this is a short story about a girl named Gail who finds out that life isn't what it really seems. when she meets Kelly. her whole life changes into the darkest moment.
Gail grow up in a house full of love. her parents had their children late in life. Gail was the oldest. then came Carl and Judy. they were married for twenty three years. they were a close family. Gail was a very special girl.
she loved being a cheer leader. she had a crash on Jimmy the quarterback. but Jimmy was going with a friend of Gail's so she kept her feelings to herself. Gail loved high school. she had so many friends who really loved her. she loved cheering for the Eagles football team.
one day while Gail was walking home from school, she saw a big moving truck backing up to the house next door. she was hoping a girl her age was moving in. she loved making new friends. Gail watched outside for a few moments , to see if she could spot the new family joining her community.
she waited for a few more moments. it was starting to rain so she ran into the house. Gail asked her mother about the new family moving in. Gail's mother said she saw the lady of the house. but that was all she saw. Gail went up to her room to study.
all of a sudden Gail heard a loud bang. she ran to the window and saw a big table fall to the ground. the legs were broken off.
the movers were very upset. the family came running out of the house to see what was going on. now Gail could see who was moving in. she saw a girl and a boy who looked to be about the same age. the father was yelling at the movers. while the mother just stood there with her hand over her mouth. Gail layed down on her bed and fell asleep. after supper Gail decided to go next door and introduce her self to the new family. she took her mother's apple pie that was cooling on the stove and walked over to the house. as she started to ring the doorbell she could hear the father yelling at someone. but Gail rang the bell anyway. the mother answered the door. she was a tall woman with brown hair.
you could see she wore to much makeup for a woman her age. but it didn't bother Gail. Gail just wanted to meet the kids. she gave the pie to the mother and intrduced herself. as she was talking to the mother she looked up and saw the boy and girl standing at the top of the stairs. Gail introduced herself to the kids. they both came running down stairs to talk to Gail. they said they were twins. Kelly and Kyle. they were a year younger then Gail. but they seemed like good kids to Gail. Kelly asked Gail to come up and see her new room. the room was bigger then Gail's room. they both sat on the bed and talked for a couple of hours. they both got along great. Gail had found a new friend. the next day Gail waited for Kelly to walk to school with her. but Kelly never came out of her house. Gail went over and rang the bell. Kelly's mother came to the door with a mad look on her face. she told Gail that Kelly wasn't going to school . the mother was going to home school the twins.
that seemed odd to Gail. but she went on her way to school before the bell rang. that same night Gail heard someone running a lawn mower. she looked out the window annd saw Kyle. she ran down stairs and ran over to talk to him. Gail had so many questions she wanted to ask. Kyle seems shy as Gail came towards him. he started to back up. but Gail walked up to him anyway. Gail started asking questions. but Kyle didn't answer her. he put down the lawn mower and ran into the house. Gail was beginning to think they were a strange family. why so many secerts she thought.
it wasn't long before Gail would find out everything she wanted to know. she rememberd Kelly saying that their last name was Carlson. and they lived in Florida. but came up north so her father could get a better paying job. Gail decided to do a little detective work on her own. she got on the computer and started looking for the name Carlson from Florida. there was many Carlson's from Florida. but not the part of Florida that Kelly said. Gail searched on the computer for a couple of hours. but found nothing. it was like the family never existed. that made Gail more determined to find out about the family living next door. the next day Gail went to school to talk to her friends about the family that lived next door to her. she told her friends everything that she knew about them. which wasn't much. her friends were getting puzzled now them self. they were thinking all kinds of weird things. but Gail assured them that she would get to the bottom of it all. after school Gail went back on the computer. she was looking to see if the twins had a birth record from Florida. but there was no sign of one. Gail thought maybe they were not born in Florida. but Kelly said they lived in Florida all their life. Gail decided to give it one more try. she would go to Kelly's house and try to talk to her again. as Gail was walking to the house she heard a loud scream coming from inside the house. it sounded like Kelly was screaming. Gail ran up to the house and banged on the door. the father answered the door. he told her she could not see Kelly because she was asleep. Gail told the father that she heard a loud scream coming from his house.
