Life Without Ko

Chapter one
I listen to the wind. It pushes my brown hair in front of my eyes and it sounds like the ocean. I love the ocean. My balcony looks over the town from the hill I live on. Time seems to stand still when I’m out here. I can’t hear my sisters fighting and my brother Jace isn’t bothering me.
I look over the balcony and see people walking in and out of shops. I see couples entering restaurants and kids playing in the park. I wish I were at the park playing with other kids.
I hear the bell ring from the school and watch as the older kids run out of school. Some throw footballs and others catch. Somes hug they’re friends. Some hop on bikes and race to the nearest coffee shop. Some hug their mother and hop into a car.
I close my eyes and pretend I was down there. I could run out of school and my mother would greet me. That I knew she loved me enough to pick me up from school. But she wouldn’t. She was gone. She wasn’t coming back. I’d given up on that a while ago.
“MOON!” I jump and turn around. The glass sliding door opens and Jace steps onto the balcony. “I TOLD YOU! AFTER I GET HOME FROM SCHOOL THE BALCONY IS MINE!” I flinch and back up. My back hits the balcony. Jace’s blue hair falls in front of his face and he leans into me.
“Get. Out. Of. My. FACE!” I scurry past him and run through the doorway. I wipe tears from my eyes. “CRY BABY! YOU’RE JUST A CRY BABY!”
“I'm not a cry baby! I’m all grown up like you! I’ll be going to school in four months! Babies don’t go to school!” I shout back.
“Well then you better grow up!” I run into my room and slam the door. I sit onto the floor against the door and cry. I hear a faint knock and a whisper.
“Moon?” I open the door and embrace Ko. “Was it Jace again?” I nod. She wraps her arms around me and pulls me into her arms. She sits on the beds and holds me against her. “What’d he say this time?”
“He called me a cry baby.” I whisper. Ko rocks me in her arms.
“Don’t listen to him. He’s a baby himself.” Ko continues to rock me and sings to me. “I see the moon, The moon sees me. God bless the moon and God bless me. I see the Stars, the stars see me. God bless the stars and god bless me. I see the world. The world sees me. God bless the world and God bless me. I know an angel watches over me. God bless the angels and God bless me.”
Her voice is soft. Her tone is light. She has a beautiful voice. A smooth voice. I feel my muscles give in and my eyes flutter close. I feel myself drift into sleep.

“Moon!” Kc yells. “Ko! Dinner time!” I look over and see Ko open her eyes.
“Seems like we fell asleep.” She whispers. She twists out of bed and shakes me. “Moon, dinner time.”
I groan and get up. We walk down stairs and the smell of Japanese food fills my nose. I run to the table and fly into my seat. Ko trails behind me. She sits at the table and Kc looks at Ko oddly.
“Ko, why are you coming home so late?” Kc asks, accusingly.
“I have to do school work.” Ko shrugs.
“Why don’t you do it in class, you’re so smart.”
“I do my work in class, but I want extra credit.” Kc looks at her and rolls her eyes before eating.
Jace runs down the stairs and hits me on the back of the head. “That's for our parents!” Jace roars with laughter. I shrink into my seat. Ko slams her hand on the table.
“You’re going to get it now!” Ko yells.
“QUIET!” Kc yells. “Jace, that wasn’t nice. Apologize.”
Jace rolls his eyes and sticks his tongue out at me before sitting down at the table. Nobody says anything. We eat in silence until dinner is over and Ko and I head up to our room.
Ko and I slip into our bed and I stare at the wall. “I hate Jace.” Ko hisses.
“Yeah.” I whisper. Ko kisses me on the forehead before we both fall asleep.












