“Now, you know what comes next. Prepare yourselves.”

“Oh no, sis. Please. No,” Dre says, setting Colt on the ground and carefully replacing the cap.

“That’s right! Hugs and noogies!”

I pounce on Rone first. I give him a big hug, kisses all over his face, and playfully rub my fist into the top of his head. When I finish with Rone, I stand up to chase Dre, who is running across the field.

“Your turn!” I yell, chasing after him.

“You have to catch me first! My legs longer than yours now!”

Our bodies are bigger, but our spirits are the same. Innocent and questing for adventure. I wonder if it will always be like this, returning to this field over and over, clinging to a childhood that will never again live in this world, but still beats inside of us. I wonder how we will remember it all when we’re seventy, our parents long gone to glory. Just the three of us then left in our little family. The mighty three. The world different, changed in ways we can’t imagine, but us, still the same when together. Forever holding the altar of remembrance between us. Hanging our little trinkets, photographs, and memories on the mantel. Honoring what was, while awaiting our own turns to journey to glory. Can we go together? It’s an experience that can only happen between siblings, sharing an entire life of memories. Knowing each other in the beginning and the end.

The thought of it propels me forward, increasing my momentum. I gain on Dre, who is just a few paces ahead now.

“Don’t worry, Peter! I’ll catch you! I always do!”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Two weeks after I graduated from Henry E. Tarver High School last spring, the city condemned and closed it as a safety hazard to students. There was asbestos in the walls, black mold on ceilings, and cracks and holes of various sizes everywhere you looked. We, the students, knew we were attempting to get an education in a dump. Some of us tried anyways and some of us gave up, believing our environment was a reflection of our worth. If they couldn’t bother providing clean, safe surroundings, and if many of the teachers didn’t believe in us, then what real value did we have in the world? None.

The city unveiled a five-year plan to “restore and revitalize the school for the well-being and educational promise of future students.” The school would be state of the art. New computers, desks, science labs, two gyms, and a football field, which they would be able to build by purchasing the empty, weed-ridden field behind the school. It would be a revitalization of not just the school system but the city itself.