The Final Day
“Keegan, can we go to the park?” his sister asked him with that adorable face she would give when she really wanted something.
“Ask Dad, Laurie, I have homework to do.”
“He’s at work, he’s always at work. Besides, it’s Saturday! Please?” she began to tear up at that point. How could he resist?
“Fine, give me five minutes.”
She squealed for joy and ran up to her room to get ready.
Laurie was only five-years-old at the time. She had golden hair and ice blue eyes, the kind that stung you when they held tears, just as her mother’s had. Keegan always subconsciously resented her for resembling their mother so much. When he looked deep into her glass-like eyes, he saw his mom’s. She had passed away while giving birth to Laurie. Since their father was a lawyer, and needed to support his two children, he was constantly out of the house. Keegan was twelve years older than Laurie, so it had made sense for him to be taking care of her. The age difference was inevitable to notice, and many asked why his parents waited for twelve more years to have a second child. Then they would begin to wonder if his mom was actually his real mom. She was Keegan’s mom just as much as she was Laurie’s. The reason that it took them so long to conceive another child was because Laurie was a somewhat miracle child; Keegan’s mother had gotten into an accident shortly after Keegan was born which damaged her uterus enough so that having a child was almost impossible, but his mother craved for another child to love, preferably a little girl. After a year or so, they finally gave up, and then on their fifteenth anniversary night, Laurie happened. She somehow survived the broken down uterus and managed to be born beautiful and healthy, but at a cost. Keegan loved Laurie as if she was his own child, but when he looked deep into her eyes, he missed his mother more than he could bear.
“I’m ready Keegan!” Laurie squealed as she ran down the stairs with a bucket full of marbles.
“You’re going to lose those if you bring so many.”
She didn’t care. Laurie loved the colours and sounds of the clanging marbles; she developed a passion for them when she was about a year old. She somehow found some around her playpen, managed to snatch them up and started to play with them. Their father had checked up on her an hour or so later and ran to see if her mouth was filled with marbles. Her mouth was empty, but just to be safe, he took her to the doctor’s anyway. After some tests, nothing unusual was discovered in her stomach, she was just staring and playing with the marbles. Since then, she’s loved them and only asks for marbles for special occasions.
“Don’t bring your eye marble,” Keegan joked.
“Of course not! It’s still in my glass case upstairs.”
Their father had bought an extremely expensive marble for Laurie for her fourth birthday. The colours of the marble looked exactly like Laurie’s eyes. Swirls of blues and greys filled the glorious sphere. It was her favourite marble and she never removed it from her glass case. She called it her ‘eye marble’ since it displayed the features of her eyes so well.
As they left for the park, Keegan strapped Laurie tightly into her car seat. As they pulled out of the driveway, Laurie waved to the house and stared at it, not knowing it was the last time she would do so.
It seemed like just another day at the park. The sun was shining onto the small playground as the children frolicked around on it. The wooden shavings were piled around the ground of the metallic jungle gym. The blue and red coloured steel glistened in the sunlight and the wind blew onto the swings, shaking them slightly. Keegan let Laurie run over to the kids on the playground with her pink bucket full of marbles. She then ran to the small, square sandbox and saw a familiar face: little Sarah Baker from next door. She was shovelling little clumps of sand into an indigo bucket and trying to assemble the sand into a castle. Sarah was a few years younger than Laurie, but Laurie loved to play with her all the same. Keegan looked around at the parents who sat on the green benches surrounding the park, chatting to each other about their lives, or just admiring the scenery of the beautiful little area. There were multiple pathways laid out for those who wanted to walk their dogs or take a stroll in the forest. The trees looked as though they had many stories to tell in their old age; they sat around the park and loomed over the benches, providing shade for the parents. The park was truly beautiful and Keegan noticed this as he looked around the small area of children playing and parents talking.
