It is a cold day in December, but it wasn’t the weather that bothered me. I still remember that day, that day where everything went wrong. I was walking home from school, like I did every day, with no one, all alone. After my parents died, I was sent with my sister to live with my aunt out here in Chicago. My life went completely downhill after I moved here. I’m depressed about my parents, protective over my brother and I have no friends. My school is right near my aunt’s apartment so I can walk to and from school which gives me time to think about my life. Inside of the treacherous building of what Chicagoans call ‘school’, my personal life is not so personal, and it is the same old news every single day. I came to this school in the middle of this year which was a mistake. They thought I was transferred for my grades and I kind of was.
“Hey Julie. Why don’t you go back to your old school loser?” That’s what they say as I walk down the hall to my locker. I just ignore them. In my mind, I see them being sucked into the biggest, deepest whole in the universe. But I know that will never ever happen because they are the most popular kids in my class, not alone the whole school! At least my locker placement is not in the worst part. It is away from a lot of people’s lockers. So I’m alone, and that’s just how I like it. During lunch, I usually take my food and go find somewhere to sit and read a book. When I walk home from school, I bundle up with my books and bags and walk home from school thinking about how my life is going so far. I hear the answer in my head, “Your life right now, let’s just say, is not going well. Do not worry Julie; you still have your whole life to live. It is going to get better! Trust me.” This how my school days lasted until the begining of holiday break which didn’t go well either.
When I walked home from school, I thought to myself, “Yes! It is the end of school! But, only for two weeks because of winter break.” My sister came out of my Aunt’s house and greeted me with a huge bear hug that filled me with hope and warmth. “Hey Julie!” She squealed, “Guess what Aunt said we were going to do tomorrow?”
I could only smile and say “What Harper?” She just looked at me with a face that looked like it was going to explode. “Well….” I said “Are you going to tell me or what?”
“First,” she said, “Let’s go inside. It is really cold out here, in Chicago; I’m not used to the weather.” I took her hand and we walked inside together.
“So what was it you were going to tell me Harper?” I asked as I was taking off my coats and hanging them and my back pack on a hook.
“Okay,” she said, “Aunt said that we were going to get a Christmas tree tomorrow!”
“That’s great,” I nonchalantly said as I got myself a snack from the pantry.
“It is going to be so fun! I mean, we can chose the perfect tree and get to cut it down and then bring it home and decorate it and…….”
That’s all I heard as I shut my bed room door. I don’t want to hear anything more about a Christmas tree until tomorrow. Mom and Dad used to take me and would always let me pick out the one I wanted for the house. I remember we had to go back to the tree yard since the one I choose was too big for the house.
I actually did sleep really well compared to school nights because I have night mares about what is going to happen to me the next day. I woke up to Harper’s foot steps, as she runs around the house, as I quickly changed into warm clothes. As Aunt, Harper, and I crammed into her little car, we headed for the tree lot. Harper asked Aunt to turn on the Christmas station and started singing Rudolph while I looked out the window into the quiet suburbs of Chicago. I sat there thinking to myself; “I will let Harper choose the tree this year.” When we pulled into the lot, Harper bolted out of the car and started running through the trees like a little maniac. Aunty said to just keep an eye on her as she walked to the heated car. I started walking through the maze of trees when suddenly I heard a familiar noise. I heard the laughter of someone from my school. I started running further into the maze of trees until I found myself sniffing dirt on the ground. Jon and some of his friends, surround me as I slowly got off the ground. “What do you want now Jon? It’s not school, you don’t need to act cool and I don’t have any money on me.” I swallow hard. I didn’t know what is going to happen next.
“We just need some excitement.” Jon hissed with a glare in his eye. He and his friends started coming closer until I could feel his warm smelly breath on my shoulder. “I need some Christmas cheer.” His fist wounds up behind his shoulder and I closed my eyes and thought ‘Great. This year I will have a Christmas card with a black eye.’ Then, I didn’t feel the blow or the pain from his fist. I opened my eyes, and I saw this girl that looked my age standing before me.
“You okay sport?” the girl asked. I probably had this awkward look on my face that made her ask, “Oh, I’m sorry. My name is Sarah. I live a hop, skip and a jump away from here.”
