Sirens blared through the neighborhood.  Help is here.  Hurry, hurry, hurry.  A twelve-year-old should not have to call 911.  A twelve-year-old should not have to call 911.  Blood stains the whitewashed pavement.  I watched it fall. fall. fall.  A neighbor scurries over with alcohol.  Scrub, scrub, scrub it away so the five-year-old won’t see.  Too late.  She saw everything.  She sees everything still– Every time she closes her eyes.  Her brother remembers his eleventh birthday for one reason.  She came home.  But her father remembers his birthday for an entirely different one.  She went back.  On the first day of 7th grade,  The young girl burns lines all across her head, she just wanted to curl her hair. And mom wouldn’t  couldn’t answer the phone.  Bad things happen to good people.  Life isn’t fair.  Don’t expect life to be fair.  But grow.  Thrive.  Stand.  Despite it all— because of it all.  Sometimes that’s all you can do.  Bad things happen to good people. But good people can stay good.