Little Differences

Jessie and I go home and change out of our school clothes and into more comfortable clothing. We tell our parents that we are going to the park and that’s exactly where we go to begin looking for Alani. “What if she like slept on a park bench, all night?”, Jessie says as we arrive at the park. “I just hope she is safe, wherever she is”, I say.

“Do you have the picture of her?”, I ask Jessie. “Yep, got it right here”, she says. She opens the pink folder with hearts all over it and pulls out Alani picture. We didn’t have a regular picture of her, so we used the one from last year’s yearbook and made it bigger.

We walk around the park and Alani is nowhere in sight. As people pass, we ask if they’ve seen this girl, but no one seems to know anything. Just when we have given up and are about to go back home, a man approaches us. “I hear you two are looking for your friend. Mind if I look”, he asks. This man is standing here with a hat that looks like someone tried to shoot it off his head. A jacket that looks like someone may have worn it in World War 1. Pants 3 times his size, and shoes that are leaning to the side. Not only that but he smells horrible! He smells like something crawled inside his jacket and died!

The man stares at the picture for about 5 minutes, saying nothing but just shaking his head. “That’s her alright”, he says. “You’ve seen her”, I ask. “Yes, she was walking through here all alone. I asked her was she lost, and she just took off running in that direction”, he says. The man points down the street.

“Thank you, sir”, I say. He hands me back the picture and Jessie and I take off running in the direction the man pointed. Hoping to find Alani there. As we’re running Jessie says, “Ewww, did you smell him?” I laugh loudly because I was just thinking the same thing. “Yes, it was horrible. Now, keep running” Jessie and I run all the way to the end of the street and there is no sign of Alani.

After searching every place, we can think of, we decide to turn in for the day. We wouldn’t want our parents to have to come looking for us. “We will start back looking firs thing tomorrow after school”, I tell Jessie. She nods her head.

Everyone is talking about Alani and how she’s missing. As usual, kids have already started rumors about where she might be. Some say that her parents left her on mount magazine and others say they seen her walk into the woods. I’m not sure if I should believe a word either of them is saying. “She must be so scared, where ever she is”, I lean over and whisper to Jessie. “Yeah, I’m sure she is”, she replies. “We’re going to find you”, I say to myself.