The Book Of Love

"AARON!" his father yelled, grabbing two handfuls of his son's shirt as he tried push him back. Aaron was using all his force to get to his sister. "You need to stay here! I don't want Nathan to see this! Go!"

Aaron wouldn't budge.

"I said go, dammit!" Samuel hollered again before jumping in the back of the ambulance with his wife and daughter. Aaron stood there, jaw locked, as he watched them pull out of the driveway, turn on the sirens and speed away down the road.

I didn't know what to do. Madison had just lost her balance near the steps that led to their basement and she.. she fell backwards and tumbled down the stairs. They didn't think she hit her head because there was no blood around the freshly stitched wound, but the stitches had been torn apart on what was left of her arm and leg. Anna immediately dialed 911, knowing that Madison was loosing a good amount of blood. Nathan stood there in horror, bawling his eyes out silently as he clutched onto his dog. Aaron tried to help as much as he could, but his parents wouldn't let him near. When it happened, I didn't know whether to leave or not, and I still didn't.

Minutes after the ambulance was gone, Aaron was still in the same spot. I walked the few steps in between us and laid a hand on his shoulder. He immediately wiped the tears that fell from his eyes and sniffed a little before setting his eyes on me.

"Please stay with me," he whispered, looking down as if he was afraid to appear weak. "Please," he begged as he looked back up.

I gave my head a long nod before following him inside. I felt horrible for not being able to tell my father where I was and why I wouldn't be home, but I knew that I would have felt even worse if I didn't stay with Aaron.

As soon as we walked through the front door, Nathan was there. He instantly hugged Aaron's leg and wasn't afraid to show his emotions. His big brother picked him up and held him close. Aaron tried his best not to cry again for fear of scaring Nathan and making things worse than they already were.

"Let's get you to bed, bud. It's been a long day," he sighed.

I stayed by the front door and watched as they walked up the stairs and down the small hallway until I heard a door close. Aaron didn't need to say anything to me, he needed to take care of his little brother and himself. I would be fine; this wasn't my family. But that didn't mean I didn't feel the urge to cry. I didn't even know what happened to Madison in the first place, and I still felt awful.

I turned around and locked the front door. I moved into the kitchen and surveyed the room. A glass salad bowl that was half full of soapy water was now in pieces on the floor, the water all over the tile. The freezer door was wide open and you could see that things were starting to melt. The dishwasher was also open, along with a few cabinets and drawers. The back door was half way shut and Cooper was roaming the yard. Then I looked to the basement stairs. There was blood on some of the steps and a small pool of it at the bottom. That's when my gaze landed on the floor directly in front of me. I was standing right on Madison's blood, and there was large drops and small puddles the whole way to the front door. I felt sick.

I closed up the freezer and then went outside to find Cooper. He was by the side of the house, and when I found him, I chained him to the spot by their swing set. I didn't want him to run off into the fields or the road. After that, I went back inside and cleaned up the kitchen. It took me a while to find the mop and where the plates and everything went, but I eventually cleaned it all up. Then I found a rag, ran it under the water and squeezed it so it wasn't dripping everywhere. I carefully walked to the front door and got down on my hands and knees. As hard as it was for me, I knew it would be even harder for Samuel and Anna or even Aaron to wipe up Madison's blood.

I cleaned up all the red liquid from the door to the kitchen and down the basement steps, but once I started on the puddle at the very bottom, it just seemed like it wouldn't go away no matter how hard I scrubbed. Even if it was on hardwood floor and not carpet, it still was everywhere. The whole time I attempted to put the house back to normal, I couldn't stop thinking about why Madison had staples on the one side of her head and why she was missing two limbs. I didn't dare think about asking, though.

When the floor was finally spotless, I turned off the lights in the basement and main floor. Then I found a wash bin in the garage. I tried to rinse out the blood, but there was no use. I ended up throwing it away so there'd be no evidence.