Kelly's father told Gail that she was imagining things. he let her know there was nothing going on in his house. but Gail knew he was lieing to protect something horrible that was happening in that house. Gail felt that the father must have been beating the twins. she just had to find out for her self, before something horrible happened to the twins. Gail wanted to tell her mother everything that was going on, but she knew her mother would tell her to stay out of it. so she kept her secert to her self. Gail thought about going to the police but she knew Kelly's parents would be sweet as pie to them. the next day Gail skipped school and went to the library to look through some old papers of Florida. she was looking for head lines of something that she didn't really know. Gail went through so many papers. her eyes were getting tired from reading them all. then Gail came upon a head line about a house burning down leaving a small boy inside to die. it happened in the same town Kelly lived in. she looked at the date and figured out Kelly was about five years old when it happened. Gail thought that Kelly would remember what happened. the paper said that the family got out but the little boy perished. he was five years old too. but they called it an accident. faulty wireing or something.
Gail read more about the fire and saw a name of a person who tried to get the boy out of the house. the name was Rita Jones. Gail went home and put the name of Rita Jones in the computer. her name came up in the white pages. and her telephone number was there also. Gail decided to call this person and ask her if she knew the Carlson family. the phone started ringing and a woman answered the phone. Gail told her she saw the paper about the fire. and she wanted to know the family's name. the woman told her it was the Jackson family. the woman said it was a very sad thing that happened to the boy. she said that the family always kept to themsleves. they never talked to anyone. Gail asked the woman if she knew a Carlson family that might have lived near by. the woman told Gail no. no such family lived on that street. Gail asked the woman how many kids did that family have that had the bad fire. the woman told Gail they had three children. two boys and a girl.
Gail thanked the woman for the infomation. and said she was sorry that she bothered her. and hung up the phone. now Gail was back to square one. but very confussed. no one knew the Carlson family. maybe Kelly was lieing about living in Florida. maybe the family didn't want anyone to know where they lived. so many questions went through Gail's mind. Gail decided it was time to give it up.
Gail went to school and concentreted on her school work. she was getting high marks. she knew she was going to collage in the fall. that made her very happy.
Gail started dating a new boy from school. his name was Brian. he was on the football team. the more they got to know each other the more in love they became.
Gail told her mother about Brian. Gail's mother was happy for her and decided to have Brian over for supper. Gail called Brian up and told him to come over for supper. when Brian got to the house Gail was outside to greet him with a big kiss.
Brian looked over at the house next door and saw the father mowing the grass.
Brian's face turned white. Gail asked him if he was ok. Brian told Gail he knew that guy. he said his name was Tom Jackson. Gail asked Brian how did he know him.
Brian told Gail that he lived in Florida with his aunt down the street from him. Gail was so surprised. she never knew Brian lived in Florida. Brian told her he lived there a few years then came back up north. Gail told Brian that that was the Carlson family.
Brian assured Gail that that was mister Jackson. Gail told Brian that the jackson family had a bad fire and lost a boy. Brian told Gail that mister Jackson had triplets. two boys and a girl. but the poor boy never made it out of the house.
now Gail was wondering why nothing was ever said about having triplets in the family. not even Kelly told her that. what was the big secert. Gail asked Brian if he knew anymore about the family. Brian told Gail that they were a very lonely family. they never talked to anyone. that's all he knew about them. after supper Gail kissed Brian good night and went to her room. now Brian had Gail wondering again about the family next door. why did they change their name to Carlson. why didn't they mention there was three children. Gail had to get to the bottom of it some how. the next day after school Gail went over the Kelly's house. she went around the corner of the house and threw rocks at Kelly's window. Kelly opened the window up and told Gail to get away from the house or she would get in trouble with her dad. Gail told Kelly to sneak out of the house because she wanted to talk to Kelly. Gail waited around the back of the house. Kelly came running out with just a sweater over her pajamas. Gail took Kelly down by the river. it was cold by the river. so Gail took her coat off and put it around Kelly.
