Never Loose Hope

• Casey Lankinen, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2011

NEVER LOOSE HOPE


Friday 16th of October 2001

I remember crying into my fairy pillow because it was my 5th birthday party and no one showed up or even bothered to call to inform me what happened and why they couldn’t come. I remember being so upset that I locked myself away in my room for the whole night. I remember falling asleep and waking up to a women screaming I went to my bedroom door and that’s when I heard a soft voice telling me from the other side of the door to go back into bed, close my eyes and drift off to sleep. Then to my amazement the woman started singing a soft lullaby and it was making me feel relaxed and made me think that everything was going to be alright but before I shut my eyes I listened to the woman’s voice to see if it sounded familiar and it didn’t.

I was a 5 year old girl whose parents were killed in a home invasion the future wasn’t looking very bright for me. But I survived and I was taken in by a foster family about a month later I was called in by the police to be questioned. They asked me if I saw the bad peoples faces I had to go back in time to remember that awful night but I had been blocking that night out for so long that I could barely remember but when I had finished telling the policemen that I never saw the bad peoples faces. my stomach gargled inside of me i thought i was going to be sick.

At that time I realised it had to be someone that I knew who killed my parents because my parents weren't the sort of people to let other people who they didn't trust into the house. But I couldn’t guess who it might’ve been and I didn’t want to think about the fact that it had to of been someone my parents trusted and were possibly good friends with them it was too heartbreaking to think about it.

5 years later

I had completely forgotten about that tragic event I guess when your young when terrible things happen you block them out and erase them from your mind right away and that’s exactly what I did. I had moved on two years after the incident and being moved around in foster care I settled down and my old next door neighbours adopted me they took great care of me. I had friends people liked me I was so happy until my 10th birthday I wasn’t allowed a sleepover party but I didn’t mind but I was allowed a get to gather after school though on that very night I discovered something that I had been blocking out for 5 years. I had never called my neighbours mum and dad until this night my new mother would tuck me into bed every night but this night was special she sung to me a lullaby that sounded familiar but I couldn’t quite think of where I’d heard it before but then as I fell asleep I realized where I had heard that lullaby before it was the one that was sung to me the night of the home invasion. That night I didn’t get any sleep I was too busy trying to figure out what this meant and then it hit me like a gush of wind it was my neighbours who had killed my parents in the invasion I had to leave so I waited until they had gone to sleep and then I made a run for it i lived in a halfway home for 4 terrifying days a day later i packed up my things and started walking to find a place to stay for good but at least one thing was certain i was never living with those people who murdered my parents ever again. A month later I discovered that my mother was alive and that she’d been looking for me all this time and she never lost hope.