It was the saddest day of my life. No one expected it to happen, it just did. She was so healthy…I guess that’s why He took her so soon. My name is Erika, and I go by Piglet. It’s a nickname that my mother gave me when I was born, because I was born premature and I almost didn’t make it. I’m the runt of the family; the last one to reach every height milestone on the wall in our kitchen, the last one to learn how to ride a bike, the last one to learn how to tie my shoes. I am one of ten children, and I’m also the youngest. We all used to be very close until Dad got taken away a few years ago. Now, we are all forced to come together again since the passing of our mother. Three weeks ago, we got a call from our friend, Officer Foundry. Our mother had been found behind a supermarket, murdered.

I snapped back to reality. It’s 2:48 am, and a mere 28 degrees outside. My ceramic heater that once kept me warm in the winter took a shit a few days ago, so I’m relying on my propane stove to heat my tiny efficiency. It’s all I can afford now that I’m living on my own. The single life had its ups and downs I guess, I do everything alone. Sometimes I like that, doing things on my own. Sometimes I don’t though, and I wish I had someone to accompany me on my desperate endeavours. I started to get lost in my own thoughts again when there was a knock at the door.

“Hello?” I called out from my bed. I’m sure that whoever it was could hear me from here. I waited for a whole minute before I got up and looked out my window. Times like these really made me wish I had a light outside my door, this place is creepy at night.

“Hello?” I called again as I opened the door a crack.

“Hey s- sisss. S sorryyy I’m here s s so e-earrlyy..”

“Good morning to you too, Bradley.” It was my oldest brother. Since he’s the oldest and I’m the youngest, we’re pretty much polar opposites. I like science, and research and studying. Bradley, however, loves to party on the weekends. That is, when he’s not at school partying during the week. Obviously drunk, I invited him inside.

“Go ahead and sit on the bed. I have no chairs,” I told him. God this was such a small place. “What can I do for ya, bro?”

“I’mmm not sure. I don’t even know how I got here…” he was severely stuttering. “I need’d..a drink though.”

“Can do,” I said as I got up to walk to my fridge. A whole two feet, if that. I got him a drink of water and went to walk it over to him when he conveniently puked all over my feet. Great, I really didn’t want bar nuts between my toes.

“Oh…sorry man…”

“It’s cool dude. Do me a favor, and don’t move while I go clean this up or something.” I was not thrilled.

After getting it all cleaned up, Bradley was sprawled out on my bed and either really drunk, staring at the ceiling or sleeping with his eyes open. To tickle my fancy, I poked him right in the ribs. No movement whatsoever. That’s cool, I’ll sleep on the floor.

I woke up around 1 pm from the sound of my brother rustling in the kitchen. All I had to do was lift my head up off my makeshift pillow to see what he was up to. He was cooking something, so I assume that he’s feeling a little more himself.

“Hey bro. Grilled cheese I see, nice choice,” I said.

“Yeah, I don’t even know how I got here.”

Before last night, he had never been to my place. Us siblings didn’t talk much, especially because when we do, the subject of our father comes up. That’s never a pleasant conversation.

My dad was a very important role model in my life. He was always encouraging, but never enthusiastic. Ross always believed in what us kids were doing, no matter what it was. Anything he could do for us to make us prosper as kids, he did it. I got my first chemistry set from him when I was really young, and tons of books. As I got older, he bought me gift cards to all of these eccentric and oddly whimsical little bookstores in our town. He even bought me a laptop when I graduated high school in the hopes that I’d make it to college and make good use of it. Only two of my brothers made it to university. Thankfully dad got to see them off before the incident.

After Bradley left I got the comet out from under my kitchen sink. Hopefully that would take the puke smell out of the hotel comforter that covers my bed. Well, covered my bed. It just happened to be on the floor when he conveniently spewed on it. After washing and rewashing it, I ended up throwing it away. Time to go to Wal-Mart. I got dressed and grabbed my keys. On my way out the door, my phone rang.

“Hey, it’s Noah.” Ah, my youngest brother. I haven’t heard from him in at least a year.

“Uh, hey.” I said, reluctant to hear what he has to say. There was a tone of worry in his voice.

“Piglet, we have to get all the kids together. Now. It’s an emergency.”

“Okay, where did you want to meet up?”

“Can you meet us at Wal-Mart in like 15?”

“On my way.”

I pulled into the parking lot and saw nothing suspicious. I parked in the fire lane in front of the liquor store and waved to the girl behind the counter before texting Noah. “Behind the store,” it said.

Reluctantly I took a deep breath before starting my car. I turned around in the parking lot and turned behind the store to see fire trucks, police cars, and an ambulance. I parked next to the CVS dumpster and got out. Noah and Bradley were both there and running up to me.

“Is everyone else here? What the fuck is going on?” Noah came up to me and hugged me. I knew then that something was definitely really wrong. I pulled away and noticed that had both been crying.

“Mom is dead, piglet.”

“And we’re at Wal-Mart why…” I questioned, hesitant to know the answer. They both grabbed my shoulder and lead me over to the ambulance. Seeing the black bag on the stretcher make my heart drop to my knees. There was a large coagulation of blood on the hands of the firefighters and splatters on the concrete around the fly infested dumpsters. Officer Foundry walked up to us and took of his hat respectfully.

“She doesn’t know the story yet,” Noah said, referring to me.

The cop proceeded to tell me that our mother was found slaughtered, her throat slit and bled to death. There were no witnesses, no one even heard a scream.

“It’s barely even dark outside. How did no one see it?”

“No one ever sees the murders in this town. Witnesses are hard to come by.” He was right, the jail in our town was full of drug addicts, not murderers.

It was the first time that all ten of us children were together. It had been at least three or four years since we all sat around, talking about dad and how we had to stop the search. Now, we were all sitting around talking about the last thing we said to our mother.

“I have to say that I was probably a momma’s girl,” I said.

“She loved you, piglet. For the runt of the family, you’re definitely the strongest.”