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TWELVE-YEARS-OLD
“Rowan,” my sister whined. “I want to come with you.”
“Jelena, stop being a cry baby. You can’t come with us all the time.”
My sister was the queen of attitude and knew how to get her way. With her arms crossed, she stomped her foot. “Why not?” she asked in a snotty tone.
Frustration set in as the other boys waited, snickering as my sister and I bickered back and forth.
“Rowan, let your sister go,” my mom said as she walked into the room. Her sharp tone held no room for debate and I watched the others scramble out of the house in fear.
“Fine, but she has to keep up.” I huffed and walked out of the house, my sister hot on my heels trying to keep up.
“It’s okay if she’s with us,” Luke said from beside me as we all headed out to the field where the treehouse was.
Jelena shoved her way in between Luke and me, then she slipped her hand into mine. When I glanced down I noticed her looking up at us with worship in her eyes. She loved Luke about as much as she did me and she had placed her other hand in his.
Luke didn’t seem to mind at all and with the other boys up ahead, I let out a sigh and kept walking. When we reached the treehouse, the others were already up inside and calling out for us to hurry up.
One of them leaned out the front window. “I can’t believe your mom makes you bring your little sister. What a drag, man.”
“He’s mean,” Jelena said. “I don’t like him.”
Dropping my hand from hers I looked over to Luke who was scowling up at the kid shooting off his mouth. We didn’t even know him well. All the kids that had come were a year older than Luke and me. They’d overheard us talking about our fort and wanted to see it. Luke had told me not to show them, but I thought it would make us seem cooler and let them come.
I should have been a better brother and also followed Luke’s lead. He was always the nicest kid around and helped out anyone who needed it. But I made one of my first biggest mistakes that day and didn’t follow suit.
“You go first,” I told Luke. He glanced at my sister reluctantly but then went up the ladder.
Then, instead of letting Jelena go, I scrambled up behind him. That was a big no-no. My mother said she had to always go ahead of me, but I thought if I got up there that maybe she would just go back home.
“Wait, Rowan, I need help!” she called out to me.
“Jelena, just go home with mom.”
Her lip jutted out. She was stubborn and I could see in her eyes she wasn’t going to listen.
“Fine if you want to come up you need to do it yourself!” I yelled out to her.
And that was exactly what she did.
She was almost to the top when her foot missed a rung on the twelve-foot ladder and it startled her. Her hand lost possession of the one it was holding at almost the same time and backward she went.
Fear sparked in her beautiful green eyes, her hand outreached as if I could save her, and she screamed out my name.
“Rowan!”
Everything felt as if it was in slow motion as terror exploded into every part of my soul.
She hit the ground with a hard thud, her body flopping like a rag doll from impact. I heard a sharp breath leave her lungs and a grunt.
Then… nothing.
My baby sister's eyes were closed, her body lifeless, and she didn’t make another peep.
I jumped out onto the ladder and climbed down as fast as I could, Luke right behind me. Kneeling at her side I gently tried to wake her, but nothing was happening. Her tiny head lay against a rock, blood pooling from the back.