Since Keegan didn’t know anyone else around, he went to sit next to Sarah’s older sister, Melanie. He began to walk over but stopped in his tracks when he caught a glimpse of her. Melanie was a year or so younger than him so it wasn’t odd for him to go sit next to her… was it?
“Hello Keegan. Please, sit down,” she said when she noticed him.
He sat down next to her on the park bench. She was the type of girl who wasn’t afraid to speak up or to embarrass herself. She had a beautiful face – wonderful teeth, adorable dimples and hazel eyes that almost turned gold in the right light. Her long blonde hair glimmered in the sunlight as she sat on the bench wearing a cute, white summer dress with a pattern of yellow flowers all over it. Her small legs showed and Keegan noticed her wonderful, petite figure. Though she was pretty, Melanie also had her flaws: her nose was off-center and her hair was a little brittle; she also had a crooked smile. Keegan didn’t care though, he thought she was beautiful.
“How’s your final year of high school going?” she asked, revealing her cute, crooked smile.
While they chatted, Keegan stole a few glances now and then at Laurie as she played. After he got engaged in his conversation enough with Melanie, he stopped checking on Laurie.
After about twenty minutes of conversation, it began to slow down and head into the direction of awkward pauses. Before the conversation got too awkward, he glanced in the direction he last saw his little sister. His stomach churned. His breath froze mid-sentence; he could feel his face go pale and his hands sweat as he realized what had happened. She was gone. His heart raced as he looked around again to see if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Melanie saw the sheer horror in his face and asked what was wrong. He got up so quickly that he almost fell back with a head rush. He ran to the sandbox to see if Laurie had wandered into the nearby woods. He also looked for Sarah; she had run off to the jungle gym and turned around to call for Laurie when she also noticed Laurie was gone. He felt his heart coming up into his throat as he began the relentless, futile attempts to call for her.
“Laurie! Where are you? Laurie!” he screamed, half expecting her to bolt out of the woods and apologize profusely for running off.
Melanie ran to Sarah to ask her where Laurie went; she explained, through sobs, that they were racing to the jungle gym and Sarah was winning, when she turned around to see where Laurie was, she was gone. Keegan ran into the woods to begin his frantic search for her while Melanie explained that she’d quickly drive Sarah home and call the police before she came back to help.
Keegan noticed the park had emptied due to the sun’s disappearance behind the trees. All he had for light was a few street lamps and what was left of the sun’s rays.
Maybe she was lost in the woods, he thought, followed a squirrel or something and just got lost. He prayed, as he knocked tree branches out of his face that she wasn’t taken by someone. If she was, the one who took her may still be around. Keegan picked up his pace to a sprint. He bolted as fast as he could through the small forest, calling her name in desperation. He knew she was gone, but he didn’t want to believe it.
He began to look on the ground for something, anything that would show him where she may have gone. The only thing he saw was broken tree branches, but he broke those.
How could he have let this happen? Why wasn’t he watching her more closely? How could someone take her without anyone around noticing? Why would anyone take such a sweet and innocent child in the first place? A million more questions ran through his head before he heard a voice calling for him. His heart stopped again when he heard it. He ran towards it, calling for Laurie. The voice was getting louder. He couldn’t feel his legs anymore; all he wanted to do now was to hug her and take her home.
His heart sank as he realized who was calling for him; Melanie ran up to him and asked if he had found Laurie yet. He shook his head and noticed the tears running down his face. He didn’t even notice Melanie hugging and comforting him as he let his emotions go and bawled in anger and in guilt. He noticed the police swarming around and beginning their search, but he knew they wouldn’t find her. His mind ran at a mile a minute. He didn’t realize what was going on around him anymore: the police putting up their ‘DO NOT ENTER’ tape around the area, Melanie explaining what had happened, the beams of light from flashlights shining in various directions, the questions he was mindlessly answering. All of what was going on seemed like some horrible nightmare that he couldn’t wake up from, but he had to face the truth:
Laurie was gone.