I couldn’t cry, I’ve cried enough. My eyes were swollen and red from the tears that swung at my eyes and strolled down my checks and off my face down to my neck. I looked at my sister’s grave where my white roses laid and my tears matched the rain that fell around us. I could hardly tell that the rain was falling since the tree top protected us with most of the threatening. I blew a kiss on my sister’s tombstone and turned away toward the winding trail through the thick Washington forest and wide blooming trees and hedges.
I found my through the path down to my house that laid feet away from the start of the trail. I walked onto the porch that was painted white many years ago and now started to show its’ true wood coloring. I opened the thin screen door that let the summer sunlight shine through into the kitchen.
There at the dinner table sat my mom who looked aged fifteen years since my sister’s death. Her brown eyes were now darker like the bark of the trees in the rain instead of the creamy beige color that filled them before. Her skin had more creases and lines in it than before too.
My sister’s unexplained murder was killing my mom, dad, brother, and me. My brother was drinking himself into stupors, my dad was locking himself away, my mom was crying all the time and hardly talked of anything but her first daughter, and I would visit my sister every Sunday.
That night when my brother was passed out and my parents slept, there I was sneaking. My sister’s murder scared me, but my sixteen year old mind had to fight the urge to stay in alone at night when my friends where meeting at the pond near my house. I had my messenger bag filled with a red beach towel, my bikini, and an extra set of clothing.
I walked through the forest on the opposite side of the path leading to my sister’s deathbed and finally I heard my friends’ voice as they played in the water.
I heard Caitlyn’s laugh, Brooke’s chatter, Katherine’s scream as she splashed Katie, and Katie’s deep laughter. I walked passed a wall of ferns and hedges. I saw all my friends there playing in the clear deep pond water. They called me in, waving and splashing the warm water on me. I pulled over my shirt and shorts and started on my way into the pond.
I swam in and all my friends started laughing. I turned around and faced them. Before I could ask them why they were laughing they dived under water. They were still waving for me to go with them. I dived under the water and looked up at the trees before I began down to meet my friends near the underwater plants on the bottom of the pond. The trees looked taller and more depressing than normal.
I turned my head down toward my friends and began to swim to them. I met them at the bottom when my lungs started to feel the pressure, but I liked it.
I needed it.
My friends grabbed my hands and faded away into the clear water that still reflected the trees figures across me. As my friends faded away, there my sister appeared.
Her black hair swirled beautifully around her glowing dark white skin. Her green eyes looked even greener around the green plants that swallowed us. She wore the same white dress she was buried in. The dress swirled and wrapped around her. She smiled her dazzling smile and reached out her hand.
I grabbed it and she pulled up toward the surface. Somewhere between the ground and the surface my mind went blank and I was back with my sister out of the pond and in our home.

“Why did you do it?” asked my sister whose voice in a tone that resembled a great woman singing.

“I saw my friends waving me toward the bottom.”
“They weren’t really there.”
“I guessed I missed you more than I thought.”
“That’s what happened to me, but mine was real.”
“What do you mean?”
“Brooke and Caitlyn called and said you were passed out by the pond. I rushed over and saw them with Mack, the boy I broke up with. His arm was around Caitlyn. They tied me up and threw me into the water. I died wishing that you would find out the truth, but not this way.”
“I’m so sorry. I never knew they were like that,” I said stunned and in disbelief.
“It’s okay; it’s not your fault.”
“What do we do now?” I asked looking around the copy of our home.
“We live here among there other angels.”
“We’re in heaven?”
“Yes, we arrive in our most treasured place.”
“Home,” I said simply.
“Yes, now we live here with the other angels and hope that it is a nice long time before anymore family reunions.”
“I hurt them when I died.”
“They’ll understand.”
“How do you know?”
“Angel’s intuition, we can learn to listen to our family and loved ones. They’re stronger than you think.”
I smiled and my sister and I headed off toward the pond where she said we could see the other side of the world, Earth. There we sat waiting to someone to find my body in the warm heaven air.