally and I sat staring up at a silenced television hanging from a peeling wall. I never understood why they placed a t.v. in the waiting rooms just to leave it muted and the visitors bored. The table of books to my left had taunted me every other minute but I withheld from distracting myself; feeling rude to entertain myself during such tragic circumstances. Sally had sat in contentment the whole time without even offering a comforting hand out towards her mother. It all seemed rather strange, yet her family and herself were quite the odd bunch. 

Before I was able to reply to Sally, a news channel began broadcasting CCTV footage of the crash. Writings beneath the reporter informed us of three other people injured, along with Brian. Two from the car, a man and a woman, and two men from the store. Being around nine at the time, I had to re-read and wait for the same report to pop back up just to double-check I understood I had read it right. My sight crept over to a stoic looking Sally with pity, but still, she sat completely unbothered. 

“Sal, are you okay?” I asked, forgetting all about her earlier question. 

Her head turned to me in what looked to be guilt; what I thought at the time was sadness. My skinny goose-bumped arm pulled her chubbier frame into a hug in an attempt to comfort her, possibly reassure her. Sobs wracked her body and her cut up fists tightened. 

“D, I did it. It’s all my fault…I…I was just so angry a-and upset. Liam from school gave me the idea and I gue- I guess I didn’t realise this is how i-it would end up.” She bawled in my arms, admitting something my younger mind couldn’t quite grasp.

“Sal slow down…this is not at all your fault. Sometimes cars don’t work, you know? I’ve heard of all kinds of problems people have with their cars. My sister’s rolled down the path once and into a neighbours garden.” I had naively ensured her. Oblivious to the real reason her father was breathing through a tube down the hall. 

“No…D.” This time her body shot up and her hands held onto my shoulders, murky eyes piercing my own innocent orbs. “I cut his brakes.”

Her cries had settled while my own seemed to be brewing deep within my throat. Instead, a boisterous laugh met the air as Sally watched my reaction carefully. It was almost too cliche; something from a movie. Something so petty and dangerous. Though, it summed up her family all too easily. A bunch of absolute lunatics. 

“Sally, what in the world! Why would you do that?” I had asked once my nervous laughter simmered. 

The pair of us went silent as I was reminded of the news playing on the screen not far from us. A potential other woman. A lover that isn’t Louise, her mother. She must have found out somehow, conjured up an awful plan, then got back at Brian in her mother's defence. 

“The woman? Is it because of her? Did…did you see them together?” The nerves were evident in my voice. A feeling of fear coursing through my infant limbs at the notion of Sally doing such a thing out of spite. 

“No.” She answered, nearly chewing right through her bottom lip. “I didn’t know about her. I-I don’t know who she is.” Her stutter worsened as more detrimental moments passed. If she didn’t know of a possible affair, why did she cut his brakes?

Thinking back to all the days out I spent with them, there was a seedy element to her father. Too many times as a child, I caught my mother’s weary glance as I left the house on my way to Sally’s. Once I grew a little older I asked her about it, only to receive a firm, ‘they were strange that family.’ Brian was a well-known businessman in our town, yet what he did to this day I’m not too sure. Some would say he was a dangerous man. Many said he had multiple lives to fit his many personalities. A rumour once went around school that he mistreated Sally, as well as her mother, but none of us mentioned it to her in case it stood correct. Our friendship group wouldn’t have known what exactly to do for her, to him. I suppose the instant she admitted to the mutilation of her father's car, the rumour may not have been just a rumour after all. 

Instead of snitching, or overreacting, I sat there beside one of my best friends and picked a book from the broken table in the corner. Sally wiped her face, ready for her mother to come back, while I busied myself with a love story. Around twenty minutes after Sally’s confession, Louise came back smiling with a doctor. Brian only had a few broken ribs and a bit of a concussion. He was fine, but his daughter definitely wasn’t. The mystery woman in the car survived as well as one of the men from the store. Unfortunately, the other man had suffered injuries too severe, passing immediately. 

After that day Sally and I kept quiet about what she had done, what Brian had possibly done. Years later, when we hadn’t spoken for the whole of high school, I saw on her Instagram she had left the family home. Travelling all over Europe with her girlfriend while Brian disappeared and Louise stayed planted in a house of daunting secrets. 

I never did answer her question.