Found and Lost

Most leaves had fallen, yet the insecure oaks refused to let go.  It was on a day like this when she disappeared, days before Cael’s sixteenth birthday.   Everyone saw the boundless talent of this prodigy, this warm smiling child, as she walked to her piano lesson.

They never found her or a clue to her whereabouts. Cael’s parents argued over who was to blame.  Eventually, Cael’s father took to bourbon and mom took to a couch five times a week.

The more he held onto the belief that his sister would return, the deeper the divide between his parents.  Their relationship was like the decaying gutters hanging from the soffits and the acned macadam driveway. 

Cael was sitting alone in the kitchen on a late Friday afternoon when his father appeared in the doorway.  He remembers his father telling him that the garbage disposal had broken so if he felt like washing dishes, it had to be by hand.  Over the past few nights, the dishes had grown to a daunting mess.

Maybe Cael could surprise his dad when he came home later.  He turned on the disposal and a strained whir echoed from beneath the sink.  He turned it off and squeezed his hand down the drain.  He found the offending object.  As he pulled it out, he recognized something inside trying to get out.  It was his sister’s finger, with the sweet sixteen ring.

Sometimes, finding the truth is more painful than losing hope.

He had found his sister.