Willow’s Truth

Willows Truth

  We are taking a family picture. I have to look happy. I am not. My father said that if I act like nothing’s wrong, he would build me a treehouse. I have always wanted a treehouse, somewhere to run away from life’s problems. But when we get home, a treehouse is the farthest thing from my dad’s mind.

“Dad, when should we start planning the treehouse?” I ask.

“A treehouse, why would I put any effort in anything for you?” My dad asked. I just walk away. He has never been kind to me. In our family of polar bears there is me, my sister Anna, my mom, and my dad. We live in our igloo right by a mountain that the penguins live on. It is warm and has 3 rooms. My room is the one with the least amount of stuff. My sister Anna has always been naive to how my dad treats me, and my mom just turns a blind eye. 

“Willow!” My dad yells, “It is time for dinner.” I sigh and head to the table. When I get to the kitchen there is a spot at the table with a plate of food waiting for me. 

“What is this? Seal! Dad, you know I don’t eat that!” I say. I have always hated the idea of eating other animals. My sister doesn’t care. She eats everything and so does my mom and dad.

“I don’t care. This is your dinner,” replies my dad. I go to the kitchen and make myself a sandwich to eat in my room. This happens so often that I am used to it by now. 

On my way home from school, I decided to stop by my best adult friend Lara’s house. She has always been kind to me. I knock on her door and she answers.

“Willow! Come in, come in! How are you doing today?” Lara asks me with a smile. 

“I am fine but… never mind,” I say, not wanting to get into it. I have never told anyone about the situation at home. 

“What is it Willow?” Lara says as she sits down on the couch, “You can trust me.” I decided after all these years to finally tell someone about the situation at home. 

I had just gotten half way through my story of not being allowed to go downstairs, when my dad burst through the door of Lara’s house! He stomps in and GRABS MY ARM! He starts pulling me towards the door! I shove my feet into the loop but it is not enough he starts yanking me all the way down the street to our igloo. 

“STOP,  NO, LET ME GO!” I shout, but he won’t let go. Finally we get to the igloo and he pushes me inside. 

“GO TO YOUR ROOM!” He shouts! I decide to, but seconds later, I hear a knock on the igloo’s door. The polar police are here! They come in and start questioning him. A few minutes later my door opens. The polar police come in and start asking questions. 

“What happened at this bear named Lara’s house?” The first polar police officer asked “Did you see her choke your dad?”

“WHAT!” I replied, “That never happened! He just came when me and Lara were talking, then he grabbed me and started dragging me down the street! Lara never tried to choke him!”.

Later that day, I put on the small radio in my room. I was stuck in my room after the events earlier that day. And my mom and dad had left. But I heard something just awful.

“Lara Evans, beloved by many has been murdered! Her body was found 5 minutes ago! We are going to investigate who did this, but as of now we have no leads. If anyone has information please let us know.” My heart stops. Lara. Dead! I turn off the radio. I can’t listen to it anymore. I can’t believe it, and after everything that happened. Then I have a thought. My father has always prided his image and what others think of him more than anything. Once I heard him say that he would kill for it. Did my father do this? I don’t have enough information. I need to get more facts but first people need to know my story. 

I have decided to have a meeting so I can tell the people in my town my story. I use the word of mouth since my parents can never know I am doing this otherwise I am dead. It is going to be at Lara’s neighbors house which seems fitting. People start showing up and I get more nervous than ever. Finally, all the people have shown up. I walk to the front of the crowd and take a deep breath. I have never told so many people. Lara was the first one ever. 

“Thank you all for coming,” I say to the waiting crowd, “First I would like to thank Ms. Glacier for letting me use her igloo for this meeting. The reason we are all here today was started by Lara. I finally told her my story and she believed me. With her death, I want to tell the people around me my story in hope that it will help find out who killed her. So here it goes.” I tell them the whole story from them making me feel small and unimportant, to him yanking me down the street from Lara’s. 

When I got done there was silence. A few seconds later, there was whispering everywhere. Then, before I knew it, my parents had stormed it! There was silence once again. 

“Mr. and Mrs. Bear this can’t be right! Tell me this is a lie!” Ms. Glacier cried from the crowd. 

“No! Everything she said is a lie! She is a liar!” My father said, “Why hasn’t she said anything before this point then?” I am astonished! He is the liar! 

“No! He is lying!” I protest. No one believes me, they only believe my dad.

Two days later

“Willow Bear was found dead yesterday. After a long investigation we have discovered that her parents Mr. and Mrs. Bear killed her and were also responsible for killing Lara Evans. The reason behind all of these as we have been informed is not wanting the outside world to know that they are bad people, they just want the world to see them as the good parents they are not. In an interview with Ms. Glacier she said ‘This is just awful! I saw her not a day before she died. This is just a terrible, awful thing. She was telling all of us what her parents had done, and that she thought they killed Lara Evans (Ms. Glacier is Lara Evans’ neighbor), and they came in and said that she is a liar! When in fact they are a liar! We believed her Mom and Dad of course because they are the adult polar bears. But if we had just listened to Willow she might still be alive.’ Thank you Ms. Glacier for that interview. Come back tomorrow for more information on Willow Bear and Lara Evans death.” A newscaster said on the radio.