The Key Chased the Blade

"What happened to that pink hat I gave you?" Simon asked.

I was wearing a navy blue one now. Frost and snow was sticking to it and that was annoying. "It kind of got lost last night," I said. "I figured we could backtrack today and try to find it."

"Oh boy, Noah." Simon laughed. "Just don't lose this one, okay? I'm running out of beanies to let you borrow."

We trudged through the snow. It hadn't snowed this hard in a long long while. The last time we got this much snow was when I was in fifth grade and Simon fell through a frozen pond because I convinced him he could dance on it. God, that was a year. Normally we'd get slush and that was it, but this was something else. They'd probably closed down the schools. So much for skipping because of serial killers.

"Are we heading back to Sadie's house?" Simon asked.

"Yeah," I said. "It's going to be light out, so we can see more anyway. And thankfully that hat was bright pink. We'll be able to see that too."

We didn't see the hat though. We went up and down the street twice and couldn't even find it. Simon said we'd just have to look when the snow melts, or someone could've found it and gave it to Goodwill. So we trekked back to Alder Street and stood in front of Sadie's house.

There was no one there. The gate was swinging in the cold wind, which was the one reminder that some crazy homeless person had went through it last night. Simon looped his arm through mine before we entered it and searched around the house. I would've shaken him off, but I was actually kind of scared that the insane hobo was sleeping around there waiting for us. I didn't show it though. I pretended to be all aloof about it and when we went back to the front, I unlooped our arms like we weren't even connected.

We wandered a bit away from the house and pondered. "Where should we go next?" Simon asked.

"Maybe we should go to Jefferson Bridge or where that clock was downtown," I said. "That could be a good spot."

"Good idea. Let's head back and I'll get the car."

But then I saw a blue van pull up to the side of Sadie's house. Curious, I stopped and watched it. Simon didn't say anything either and regarded the person exit the vehicle with me. It was a dark-skinned man with pitch-black hair in a crisp business suit. He was holding a bouquet of flowers and a beautifully adorned card. Like we were in a trance, we watched him walk up to the still swinging gate, creak it open, and then walk all the way to the front door. He paused again. And finally, after staring at the front door for what seemed like forever, he rested the flowers onto the welcome mat and left without another look back. The blue car drove off down the street and out of sight.

Simon and I didn't say anything for a few seconds.

"Do you..." I started. "Do you think we should take a look at that?"

Simon just nodded. For some reason, it felt like speaking was just too loud in this silence.

Simon and I walked over, opened the gate, and went up to the flowers. It was a mix of red and white roses, and the card was pink with lace. I slowly reached down and picked the card off of the mat, and I held it as if I would a baby bird. It almost felt like it would crumple in my hands. Then, I carefully opened the card.

Dear Sadie and Annie,

I've written this letter a thousand times and have never sent it. Now it's too late. All the words I have ever written are now meaningless. The good, the bad, they are insignificant now. I can't express the misery I am in now. I should have given you this earlier. Just a day earlier, even an hour earlier would have been right. I never realized that the cruel hand of death would strike those once close to me. I was foolish to think that it would pass me by. And now, I write what I have wanted to say to you both for years, knowing you will never know the words that have been weighing so heavily on my heart.

I'm sorry for leaving.

Khalid Amala

I closed the card in my hands and rested it back onto the bouquet of flowers. The roses were as red as blood and as white as milk underneath the lacy card. They began to blur together as I stared at it.

"You know, maybe we should just go back home," I said. "I'm really not feeling too well."