Changing

Written by Jacob Ibrag

The boy rushed upstairs while his little sister followed him.

She knew something was wrong, he was acting peculiar like

something had happened. Tripping on the last step, he lands

on the ragged carpet in the attic. Rushing towards her brother,

 she checks to see if he’s okay. ‘What’s going on? Why aren’t

you talking to me?’ He quickly shrugs her off and runs towards

the windowsill. Lodging his fingers underneath the bottom

rail, he struggles to open it. Using every ounce of his strength

and failing, he looks over his shoulder and asks his sister for

help. Finally getting the window to open all the way, the rain

 starts to blow into the room and onto their faces. ‘Why did

you have to open it, it’s raining!’ She watched as he stuck

his head out the window in full embrace of the cool Autumn

rain. Wasting no time, he quickly  looked out across the street

to scan the now vacant house. Moving trucks loading up

what was left of the soon to be ex-neighbors possessions.

He watched on as the mother and father got into the truck,

yet that wasn’t his main interest. It was her, the girl that’s

lived across from him his entire life. The person that made

any sense in his fifteen years of living and she was almost

gone forever. She slowly walked out of the house and made

her way towards the vehicle. While reaching for the door

handle, she quickly retreats and looks out towards the

house across the street. Finally finding his eyes, she smiles

and cries as does he as their tears converge with the river

 of rain on their cheeks. She mouths, ‘you’re everything’

as he tries to encapsulate this moment in his mind and

into his memory. ‘I’ll never forget,’ he whispers as she

makes her way into the vehicle. It was nineteen ninety

eight, the year the universe decided to take everything

away. Like most things though, forever was fickle

and had a propensity in changing its meaning.

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Photographer Unknown