Did You Forget : Prologue.

The first thing he noticed were the rumors that passed around on Sundays after church. Just little whispers, little mumbles. He hardly took note of them, used to the way the elderly women gossiped with their judgmental eyes and their disapproving ‘tsk’s.

The second things he noticed were the moving trucks. One went down old Willow St. in early August, the second a few weeks later. They were both fairly small; the first took several boxes and a few assorted pieces of furniture, the second brought a few boxes and a desk and sliding chair. Little things, things that did not show much.

The third thing he noticed was how, slowly, the house at the end of Willow St. slowly started to show signs of life. Everyone knew the woman who lived there; Mrs. Matthews had been there long enough to know all of the neighbors that moved in around her. But, as old age caught up with her, the outward appearances of her house began to crumble. The paint peeled, the garden wilted, the bushes went unkempt.

But, slowly, there was a change. A few weeds taken out here and there. A window shutter righted. A wheelbarrow of dead plants on the side of the garden. Potted plants hanging by the front door.

They were little things, things that did not show or tell much.

But the more he looked, the more he wondered.

And the more he wondered, the more curious he became.

And, the fourth thing he noticed, surprised him the most, although he was already suspecting it. But his suspicions did not keep him from gasping when a small head popped out from behind the bushes one day as he passed. A bright bandana held back bouncy curls and little smudges of mud were smeared across the girl’s face.

The aging of six years had to be added to his memory of her but, even through all that time, he was sure he knew this girl. He was sure she’d remember him and his brother and—oh. His brother.

Continuing down Willow St., it took him all of two minutes to park his car in his driveway, kick his sneakers off on his way up the stairs, and burst through his brother’s doorway.

The bewildered look on his brother’s face must have mirrored his own.

“Danny,” he said, a little breathlessly. “She’s back.”