Jordy

Sleep comes peacefully when you're only seven years old. Little Jordyn Kent liked to sleep in her mommy's flowery purple dress. Too big for her frame and hanging past her feet, dragging on the floor. A dolly clutched in a sticky grip. Golden ringlets graced the pink pillow, pink flowered covers pulled up to her chin. 1

1 am, a shot rings out in the night, Mommy screams. Her big brother Ryan is 23. He runs into the room and grabs her. He drags her to the woods. Kicking and screaming and yelling for her mommy, Jordyn follows. As they bury themselves in the woods, Ryan faces her and whispers. "Jordy, you have to be quiet now...a bad man shot Mommy. She can't help us now." He turned away and pulled her in farther. She tried to slip out of his grasp but his black leather gloved hand held tight. She furrowed her brows in confusion when she noticed he only wore one glove. She gasped at the sight of the moon on his white blood-stained t-shirt. She struggled and began to scream. "You killed Mommy! You did it! You killed Mommy!" 2

At this accusation he turned to her, a sinister grin on his face. He stopped short and grabbed her shoulders with both hands, dropping to his knees so as to be eye level with her. Jordyn shuddered at the coldness in his eyes and in the night air. She whimpered and whispered softly. "Why did you kill Mommy?" She shook as she waited, his eyes watching her. Then he spoke softly. "She is not your mommy, Jordyn. Your mommy is far away. We're going to go see her and she'll love you and your daddy..." Jordyn shook her head. "Mommy said Daddy's dead." Ryan held her shoulder tighter and shook her whole body. "She lied...she's not your mommy. She's your grandmother. I'm your daddy and we're going to go find your mommy. Grandma wouldn't let me take you so I had to get her out of the way. We're going to go live a happier life with your real mommy. Just you, me and mommy...ok?" Jordyn nodded then sank down to the ground. "I'm tired Ry...Daddy." She lay down as he nodded to her to sleep and lay down beside her. 3

2 am, the sleepless child stares at the man next to her. The man who for seven years had been her best friend and big brother. Now she had no idea what he should be to her. She rose to her feet, bunching the fabric of her dead mommy's favorite flowered dress in her hands as she walked. She picked up a heavy rock and walked back. Standing over his sleeping form, she raised the rock high above her head. As the thunder growled above her, and the lightning flashed across her eyes, she lowered the rock quickly, shattering the bone of his skull. Calmly, she left his dying form behind her, clutching her dolly in her bloody red, sticky fingers. 4

3:30 am, she walked absentmindedly beside the highway. Blood splattered across her face and dress. Her dolly covered in sticky redness from her blood covered hands. She stared innocently as a big truck pulled next to her. Like a child possessed she got in with the great bear of a man and let him take her to a police station. She told the friendly, smiley police officer about her big brother killing her mommy. 5

13 years later, she still walks through the woods, avoiding the area where her brother's decomposed body lay undisturbed from that night on. The police had given up the search for her mommy's killer. Her only witness that night had been the glass eyes of her favorite doll. Now nestled in beside her newborn daughter, washed and almost like new.6