Chapter Two

Three months have gone by and one day Ko came home very late. At three AM she came home and Kc was furious. Ko wrapped her jacket around her tightly and apologized. Kc talked her ear off and Ko ran upstairs. I watched from the railing as Ko ran up the stairs into our room.
When I walked in she was sobbing into a pillow. I leaned against her and wrapped my arms around her and she held me and we both cried. I cried because I had been worried and because she was crying, she wouldn’t tell me why she was crying.
Ko took a long shower. Sometimes I could hear her sobs through the running water. Instead of laying in bed with me she laid on the floor with her blankets curled up around her. I could see her whispering to herself, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying.
She’d come home just as late sometimes and she stopped taking me out with her on the weekends. She didn’t always come down to dinner and it worried me. She wasn’t there to protect me from Jace, Jace only grew meaner.
When I started school things got worse. When Ko was home on time I’d sneak in the door and hear Ko and Kc yelling at each other. Sometimes I’d start crying and they’d stop fighting. School wasn’t as fun either. Kids are mean.
They don’t like my hair because I tie a ribbon in my curly brown hair and they make fun of me for being parentless. The teachers are too busy to stop them. So, I started having Ko straighten my hair and I stopped wearing ribbons and dresses.
Ko grew more and more distant which confused me. When I turned seven she was late to my birthday party. I was so angry, I wouldn’t talk to her and she just started sobbing. I felt really guilty but when I tried to comfort her she just shrank away.
Suddenly I started seeing Ko less and less. I would sit by the door and wait for her to come home so I at least got to see her. Jace took advantage of this and proceeded to hit me and say I was the reason our parents left.
I watched as Ko broke more and more and I started to break with her. When I started first grade kids still made fun of me so I asked Ko to dye my hair. We chose purple. Light fading into dark.
Kids suddenly thought my hair was cool so I also straightened my hair. I wore jeans and a T-shirt like the other girls in my class.
One day I walked in the bathroom to find Ko holding a pair of scissors and snipping her hair. She cut it shoulder length instead of shoulder blade length. Her dark skin glowed as her hair fell to the floor.
One day I found a few blotches of blood in our bathroom, but she said she was just on her blood moon cycle. Then, Ko started snapping at me.
She’d yell at me if I was in her way and she’d wake up in the middle of the night crying or breathing heavily.
When I turned eight I broke my first bone. I was walking home from school and Jace shoved me onto the road and I was hit by a kid riding his bike.
He had bright blue eyes and red hair. His name was Jared. He walked me home where Ko drove me to the hospital.
I came home in a cast and Ko cared for me. While I was on my balcony I saw Ko with a person. Just for a moment before Jace hit me and they disappeared from sight.





Chapter Three

I race down the stairs. Ko should be home any second! I flew past Kc and sat at the door waiting like a dog. I watched the door, and I watched it some more. Minutes turned into hours and Jace had already come home.
He had shoved me to the ground to get in, but Ko still wasn’t home. But, it had become normal for her to stay out. Kc is twenty-five and Ko is seventeen, turning eighteen.
Kc tries to pull me away from the door but I want to stay.
“Moon, it's time for bed.”
“But Ko-”
“You can see her tomorrow.”
Kc picks me up and carries me to bed. I lay in bed and Kc kisses me on the forehead and exits the room. I stare at the wall watching as the hours tick by and drift into sleep.
I wake up after I hear a loud noise. I look at the clock, it's four AM and Ko still isn’t home. I walk out of my room and Kc is sitting on the floor.
“Kc?” I ask.
“Moon?” She responds.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
“Your sister isn’t home yet.” The word ‘sister’ sounds bitter, sorrowful, and regretful.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know, go back to bed. She’ll be home soon.”
“I’ll call her cell.” I say. I walk down the stairs to the phone and dial her number.
I hear her voicemail immediately. I try several more times but I get the same response. I walk to Kc and start crying. She picks me up and cradles me in her lap. “It’ll be okay,” She whispers.
The time ticks to six AM and Kc is calling the police department. “Her name is Ko.” Kc says. “Age fifteen, race: mixed. Black and white.” Kc sounds stressed, Jace is upstairs sleeping and I'm sitting by the door desperately hoping Ko steps through that door.
"No! I will not hold! My sister is missing! Why won't you just listen to me. No, it has not been twenty four hours, but there is no rule about waiting twenty four hours! I KNOW THE LAW! MY SISTER IS MISSING! Hello? Hello?"
Kc slams the phone onto the wall and screams. Jace walks down the stairs, "Whats the noise about?" He grumbles
"Ko is missing!" Kc screams. Jace just shrugs.
"She'll turn up." He walks back upstairs and Kc falls to her knees, sobbing. I walk over and lean up against her and start to cry too. She sobs and I sob. This wasn't how a Saturday morning was supposed to go. Kc eventually leaves to go to the station and I sit in front of the door and stare at it, hoping if I just stare at it hard enough Ko will walk through it. But she doesn't, I wiat by the door for days. There is no trace of Ko.
The police issued her as a simple run away. Kc won't let us go looking for her. Our room feels empty. I cry often and Jace is getting the kids in my class to bully me more. But, at least Jared has stuck by my side. He's my only friend, but Kc doesn't like him. We eat lunch together and he made me a cake when Ko went missing, he invited me to the movies with him with the one year anniversary of Ko's disappearance passes.
Every day, I walk onto the balcony and watch for any sign of Ko or the person I saw her with. But, I never see anything.