Then I went upstairs and found the door that had been shut. I quietly opened it a few inches and popped my head in. They were fast asleep on Nathan's spaceship comforter, Aaron's arms around his brother. There were remnants of tears down Nathan's cheeks and drops beginning to dry on his light red pillow. My hand met my lips as I felt a pang of sorrow. I let my head drop as I stepped out and closed the door. It was time for me to go.

I slowly and quietly descended down one of the sets of stairs and gathered my things off of the couch. When I turned around, Aaron was standing quietly next to the bottom of the steps.

"I, um," I said, tugging my bag on my shoulder. "I tied up Cooper, and I cleaned up the kitchen and the..," I trailed off, not wanting say the word.

"Thank you," he replied. I nodded and headed for the front door, but Aaron grabbed my hands.

"Please, don't go. Just.. just stay with me tonight," he told me before finishing. "I-I'm scared I'm gonna get a phone call in the middle of the night and my world will just come crashin' down," he admitted. "I want you to stay, Johanna. I need you to."

He wants me and needs me? Nobody ever needed or wanted me around. I wasn't used to that feeling, but I knew that staying with him was the least I could do. "Okay."

He gave me the best smiled he could and reached for my hand. He held onto it the whole up the stairs and as we crawled into his bed. Never once did he let go.

I refused to close my eyes until he did, even if it did take until two thirty in the morning for his breathing to finally become rhythmic and for his body to relax. That was when I finally allowed myself to close my eyes. I woke back up around three, though, when I turned and Aaron wasn't there. I panicked inside, but calmed down once I saw him wide awake out on the roof. He must have realized that I wasn't going to go to sleep until he did, so he purposely slowed his breathing and relaxed. Then he probably untangled himself from me once he knew I was sound asleep and stepped out onto the roof.

I pulled his comforter off my body and walked to the window. I watched him for a minute or so. He would wipe at his eyes every so often and shake his head. I didn't know if I should pretend I never saw him and go back to bed or try to comfort him. But I knew that if I were him, I would want someone next to me so that I knew I wasn't alone in the situation.

I tried to make some noise, but not a lot, so that Aaron wouldn't be frightened when I sat down next to him. When I did take a seat, he looked over a me. His cheeks were drenched, his eyes were red. He'd been crying nonstop for a good half hour.

"Are you okay?" I asked, even though he clearly wasn't. I didn't know what else to say, I hadn't experienced something like this.

I received a faint shake of his head in response. Then he put his head on my shoulder as I wrapped my arms around him. He kept crying, but he didn't bother to wipe away his tears this time. I hesitantly rested my hand on his head and lightly stroked his hair.

"My ma asked me to run to the market to grab some hotdog buns for dinner, and Madison wanted to come with me. We were half way to the market when I saw a shootin' star. I told her to look out my window, and the next thing I know..," he said before choking on tears. "We're headed straight for a tree. There was only one tree on the whole road, and I had to hit it. I took my eyes off the road for just a split second.. I slammed on the breaks and turned the wheel, but her side still hit the tree. I escaped with only glass in my arm and scratches. Madison..," he told me, before stopping for a long moment.

He pulled away from me then and looked out at everything in front of us.

"Madison, she.. she lost her leg and arm. She suffered brain damage, and they diagnosed her with Anterograde Amnesia. My ma collapsed to the floor, and my pa held her for the longest time. She just had a surgery done the other day to fix things up," he told me. "Everyday Madison wakes up and does the same thing she did that day. I've eaten hotdogs and watched the same baseball game every night for nearly two years. She remembers everything up until she got into the truck. She doesn't go to school anymore, her friends abandoned her. She won't even remember you," he explained just above a whisper. "It's permanent, she's not coming back. She'll never have a chance at a normal life, and she's only eleven."

He sighed and didn't say anything for a moment.

"When I look in the mirror, I'm disgusted with what I see. I refuse to drive 'cause I'm scared of it happenin' again. I just feel that I have to be there 'cause it's my fault she's in this position. I don't deserve to have escaped without any serious injuries. I should have been the one who.. I should have been," he tried to get out, his crying becoming louder as he shook in my arms. "I've never let anyone see me like this, not even my parents. Nobody knows how much it kills me to see my little sister the way she is now.."