The Reprisal | ✍

2 - painful nostalgia

2

When I was five, a stray kitten found its way into our backyard. I was helping my mom with her garden, when a series of tiny 'meows' made their way to my ears.

Curious, I left my mother, and went in search of the kitten. My mom called me twice, but I didn't answer her, I was too focused on finding that kitten.

There it was, up in the apple tree our house was so popular for. It looked stuck, and it occurred to me that the sounds I'd heard must have been its call for help.

Throwing caution to the wind, I went up the tree, like I had done many times before.

I reached out an arm to the kitten, and it latched onto me so quickly I almost lost my balance on the branch I had been crouched on. It moved around my body until it came to settle on my shoulder. It gave a purr, as if to communicate its contentment.

I came down from the tree without any problems, but I let out a small yelp when I felt a hand grab my arm. My first thought was that my mother had finally caught up to me and was angry that I had ignored her calls.

It was surprising to find little girl my age instead. She gazed at me with wide, pretty eyes, and smiled at me with teeth confined in braces.

"You saved my kitten!" She said, with a smile even wider than the one she had before. She brushed a lock of red hair out of her eyes and held out her hand for me to shake.

I stared at the hand, and its little chubby fingers. Strangely, I found myself shaking it.

Her body shook from excitement. "My name is Nora! What's yours?"

I removed the half-asleep kitten from my shoulder and placed it on Nora's.

"Adah."

⌁

"You'll go to jail, Sandra. I'm stopping you from making a big mistake!" The male stranger shouted.

Sandra slammed her balled fists into his chest, but he didn't release her, his arms a vise around her small waist.

In the dark, I made out a third figure, but this one was in the car. His face was angled towards me, and his eyes were shut. If in the dark the outline of his face looked attractive, how much more would it be in the glory of day?

"I hit someone, Joel! She needs help," Sandra pulled away from him long enough to pull out her phone from her jean pocket and type in something, probably an emergency number.

The moment she put the phone to her ear, Joel grabbed it from her and slammed it on the floor. Sandra screamed.

The sound must have momentarily jolted the guy in the car from his slumber, because his eyes opened and immediately focused on me.

Three seconds of uninterrupted staring.

His eyes fluttered shut.

"Tell daddy to get you a new one," came a malicious hiss from Joel. "I'm doing you a big favour. Now get in the car, I'll drive."

Sandra shook her head no, and increased the distance between them.

With the speed of a snake, Joel reached out and grabbed her by the neck, slamming her into the side of the car so hard that I thought I heard something crack. Sandra tapped the window beside her, the one in the front seat where the other guy sat.

He didn't open his eyes again.

Sandra was all on her own.

Slowly, surely, Joel leaned in, and whispered something into her ear. Her eyes widened, and she stopped struggling.

A branch snapped somewhere in the woods behind me, and I quickly retreated back into the cover of the shadows offered by the trees before Joel and Sandra would see me.

I realised then that I had never asked myself who they had been arguing about. Sandra had mentioned a 'she'.

God, no.

My heart sank. Could it have been Nora?

I shook my head, she had probably gotten tired of chasing me and went back home.

The thought sounded stupid. Nora never got tired of following me around whenever we had a fight.

The sound of a car door closing pulled me out of my pool of thoughts, and I realised that Sandra had gotten into the car. It was chilling, but her eyes were fixed on the spot where I was hiding. Like she knew someone was watching.

Joel got into the driver's seat next, and started the car immediately, obviously in a haste to escape. A few seconds more, and the red sports car had zoomed off, revealing a broken body.

A broken body of a girl.

In a pool of blood.

A broken body.

That belonged to Nora.