I tugged with all my strength as the rusty step ladder spread out on the floor, and to think that a ladder would be so easy to take out. The sound of the metal creaking ached in my ears. It was definitely time to get a new ladder, I thought to myself. A loose nail fell out, it’s dull tip slid across the glossy wooden floor as I reached out to get it. I stepped, one foot at a time, down the ladder, who knew when this ladder would break.

Trudging into my room, both hands on the box, its weight weighing me down, it was as if I were carrying an elephant. Struggling to place it down carefully, I felt my knees getting weaker and weaker by the step. I tried to avoid breaking anything inside. THUD! The box dropped to the floor taking me down with it.

“Sydney, is everything alright up there,” my mother yelled out from the kitchen “did something fall, are you alright?”

“Yea mom, I’m fine!” I yelled back .

An abounding amount of pictures filled the box bottom to top. A little scrap of paper flew out onto the floor beside me. It read: November 11, 2005 “Toddler Gone Missing”. At the top right hand corner of what seames as to be picture of a young girl. I dozed off while looking at a old picture from my 7th birthday party. Wow I’ve changed so much since then, the amount of things that can change in 6 years is incredible, mind-blowing, jaw-dropping, I thought to myself.

As I looked through the box even more, reaching what seemed to be the bottom of the ginormous pile of pictures, I found yet another piece of the newsletter. This piece read “...3 year old gone missing after the loss of both parents(Avery and Tom Charles) in a car accident. No current authority’s were given any info to where she might be. Girl appeared to be wearing a little light pink dress with little colorful buttons on the front when last seen by neighbors hours before the crash.” Why had this been here? How’d it get here? Who was the girl ? Questions ran through my head. Beneath the newsletter clipping I found a picture. I couldn’t believe my eyes! The dress, the little buttons, it’s her , the girl ! Next to her were two adults, I swear they looked just like my parents. But who was she and why had there been a picture.
During class I wondered off into my mind. I  began thinking back to last night when I found the picture. Then it struck me. Had this been my sibling, did I have sister? What were my parents not telling me ?
As soon as I got home, I threw my bag to the ground, kicked off my shoes, and ran up the stairs. I hopped onto my bed and  grabbed my laptop. The quick clicks of my fingers on the keys were loud and repetitive. I searched up “Child missing 2005” into my google engine. It felt as if a century passed  waiting for it to load. The article read “November 11th, 2005. Late last night a terrible crash on J23 parkway took the lives of a young married couple. It is said to be that they had a small child in the backseat and there hasn’t been any sightings of her. If anyone has any leads to where she might have gone please contact the towns PD….” At that point, I was urging to find out, and let me tell you I’m not all that patient. I hustled  down stairs to where my parents had been watching tv. I knew I had to do what had to be done.

“Mom, Dad, can I ask you something?” I asked nervously

“Sure sweetie, what is it,” my mother replied “is everything alright?”

“Yes-no, well-I don’t know,” I hesitated “when I was looking for the picture for my project a couple of days ago I found this.” I handed them the little scrap of paper along with the picture

“ Oh, what’s this?” my father questioned giving my mother a side look

“ Is that my sister?” I asked impatiently pointing to the picture

“Syndney, this isn’t important right now.” my mother replied

“Yes it is, can you please just answer my question” I snapped back, I had never yelled at my mother before and I didn’t wish to do so again

“Don’t talk to your mom like that young miss.” My father warned me

“I just want to know the truth,” I begged “ What are you not telling me?!”

“Go to your room and don’t come out until you get your acts right.” my mother demanded

“ Are you sure that was the thing to do, Amy?” Sydney’s dad asked , her mother gave her dad a cruel look.

I ran upstairs to my room and slammed the door behind me. I sat on the edge of my bed, I had never been so upset. I could hear my parents arguing from my bedroom.

“What are we supposed to do now, Harry?” Amy questioned. “why did we let this happen, I thought you said you got rid of everything!”

“Well, I did keep a few things.I just thought that what if one day it came in handy to tell her the truth about her parents.” 

“When would it ever come in handy, Harold!” she shouted

“Amelia, Amelia keep it down you know she’s still able to hear you from upstairs.”

“Shut it Harold, what are we going to do now,” she questioned him with a mean belligerent expression on her face “you know what, if you’re that into telling her the truth and willing to take a big step then go ahead.”

“Maybe I will,” Harry replied “we are going to have to tell her some day,aren’t we?”

“Sydney, come down we need to talk.” my dad shouted from the living room

“No, I don’t want to talk!” I shouted back. I didn’t answer, I didn’t want to come out and talk. Not now.Not like this. Someone knocked on the door to my room, I knew it’d be my dad coming to talk to me.

“Honey, we need to talk.”

“I thought you said it didn’t matter.” I replied with my head under my pillow

“Come on, come out from there.”

“Fine,” I got up and questioned “what now?”

“When you were about 3 years old you got into a car accident, we hit someone’s car, we thought you wouldn’t make it but you did and both your mom and I are very thankful. There was a young girl same age as you who was in the other car she ran away looking for help and no one has seen her to this day,it was my fault for causing that families diversity, they didn’t deserve to go through what they did.”

“Oh, I’m glad we got to talk, thanks dad.” I replied , I had that oh-sorry-to-hear-that-and-thanks-for-making-me-all-bummed-out type of look
                                                          ***
I had just entered my dorm room and dropped my bag by my bed when I noticed that someone had left me a note, it read:

Dear Sydney,
The truth is yet to be told, don’t be mad, it was for the best. We are proud of you for all you’ve done in life and wish you the best in college. We remember like it was yesterday that you were struggling to balance while riding a bike. Well that’s not really the point, uh-okay here it goes. Do you  remember when you were 13 and you found that news article and we told you about the night of the crash,well we’d just like to tell you that  your parents loved you very much and we’re sorry we didn’t tell you sooner,but we were the ones who crashed your car, YOU were the little girl. Sorry for the crash and your parents. Hopefully you understand.
                                                                       Best of luck,
        Amelia and Harold