KEISHA
My father always said I had a kind heart and was eager to help others, but who knew it would lead to my death? I didn’t know my disappearance would leave a huge chasm in my father’s broad chest that would never be able to be closed again. I also did not know that in my short life, ten years, I would make a significant impact in the lives that I touched.
I didn’t have a typical story and my story’s ending is vastly different from most children. My parents were too young to be married with a child. In fact, they were still in high school when they got married. My dad had worked at two auto shops and my mom worked as a maid at a local hotel. Both of them had eventually dropped out of school to work but they weren’t able to make ends meet. My mother, Lorraine, had been very unhappy being poor. One day when my father and I came home, we found the furniture and clothes missing. At first Daddy thought we had been robbed, but although I wasn’t that old, I knew that my mother, Lorraine, had left. I watched as my father went from room to room trying to figure out what was missing, but only my furniture was left. Daddy had not realized the true identity of the “thief” until he spotted the note Lorraine left on the refrigerator. He sat down on the kitchen floor read and re-read the note, while he read I sat in his lap and had wiped away his tears with my elfin hands, “It will be all right Daddy.” Now I wondered who would wipe his tears when I didn’t come home?
When I was six, my father’s Uncle Henry died. Uncle Henry never had any children and he had been very close to my father, so he left Daddy his auto shop in Reverie. Our lives changed after we moved to Reverie. We no longer lived in the projects and heard gun shots in the middle of the night and we also didn’t have to worry about our place being broken into. My dad was also able to arrange his hours, so he could be home when I got home from school.
On Sunday, the last Sunday of my life, I had gone to play with my friends, Ebony and Shelby, after church, while my dad was boarding up his shop. I had walked part of the way home with a boy I knew, then I suddenly remembered my dad had asked me to pick up a gallon of water, so we would have extra just in case the storm hit Reverie before we left. I went back to the store and was able to grab the last gallon of water from Mr. Martinez. He teased me about having been in the store a few minutes ago. As I was walking out, I almost ran into a boy in a hoodie with his head down. I couldn’t see his face because it was hidden by a Houston Badger’s baseball cap. As I was crossing the street, I became distracted by two blue jays across the street of the corner store. They were perched on a tree branch. I walked over to the tree entranced by the various shades of blue in the wings of the birds. I watched as one of the birds flew to a different branch.
Just then I heard a gunshot go off twice startling me and the birds and it came from the direction of the corner store. The birds instantly flew away. I hid behind a tree and watched as the shooter wearing red and green ran out of the store with cash in one hand and a gun in the other hand. I hoped he had not seen me behind the tree. When I went into the store, I saw Martinez was okay. I saw Mr. Martinez lying unconscious with crimson blood blossoming across the middle of his gray t-shirt. “Mr. Martinez, I’m going to call for help.” I ran to the phone on the other side of the counter and dialed 9-1-1, after giving the location I ran out of the store to find help.
Halfway to my house I spotted a boy from church. When I told him I needed help, he told me there were people near the Old Trail, that could help me. I wanted to tell him what happened, but I was too choked with fear. I tried to pull away from him as he took me to a wooded area, he told me to follow him and everything would be okay. Realization hit me, when I saw another familiar face, one I had not recognized when the bandana had hidden half of his face. As soon as I saw him, I knew I would never see my father again. He was the one who shot Mr. Martinez. He knew I knew him from school. If he shot Mr. Martinez, nothing would stop him from shooting me too. Within seconds the boy in the red and green Badger hoodie with the baseball cap was standing in front of me. I tried to run, but my legs would not move, I felt glued to the spot.
I begged and pleaded, “I won’t tell anyone what happened…I swear. No one will ever know that you held up that corner store.” I felt tears falling down my face.
”Shut-up! I can’t let nobody find out you saw me. I would get into a lot of trouble.”
“What’s going on? What corner store?” The boy from church acted nervous when he saw his friend hold that gun in my face.
“I robbed that corner store up the street. She saw me when I walked out and pulled the handkerchief off my face. I can’t risk Keisha going to the police. She would easily be able to identify me,” he was foaming at the mouth.
He didn’t know that I hadn’t seen his face before now. “I won’t tell anybody what you did.” I knew he didn’t believe me.
“She’s not going to tell anyone. Why would she?” The boy from church tried to plea for my life.
“She’ll tell. That’s why she can’t live. The only ones who can know are the Green Street boys, for my initiation. Turn around,” he spat at me and I turned around.
The boy from church tried to grab the gun out of his hand. After shoving the boy from church away from him, I felt the cold metal barrel pressed against the back of my head. All I could think about was Daddy and how I sat on his lap when he read my mom’s note to him. How his shoulders had slumped over, and I could feel the loneliness seep in. In that moment I asked God to not allow my daddy to be lonely once I was gone and that someday he would find happiness again. I prayed that Mr. Martinez would survive his gunshot wound. I also asked that God make sure that my killer was caught.
As he shot me point blank, I felt nothing as I crumpled to the ground like a beautiful china doll dropped by its owner. Suddenly I felt like I was pulled away from my body and I was like a bird watching from the sky, as two pairs of hands dragged me further into the wooded area, away from the Old Trail. I watched as my body was then callously flung into a drainage ditch. As rusted metal doors were crudely shut on me and the padlock snapped back in place, I was now physically gone from this world. The drainage ditch that had been created to save lives from flood waters was now my tomb.
After my disappearance things changed drastically and I guess I was still able to help people. Trifling mothers who had once allowed their children to run around in the streets unattended suddenly sat outside to make sure they knew where their children were. Deadbeat fathers, who were always too busy to see or talk to their children, suddenly were calling to speak to their children and sending their child support checks. Mothers who worked two or three jobs suddenly found the time to walk or drive their children to school. I had made an impact on Reverie, just not the kind of impact a parent wanted their child to make. It was an impact only a missing child left in a cold unmarked grave across from an old pecan tree could make. For twenty years I lay there undisturbed. I watched as the leaves of the tree changed colors and fell. I watched as green buds ripened to brown hard shells and fell to the earth. While children played near me and squirrels gathered nuts, I lay there sleeping waiting for someone to wake me up.
Jon´ee Hill 