“Here, this is you how to swing it right.” Kendall said as she took an exaggerated swing and proceeded to fall on the ground from the momentum, causing us to burst into a fit of laughter. She threw her head back as she laughed, making her long, dark brown hair brush the tips of each blade of grass and her dark skin absorb the strong rays of spring sun.

It was a beautiful, calm Sunday and my good friend Kendall, a girl in my fifth grade class, was at my house. We were playing golf on the front lawn, which still smelled fresh from the sprinklers that turned on every other morning promptly at seven thirty. I tucked a few strands of light brown hair behind my ear. It had grown at least an inch or two in the past three months since my tenth birthday.

“Hey girls!” Kendall’s mom said as she opened the white picket fence, which led down the brick stairs into the front yard. We sat up, being interrupted from our most recent fit of laughter that had once again sent us to the ground in stitches.

“Aww! But mom, we’re still playing, do I have to go now?” Kendall said.

“I’m sorry sweetie,” her mom said, “we have to get home for dinner, Beasley’s waiting for you!” Beasley was her adorable Shih Tzu with a precious under-bite and black eyes that looked like tiny twinkling beads.

“Ugh, fine.”


*
*
*
Alone in the yard, I stood for a moment, taking in the breeze, when I suddenly got the urge to take a swing. I picked up the golf club and held it by the black tape, which was still slightly slippery from our sweat. I placed the golf ball lightly on the grass, feeling the dozens of tiny little indents in the ball. I lined my feet up sideways so that my toes faced the ball, just like I had seen my dad do, and I swung at the little white ball with all my might.

The ball flew through the pane, producing an ear piercing crash that shattered my thoughts, just as it had shattered the glass. As I slowly wrapped my mind around what I had just done, I frantically searched for a sign of acknowledgement from my mom who was downstairs in her office, but I heard nothing. My breath quickened and I felt my heart pounding in my head.
I looked across the lawn and I could see that in the bottom right-hand corner of the hexagonal, slightly opaque window was a hole just slightly larger than a golf ball. My face was hot from the blood rushing to the surface of my skin and I became light-headed with sheer panic. What would my parents do if they found out? They would hate me forever… I crossed the lawn, shaking, on the verge of tears. My parents had sprung for the double-paned windows and luckily the ball had only broken the first layer of the opaque glass, but that provided very little comfort. I peered in between the two panes and, sure enough, there was the familiar white ball with the tiny little indents. I was numb with shock and my body felt heavy. While my mind raced with various excuses and cover-ups, I carefully picked the ball out and dropped it into the bucket we had carried from the garage, picked up the golf club, and closed the heavy door behind me with my foot.

*
*
*

“Ace!” My brother said as he triumphantly smacked the card down on the pile and wiped a bead of sweat off of his forehead. “I win for the third time.”

The dense, humid air was just barely starting to cool off thanks to the air conditioning unit perched on the wall.

“That’s not fair Sean!” I said, throwing my cards to the carpeted floor of the small apartment.
Before I could say anything else the shrill ring of my mom’s cell phone, the same dark blue one she uses every time we travel to Europe, interrupted my protest. She pushed her chair back and stood up from the desk where she was answering emails, and made her way over to the bed where the phone continued to ring.

“Hello?”

I watched as my mom crinkled her forehead, her freckled, olive skin starting to peel slightly from just a couple of days in the harsh Italian sun.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, don’t worry…” my mom said, though I’m not sure she believed her own words since she pushed her short, black hair off of her forehead with her free hand, something she does when she’s worried. After a few minutes that felt like an hour, she hung up.

“That was Rhina,” she said. Rhina is our housekeeper; she was checking in on our house while we were gone. “The window in the green bathroom is broken, she’s afraid someone tried to break into the house.”

My heart plummeted. I could feel my face getting red and hot, and all of a sudden I could hear the window shattering all over again. My body felt heavy and hollow at the same time.

“What?” Sean said, his gray-blue eyes wide with excitement. “No way, that’s awesome!” The tips of his long eyelashes grazed his eyebrows.

My mom shot him a glare from across the room and his grin instantly vanished as he peered down into his lap.

It had been three months since I had broken the window and I hadn’t said a word about it. If they find out they’ll never forgive me… They’ll hate me forever. But now Rhina was involved and my parents were scared someone tried to break in... I took a deep breath.

“Mom?” I whimpered, unable to meet her gaze.

“What’s wrong sweetie?” she said, her concern evident once again due to her creased forehead.
“Remember when me and Kendall were playing golf in the yard?” I said in a voice that was barely audible over the steady roar of the air conditioner. I couldn’t stop trembling. She nodded, visibly piecing the puzzle together. She walked over to me and sat on the floor.

“Well, after she left I wanted to keep playing…” I continued to tell her about how I hadn’t meant to break anything, but the ball went farther than I expected and I was too scared to tell her and dad because I thought they wouldn’t love me anymore. After listening to my whole story, she made her way over and sat next to me on the floor. She paused, took a deep breath, and then spoke.

“Honey, it is so much more important to me and your dad that you tell us the truth. We wouldn’t have been angry, but by not saying anything you practically gave Rhina a heart attack.”

I met her gaze and her lips spread slightly as she tilted her head to the side, a compassionate smile that let me know that everything’s ok. She gave me a tight hug and then let go.

“That goes for both of you,” she said, turning to my brother, who amazingly hadn’t said a world since the piercing glare he had received. “If anything ever happens I want you to know that you can tell us. It’s always better to tell the truth. Always. And we love you so much, no matter what happens. Okay?”

I nodded vigorously, blinking away the tears welling in my eyes. She smiled at me again and sighed. “Why don’t we get some sleep, it’s been a long day,” she said. My brother retaliated briefly, arguing he wasn’t tired, but my mom quickly shut him down and he retired to his bed. My mom turned on the lamp that rested on the bedside table and turned out the overhead light as I climbed into our queen bed, and then made her way over to my brother. “Buona notte amore, sogni d’oro e d’argento,” she whispered, which means “Good night love, dream of gold and silver,” and she kissed his forehead. She did this every night before we went to sleep. She made her way back to our bed and climbed in next to me. “Buona notte amore, sogni d’oro e d’argento.” She kissed my forehead and rolled over on her side, adjusting the crisp sheets around her.

“Mom?” I whispered after a minute of silence.
“What is it, sweetie?” she asked.
“I love you.” I held my breath and waited.

“I love you too, sweetie,” she said quietly. I exhaled and rolled over on my side. I closed my eyes, listening to the air conditioner and breathing in the sweet, humid air as I fell asleep.