Caraway

Chapter 1

The scent of the freshly cut grass roamed throughout the front lawn, wafting into my nose. I run and run, my bare feet getting dirty and my blue dress sticking to my thighs with the wind and my sweat. I hide behind a large oak tree, stifling a giggle with my smooth palm. I press my other hand against the bark, the rough texture biting into my hand.

"Ali! Oh Ali! Come out, come out wherever you are!" An 8 year old Nick Caraway sang loudly, his voice calling out into the vast blue sky. I dare to barely poke out my nose from the fat trunk hiding me to see where Nicky is.

When I don't see anything, I sigh in relief. I stand up straighter, wiping off a bead of sweat from my forehead and straightening my dress. I feel a sudden burst of excruciating pain in my left arm and the giggle of a small child, he is minuscule compared to a 10 year old like myself! Distracted my superiority, I completely forgot about the most agonizing pain I have ever felt in my whole decade of living.

"Ow! Nicky! You pinched me!" I screech, slapping his tiny hand from my arm.

"Oh Ali, stop being such a wimp!" He taunts. I let out a shrill scream and his teasing grin falls from his face in a crumbling manner, like bread.

Nicky backs away slowly, his features freezing into a prettified mask.

"Nicky!" I screech, my voice echoing into the leaves and he stumbles over himself to get away from me. He runs away and I chase him, nothing but the remembrance of the heart stabbing, throat cutting, limb chopping pain I felt in one small second.

"Mommy! Daddy!" I squeal and Nicky stops in his tracks, his tires skittering to a halt. He turns to look at me, panic on his face, begging me with his brown eyes to not tell Mom and Dad. I shake my head at him and stick out my tongue, this is what you get, butt head!

I skip over towards the pure white front porch, where Mommy is writing furiously on a notepad while Daddy is leisurely reading the Daily News newspaper.

"Mommy, Daddy." I say, sniffling slightly, my lower lip turned out in a pout.

"What is it, sweetie?" Daddy says, putting down the paper, his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

"Nicky pinched me!" I whine.

"I didn't mean to! It was an accident, I swear!" Nicky cries, running over to explain his story. Daddy sighs, pushing his glasses up his nose and says tiredly, "If you two cannot get along, you are going inside for the rest of the night. Understood? You both were wrong, Alice with you tattling," I twirl my blonde hair, looking at my feet, "And Nicholas, with you pinching your sister. You both apologize right now." He says sternly and we grumble in annoyance, but turn to each other, arms crossed and eyes down.

"Sorry." We spit out.

Daddy smiles in satisfactory.

"Good, now go play some more before dusk." He says, flipping the paper back up in front of his face. Nicky and I race down the steps and jump onto the grass. We chase each other across the lawn, as if nothing happened 3 minutes ago.

"Ali! Ali! I bet you one whole dollar that you can't catch me!" Nicky teases and I giggle, chasing after him.

"I'm ten years old! Therefore, I'm defiantly faster." I state, giggling.

We run behind trees, we chase each other around the house, but Mommy and Daddy have one rule. Never ever ever ever go into the street, I'm not sure why, but I don't want to get grounded from candy again! That was a rough three days, I got grounded from chocolate bars, cake, ice cream even bubblegum! All because I accidentally bumped into Nicky, who fell and skinned his knee and it wasn't even that bad, there was no blood. I giggle some more when I can't find Nicky. He must've hidden from me...

"Nicky! Oh Nicky!" I sing, a devilish smile painting it's way on to my mouth.

I search behind every tree, under every board but I just can't seem to find the little boy. I hope he didn't wander into the road, because then he'll get grounded. I run around to the front of our house to find Nicky almost in the road. I stifle a gasp with my hands because I don't want my little brother getting in trouble...and I'll get in trouble for not watching him. I run up to get him, by now his stupid toddler feet have taken him into the road.

"Nicky!" I scream whisper, "Come back here!" He looks at me, confusion draped on his pure features.

With my hand, I gesture for him to come back over here right now! He takes a step towards me and just then, a car comes zooming straight into Nicky. I scream at the top of my lungs, "Mommy! Daddy! Help!" I'm not sure what exactly happened, but there's a lot of red stuff on the pavement around Nicky and he isn't getting up, and I sense something extremely wrong. It takes awhile for Mommy and Daddy to come out of their wonderland world to notice something's wrong, but I'm not the one who got their attention, Mrs. Harley across the street heard my screaming and obviously saw Nicky laying in the street and got Mommy and Daddy's attention. There's a lot of screaming, shaking and crying, people have come out of their homes to see all the bustle. Someone shouts, "Call 911!" And someone picks me up and brings me inside.

"And that's all I remember, Doc." I say, throwing my feet over the side of the chair, I hear him sigh for the hundredth time I've been here for the past hour.

"Well it's enough to have you traumatized for life." I roll my eyes at his obvious yet stupid statement.

"It's been 7 years since the accident, don't they say time heals all wounds?" I question the therapist with a smirk. He merely sighs with disappointment again and walks over to his desk, throwing down a clipboard over his already cluttered desk. I climb out of the throw-up green chair and open the door to his office.

"See ya next week, Doc." I add, slamming the door shut behind me as I leave the therapist's office, having nothing accomplished yet again.