Small snowflakes settled on the tip of my nose. Its cool touch gave me comfort as I stood in the deserted cemetery.
I was bundled in my red wool jacket and my homemade winter hat.
The tears fell upon my cheeks and rested there seemingly frozen by the cold winter air.
On days like today it used to bring the feeling of magic as Christmas approached. Today was dfferent, all I felt was sadness.
I ran my figer over the sharp points of the rose i held in my hand. I placed it upon the stone marked for her.
She was my sister, Lizzie and today was her 12th birthday. Christmas was her favorite time of the year and mine too. This year was different. I could but only remember her pale face as she laid in her pale coffin.
I was the one who found her that late spring day. We had been playing near the old water tower at the edge of town.
The day was beautiful and the birds were singing. Yet there she was; lying peacefully with her brown hair, blood soaked. Her lifeless body resting where she had fallen. I must have been screaming because someone had pulled up in their car and ran to me.
We knew not to play here but could not help ourselves. It was just off of the road and the woods behind the tower was our haven.
We lived with our grandmother since child services took us away from our abusive parents.
Today I wished that day had not happened, I wished that we had listened, I wished that she could be here setting up grandma's Christmas tree.
No matter what star I wished upon, no matter what god I prayed to she was still gone.
I shiver in the cold and reread her tombstone.
Elizabeth Lillian Connor
Decemeber 10 2001-May 15 2013
Loving daughter, granddaughter and sister.
Gone too soon.
I place a book wrapped in birthday wrapping paper. I used money from my job at the local grocery store to buy this for her. It was a favorite book of ours from the library. "Within a Painted Past". We read it together to escape the bad things at home.
Lizzie would have been excited that I got my license the first try and was saving up for an old clunker.
I miss her more than anything. She was always happy and loved to draw.
Something to my right moved, and I turned to find a cardinal. He was bright red and hopped so he was perched on her tombstone. He looked up at me for a moment, fluttered his wings and took off in the direction of the water tower.
I decided to make my way back. I had never returned to it, I could not face the sorrow that now lived there.
I followed the trees that lined the now busy street. Happy faces everywhere, decorations and light followed me.
As I approached the tower an inner cold started and I began to shiver. Tears were starting to fall uncontrollably.
I could see the spot where she took her last breath. There he was, that cardinal. He was sitting upon the rock that had been placed to remember my beautiful sister. He stood like he had at the cemetery and did not move as I walked closer. I knelt down in the snow and he flew away. This time into the sky.
I stopped and for the first time since my sister passed I smiled.
"Merry Christmas, Lizzie." I whispered through falling tears.
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