Everything Went Black

Mr. Halt

Something happened that night that I can’t quite remember. Something horrible, whenever I think about it I get a cold, almost dark feeling throughout my body.  I can’t place who did it and where it happened, but I know it should not have. I wake up like this every morning and turn over that one night. The one night in my life I don’t remember. The one night where my mind stopped working, the one night where everything went black. I remember everything in my life, except for that one night five years ago. Now, I’m determined. Now I’m ready for what happened.

“Hey kid, wake up. You’re twenty-two I’m not your babysitter anymore. I’m your god damn mother,” I could hear my mother yelling from beyond my closed door. I opened my eyes and the light from my window I left open last night hits me. I blink a couple times and roll over to my clock. 7:38 AM, I groan, I have to get out of bed. Unfortunately for me my classes start early on Tuesday morning’s. By the time I was in the car pulling out of the driveway Mr. Halt was coming home from his walk with his dog.

Usually I try and avoid him by leaving before he gets home, but on odd days I see him and he gives me a nasty sneer like he always does. He’s hated me ever since I was an adult, which is strange because he has a daughter who is an adult. We could’ve been friends, in fact I feel like I know her yet I haven’t seen her for years on end. No one on our street understands the Halt family. We live in the safest part of Chicago, no gangs, no street workers, and no drugs, at least not of what we see, yet he hides his daughter away.

I remember her sweet little face from when she was five years old peeking out from the window and waving me good-bye as I walked to school. I remember on July 16, 2009 when she was thirteen and came out from her back yard and beckoned me towards her and whispered ever so softly in my ear “I don’t belong here, take me away.” I remember on that day I waved her off I told her it was normal for teenagers. I don’t ever see her in the windows; I don’t ever see her leaving her backyard. I see Mr. Halt walking their dog, I see Mr. Halt checking the streets before he falls asleep. I see Mr. Halt all over that house.

I pass a building that’s been broken down for years on my way to school. I’ve been in, I know I have. Except there’s no visible entrance to the building. How can I go in if there’s no entrance?