When I saw Charles pick up the picture of me and Ariel on our 15th birthday. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath from my nose, letting it out slowly as I remembered that day.
Many times, mom kept trying to get me to smile for the camera but I wouldn’t – couldn’t – smile, so she had Ariel try and get me to smile. Nothing Ariel did could get me to smile, so Ariel left me alone for almost the whole night. Until mom told me to look for her so we can blow out our candle together. I couldn’t find her in the house, so I went outside to look for her but I still didn’t find her and I was starting to panic until I heard sobs behind our Aunt’s house. When I walked around to the backyard to yell at Ariel for disappearing like that, I heard her mumbling and stopped to listen.
“Aunty,” she sobbed.
