People always ask me the same questions. you must be sad, do you miss her? I always find it stupid because i don't. How could i miss my sister when i hardly new her? You cant miss someone you don't remember. But people seem to expect a response so i just nod my head and stay silent. They're response is always the same, there lips thin in sorrow and they shake there heads mournfully, sometI'mes they run there hands against my shoulders.
I was only four when my sister died. I don't really know what happened as nobody will tell me. I know that her and my older brother Luke were playing outside in the street and she was taken. My dad said she was taken by the angels because of how good she was. But my brother told me that she was kidnapped. Maybe she was kidnapped by the angels. Maybe they really wanted her in heaven and she didn't want to go so they had to kidnap her.
My sisters name was Sophie, and people say i look allot like her. I don't see it though because she was fair and blonde with long legs. I'm much shorter and my hair is brown and mousy. Last year i turned seven which meant i was older than my sister. On my birthday my dad just cried into his napkin and he didn't even eat any of his cake. That was the day he got the urn from his bedroom and put it on the mantelpiece. Its been there ever since.
When people come to my house and i show them round. I try to avoid showing them my sister. Some of my friends have real sisters who are alive and they might not understand why my sister is in a wooden box. They might not understand that she is dead. They might ask questions and i don't know the answers. My brother is different though, he pretends to be okay but sometI'mes i hear hI'm saying hello to the urn or crying at night. He knows i hear hI'm but none of us ever mention it to each other. He misses her and i don't.
As i am nearly eight, I've decided i want to know what happened to my sister. Every-tI'me i mention it to my dad his eyes go all watery and he changes the subject. So i try my mum first. Staring into space with a sad look in her eyes. That sad look is always there, like there's something missing. In old pictures my mums eyes used to sparkle. Maybe whoever took my sister took the sparkle from my mums eyes too. "Mum, why did Sophie die?". She barley moves. "She isn't dead honey, she's just not here". She runs her hands through my hair. I don't know why she says that. She isn't here because she is dead. Shes gone. Mum doesn't want to accept that Sophie wont be coming back, she must think she's on a long holiday or something. But i know the truth. Sophie is dead.
I will have better look with my brother. But he doesn't seem to talk to me much lately. He doesn't talk to anyone for that matter. He locks hI'mself in his room and turns his music up so he blocks out the rest of the world. One day he came home from school and his hair was died black and he had his lip pierced. I'll never forget the way my mum had looked at hI'm that day, her face had creased up in worry, and she shook her head. When he was upstairs i heard her say that she was loosing another one too. That scared me because i thought that meant Luke was going to die too. But instead he got pale and angry and i realised she meant a different type of loose. He wasn't gone, but he was lost. I knock on his door and open it quickly.
He's sat on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He sees me and scowls. When he frowns, it makes his piercing on his lip stick up in a funny way and it makes me want to laugh. But instead i sit on the end of the bed. "What do you want" He says. "I want to talk about Sophie" There is along silence where he just stares at me, his brows knotting together. Luke is the only person I've ever told about not missing Sophie. I hadn't meant to. It had been not long after she'd died, and she was starting to fade from my memory. He'd asked my how i felt and i said annoyed because everyone keeps asking me about a person i don't miss. He hadn't acted shocked or disgusted. He'd just hugged me tightly for a long tI'me. I thought he was never going to release me. "What do you want to talk about?" He says, eventually. He turns his music of. "I want to talk about how she died". His skin turned even paler. "I- cant. Your not old enough" I press my hand against his knee "Please".
"We were playing out in the garden, me Sophie and you". Nobody had ever told me that I'd been there before. I had no idea id watched my sister be taken. I felt my body run cold. "We were playing tag, of course i was the best one, you just toddled about and Sophie wasn't fast enough" He smiles thinly, its crooked and it looks out of place on his face. "I went to tag you and you fell over, smacking your knee against the concrete You cried and cried and wouldn't shut up" I suddenly had a vision running through my mind, a younger version of myself toddling across the grass, falling towards the ground. The tall boy and a blonde girl laugh but falter nervously. "So i told you to be quiet. You were a little snitch so you went and told dad about how nasty i was. I didn't want to get in trouble so i went after you. When we came back out Sophie was gone". We were silent again, for none of us new what to say. I'm suddenly aware of another memory, were all crying. Mum dad and even Luke. I didn't know why everyone else was crying, it was me who hurt my knee. "Where did she go?". Luke's shoulders sagged, but suddenly tensed with anger. "A man in a big white van tricked her. He said there was a cute kitten in the back and he would show her. She clI'mbed into the back to see it. He took her away and he killed her". A tear runs down his cheek. I realise I'm crying too, tears are streaming down my cheeks, because a sudden realisation has hit me- i do remember her.
She was my older sister, she was pretty and kind and loving. She had long blonde hair and pale skin. She had blue eyes. I loved her so much. How could i have ever forgotten her? "I remember her" I cried loudly, resting against my brother. His arms wrapped around mine. He hasn't hugged me like this in a long tI'me, with meaning. He whispers into my ears. "I always knew you would".