I couldn't help but notice the girl in the red slippers. She was there every morning when I would wait for the school bus at the end of my driveway.
"Are you going to school?"
That was the first thing she had asked me, on the first day I decided I was big enough to wait by myself. It was the first time we'd met.
"Yeah." I called back across the street, "Why?"
She shrugged, and went back to staring at me while she swayed back and forth like she was intrigued, yet slightly bored by the fact I wasn't doing anything.
She had a round sort of face, and sandy blonde hair that was a complete mess. What I noticed first, though, were the red slippers. It was an interesting choice, especially paired with the white night gown.
"Is school nice?" She asked at one point. She always had a question for me. One every morning. Every night before bed I secretly wished she wouldn't be there, and every following day I was disappointed.
"Yeah." I answered. "You'll see, I guess."
She was younger than me at the time, though I couldn't tell her age on looks alone. That was the first time I actually realized she was too young to go to class. At that age, I didn't wonder why she was allowed to stand out on the front steps, alone, talking to any random kid who crossed her path.
It may sound odd, but it wasn't until my first day of High School that I realized something much stranger was happening. I'd spent the Summer goofing off, as usual, and I hadn't seen the girl for months on end. You might guess I hadn't so much as thought about her.
Then, on the first day back to school, there she was.
"Are you going back to school?" she called out.
I didn't answer at first. My mind had been somewhere else entirely, thinking of girls much older and much less annoying than her. Then, I focused on the small child and realized something.
She hadn't aged.
I realized that she had some disease… one of those horrible things you see on television where a kid stays small and sickly their whole life. Not only that, but no one seemed to give a shit about where she was or what she was doing.
All at once I was crushed by the weight of my own rude behavior toward the girl, I could barely answer.
"Yeah."
Silence filled the neighborhood around me. I felt cold and sick, like I'd been quietly hating the least deserving person in the world… wishing she'd disappear when in fact that was probably what would end up happening some day soon.
"Wanna hear some cool stuff that happened when I was in school?" I asked, my voice ringing out like a shout in that uncomfortable stillness.
I could barely tell, but she nodded slightly, still swaying.
I told her about the school work, the teachers, about lunch and recess. I'd never really been an outgoing kid, but I got on a roll when I started explaining how this one kid offered to eat bugs if you paid him, but then no one would pay him and he just did it anyway. I told her all the cool things that happened, all the gross-out stories, and every bit of childhood nonsense I could remember.
Then, the bus came.
"Well, bye." I called out over the roar of the motor. She just waved a bit, hand barely above her hip. Then she went back inside the house.
I'd never seen her go in before.
"Wow!" one of the kids on the bus shouted as I climbed on.
He was a new face, at least to me. He was older, maybe a Junior or Senior who hadn't gotten a car yet. The minute he spoke, I knew the exclamation was targeted at me. Unsure of what he wanted, I slid into the seat beside him as the bus continued on.
"What's up?" I asked.
"You live across from that place? With the kid?"
I nodded.
"Yeah, why?"
He laughed, then looked around the bus as if he was expecting others to join in mocking me. When they didn't, he shook his head and smirked.
"I couldn't live there. Gross."
"Again, why?" I already figured he was about to mock her.
The kid turned and looked me square in the eyes, grinning like an idiot. He must have noticed I wasn't finding it funny, because the expression dropped immediately.
"I mean, it's real sad, actually… You know, what happened there… I guess it's all cleaned up now, so whatever."
He cleared his throat.
I didn't see her again. This time I still wasn't sure I wanted to, but for different reasons. With my new found teenage freedom, I was able to research things my parents had kept away from me.
"Authorities promise swift and thorough investigation into home invasion and multiple homicide. Youngest victim found dead on front steps…
After walking through her own family's blood."