“Oh same. I live there too, I guess.” I looked down at my shoe and kicked the dirt. Then I looked back up at her and said that I was here with my sister and Aunt looking for a Christmas tree.
“That’s cool. Did you move here recently?” I didn’t want to talk about it and she understood my mood. “Just scratch that. I probably will see you around. Do you want to hang out on Saturday, back here?”
“Yes!” I screamed at her. I calmed myself, “I mean,yes,”
“That sounds awesome.” “Great!” Sarah said, “See you then!” She skipped out of my sight.
When Aunt, Harper and I returned to our house, we put up the tree in the living room and Harper brought out the ornaments. I went up to my room when she pulled out the first one. I had made that one out of play doh with mom. My stomach brought me down the stairs to the smell of monkey bread on a platter on the counter. “Aunt,” I whispered while I was biting into a piece of the bread, “Am I doing anything this Saturday?” Why would I ask her that? I know I don’t have anything going on.
“No and why Julie? Got plans with someone?”
I picked out my next piece of bread, “I met someone at the tree lot today and they asked if I could hang out with them on Saturday at the tree lot.”
“Sure,” she said “I don’t see what’s wrong with it. Just be prepared to explain to Harper why you aren’t going to be there to decorate the house for Christmas.”
“I will come up with something.” Right after that conversation was over, Harper ran into the room wearing a bright, red Santa suite with a fake beard. I could not, not laugh at that!
On Saturday morning I couldn’t sleep. I woke up like a new person and I didn’t even think of my parents. Strange for me, I usually do. Aunt made monkey bread again. How did she know I wanted some? When I took a piece of the bread, I went outside to see how cold it was outside. Let’s just say, it was freezing. After I was stuffed of monkey bread, I bundled up and headed off to the tree lot. As I was walking to the lot in the freezing cold weather, I wondered if she was just going to ditch me and make me walk all the way there just for a laugh.
As I came around the corner, I could see the lot and her standing there waiting for me. “I though you would never come.” She said with her warm breath forming into a cloud in the frosty air. “But good thing you came. I really want to get to know you better.” “Same.” I said, “I have a lot of questions to ask you!” “So what are we doing just standing around in this kind of weather? Let’s go inside.” Sarah was leading the way into the warm building on the tree lot. “You are probably wondering why I said for us to meet here. The answer is my family owns this place and I love spending time here.” I let my eyes wonder. “It looks like a fun place to hang around.” I relied to her. Sarah walks over to the counter and picked up the remote to the T.V. “I watch TV to keep up with the world. Do you watch it?” “No. I don’t watch a lot of T.V.” But the TV coughed my eye.
The New headlines read, ‘car crash in the Chicago suburbs.’ I recognized that car. It was my aunts. “That looks really bad,” Sarah whispered. The other headlines said that there were two people in the car, an adult and a kid, and one of them was dead. The kid who died in that car crash was my little sister, Harper. “I have to go.” I don’t think Sarah even heard me say the last part of my sentence because I was already out the door sprinting to the sight of the accident.
I shall never forget the sight of the accident. I had to push and shove through people to actually see the accident. The front part of my Aunts car was in a light pole while another car’s front was slamed into the left side of the car. I think all of the news stations where there along with the police and fireman. I go behind the big crash to find out that my Aunts and Harpers bodies are no longer in there. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see a stretcher riding towards the ambulance.
I should have just jogged. I didn’t want to see the stretcher of my little Harper being rolled up into the ambulance. “Can I please ride to the hospital with you guys?” I asked the paramedics.
“Are they your family in any way?” They looked at me with tired, sad faces. “My Aunt was the driver and that is my sister.”
“I‘m sorry for your loss. Climb in.” I took a seat next to Harpers body. It was cramped in the ambulance and reminded me of the day she picked out the Christmas tree. I said in my head that I wasn’t going to cry when I saw her. I didn’t cry. I bawled. “Goodbye, Harper. Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year.” I kissed her on the hand before she was wheeled off the ambulance and into the hospital. I knew that that was the last time I was going to see her alone. It was a cold day in December, but it wasn’t the weather that bothered me. I still remember that day, that day where everything went wrong.