Dear Sister, I Remember

I was born with a cognitive disability.

The day my sister Audrey came to pick me up from school, a man dragged her into an alley. She was assaulted, and killed.

I was the only witness.

My parents seized my shoulders, their faces twisted with fury and grief. "Tell us! You saw his face. Speak!"

I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.

They threw me out that night.

Unable to care for myself, I became a ghost on the streets. I begged. I scavenged. I slept under bridges.

Until the day a man in a black suit found me.

He said he was Audrey's fiancé.