Leah

My family moved when I was in fourth grade.  We didn't move that far. Just to the next town but it was far enough that I lost all my friends. Except one, Arlisse. We would still call each other and sometimes my mom would drive me over to see her or she would come to visit me. It was like that for the next three years.  Not all the time or a lot but we were always friends. She was my one connection to the place where I lived when I was little.

Arlisse didn't have a lot of friends. Maybe that is why she made such an effort to stay in touch with me.  I liked Arlisse a lot. She was quiet and sometimes she seemed kind of sad but she was really nice.  We talked about a lot of things.

In October of eighth grade, my mom and dad came to my school in the middle of the morning and I was called out of class.  They took me home but didn't tell me why. They didn't say anything on the ride from school and I didn't ask them any questions because I knew something bad had happened.  When we got home, they took me out on the patio in the back yard.  Chicago has beautiful weather in October so it was really nice to sit out there.

My father was the one to tell me.  Arlisse had been murdered.  She was killed with a knife.

A boy at school told me that Arlisse's father was the one who killed her. He told me that the next day when I went back to school. Everybody on Twitter said that was true. About a year later, a court said it was true.

Sometime during the trial, I learned that her father had been sexually abusing her. Arlisse never told me that.

John Paulett is the author of four books, including Lost Chicago, Forgotten Chicago, and Printers Row. John holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, an MA in Theology from Felician College, and a BS in Linguistics from Georgetown University. He teaches English, Theology, and Film in Chicago.