A Little Secret

By Freya Heinzer

My breathing starts to get quick, inhale… exhale again. It’s as if I can’t hold myself up anymore and there is a huge boulder on my shoulder. This boulder has been sitting on my shoulder for a while, and slowly I’m getting weaker. I know it’s time to tell Mom, Dad, and Archie. So that the boulder will be gone. So that I can walk around freely, talk freely, and be me, without a cost. For the past 2 years, I’ve been anything but free. 

I’ve been hiding. Yes, I’ve been hiding. From him. Uncle Cory. You’d think an uncle is loving, and caring, and takes you and your cousins on fun trips. Maybe at the water park or the fair, he might tell you funny stories about his childhood, and teenage years. Not my uncle. He ruined my childhood and the beginning of my teenage years. But I won’t let him ruin the rest of my teenage years; he has already taken away so much. Just for his pleasure and his selfishness.

Uncle Cory,  a charity worker who cares about everyone. That is what everyone thinks he is. Who loves his wife and 3 children so much, and only does good. That’s what they think too. Ridiculous if you ask me. No one knows who he is, not his own sister, my mother. And she probably will never believe that he is anything but kind, caring, and perfect. But he's not.        

One night Uncle Cory snuck downstairs and took a knife. I was getting a glass of water, and when I saw him I hid behind the couch and watched. He takes the knife and does something horrible. I can't even say it, that’s how horrible it was. But when he leaves all that is left are tiny red specks on the ground. I’ve seen him do it almost every time his family stays over. I must tell my parents.

I run downstairs and I arrive in the kitchen out of breath. 

“Mom! Dad!” I called out. “I have something to tell you,” I say, my breathing normalizes “Uncle Cory has been the one who is eating all of Grandma’s famous red velvet cake!” My mom's jaw drops.

My brother says “ So now you can stop blaming me, Mom!” 

“Are you sure Sage, that it wasn’t Archie?” says Dad.

“Positive”`

“Well, I guess Uncle Cory is going to really have to pay for this.” 

And he did.

 

The ELM

VT

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