THE GIRL WHO MIGHT HAVE BEEN LOST

My name is Samida. For years, they told me my sister was gone—swallowed by a forest where the trees are ribbed with bone and the ground stays warm with the pulse of those who died there. Today, I stopped listening to the warnings and went to find her.As I reached the tree line, the air turned thick and metallic. I took one jagged breath and stepped inside. I almost felt as if my heart stopped and for one second was a rock without lungs and blood to power me and let me survive, there was  a frantic rhythm that seemed to echo through the woods. Every snap of a twig sounded like a scream. Suddenly, the world tilted. My lungs seized, my knees hit the mossy "flesh," on the ground and everything went black. Would I ever wake again? I didn't know . When i woke up i was back at our house,i was shaking and i was cold then suddently and the front door creaked open. My sister walked in, smiling as if she’d only been gone an hour. She claimed she’d been in the city, helping an old man survive on the streets. But as she sat by the fire, her eyes stayed fixed and cold. Was that really my sister? Was she ever truly lost, or was I the one who was gone now? And was this all just a dream that I had in my imagination?  And would I ever see my family or my sister that might have been lost again?

Saffiyah Dabous