I stared at her.
“Mom… why did you lock the door?”
She sat on the edge of my bed.
For several seconds, she didn't speak.
Then she said:
“There's something about Noah you don't know.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
She took a deep breath.
“You were six when you made that promise.”
“I know.”
“You were just a child.”
“I know.”
“But your friendship with Noah wasn't an accident.”
I didn't understand.
“What are you talking about?”
My mother reached into the drawer of her nightstand and pulled out an old envelope.
She handed it to me.
My name was written across the front.
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed me as a little girl.
Standing beside Noah.
Both of us were holding that ridiculous purple dinosaur.
I smiled.
But then I noticed something written on the back.
My handwriting.
Except I was too young to remember writing it.
The words said:
“If anything happens to me, make sure Noah knows I kept my promise.”
I looked at my mother.
“What does this mean?”
She began crying.
The Truth About That Day
My mother finally told me what had happened twelve years earlier.
The day Noah and I made our promise, something had happened that I had completely forgotten.