Gail started talking to Kelly about alot of things. she had so many questions to ask Kelly. Kelly looked into Gail's eyes and started to cry. Gail hugged Kelly and told her everything would be alright. Kelly shook her head no. nothing would ever be alright again. she told Gail that when she was five years old, she was playing with matches in her brother's room. his name was Kevin. they were triplets. the curtains caught on fire and scared Kelly. so she ran from her brother's bedroom not thinking to wake up her brother and take him with her. she ran to her parents room and woke them up. they all ran down stairs thinking Kevin was behind them. when they got outside they asked Kelly where Kevin was. Kelly pointed to the bedroom window. the father tried to rush in but the flames were to much for him. that is when Mrs Jones tried to rush in also. but it was to late. Kevin was dead. the father shook Kelly and asked her what had happened. she told her father that she was playing with matches in Kevin's room. she never thought that the curtains would catch on fire. her father started hitting her and telling her that Kevin was his life. he loved that little boy more then the other two. as Kelly was telling her story she started sobbing so bad that Gail could feel her shaking as Gail held her in her arms. Kelly then told Gail that her father never for gave her for what she did to Kevin. Kelly carried the guilt with her from the age of five until now. her father reminded Kelly every day of her life that she murdered her brother. Gail tried to explain to Kelly that she was just a little girl when it happened. she told Kelly it was an accident not murder. but Kelly had been brain washed by her father for years that nothing Gail said mattered to Kelly. Kelly proceeded to tell Gail the reason she could not go to school. every time her father would look at her he would beat her. Kelly had bruises all over her body. and the parents didn't want the school to see her bruises. Gail started to cry still holding Kelly in her arms.
Gail wanted to kill Kelly's father for puting his daughter through so much torture.
Kelly could never be a little girl again after the fire. she was to grow up and be tortured by her father the rest of her life. it was getting colder out so Gail walked Kelly back to her house. Gail kissed Kelly on the cheek and told her to get some sleep and she would talk to her tomorrow. the next day Gail came rushing home from school to see how Kelly was doing. but first she had to say hello to her mother. when Gail got in the house her mother was crying. Gail asked her what was wrong. her mother explained to Gail that some time in the middle of the night
Kelly hung her self. Gail could not believe it. she wouldn't believe it. Gail ran from the house with tears running down her face. she ran to Kelly's house, and banged
on the door. nobody answered the door. she ran around the back of the house.
trying to get in the back door. Gail was sobbing uncontrolable now. she knew somewhere in her heart that Kelly did take her own life. so the torture would finally end. she ran from Kelly's house to Brian's house . she needed someone to console her and hug her. when she reached Brian's house he saw her from the window. Gail had collapsed oh the grass from all the pain she felt in her heart for Kelly. Brian picked Gail up and brought her to his house. he put her on the couch and put wet cloths on her forehead. when Gail came to she grabbed Brian and hugged him so tight. she started telling him about Kelly. when Brian calmed Gail down he told her it was his aunt that tried to save Kevin from the fire. Brian knew everything that happened that night but he didn't want to tell Gail. because he knew he would upset her more. three days later Gail and Brian went to Kelly's grave site
and put flowers on her grave. Gail sat there for awhile talking to Kelly. she told Kelly that nothing like this would ever happen to another child as long as she lived.
the following september Gail went to collage and became a therapist on behalf of abused children. she married Brian and had two beautiful children. but she still remained committed to her work. like she told Kelly no other child will ever go through what Kelly went through as long as she lives.
the end.
written by Alice Donatelli copyright 2006
Jerry Lowenstein, an octogenarian and a nice guy, has written a fantastic mystery/ suspense novel that takes place just after WW2 on and near Bikini Atoll. He actually witnessed an atomic bomb test. Can you imagine that?
