Memory Not Forgotten
Sally, it still hurts. What had happened that night so long ago. The soreness in my legs. The stiffness when I walk. I never asked for this Sally. How it hurts to sit, the funny stares, uncomfortable silences, I never asked for this.
I still can't remember some things. I was crying in an alleyway where it occurred. I told you I didn't like the carnival. I waited forever for you to come back. To see you smile at me and laugh the way you do. But, you never came back and left me there waiting. Sally, I waited for you because we're friends. That boy never came back with you. Then those men came. Then came the crying.
It wasn't at all like you said it was Sally. It wasn't supposed to happen there. Not then, in that dark place. The man smelled like old whisky on his breath. That sour smell that I can never forget. The man who had grabbed me by the tilt-a-whirl. He dragged me to that dark place; I called for you so many times. But you never came, Sally.
Then more men with the same rough hands and sour smell came. Their touch burned my skin wherever they touched me. The sound of their laughter was haunting. It hurt Sally. It hurt so much. Please make the laughter go away.
I was alone and you never came. Waiting for you that night. Those men came and hurt me, Sally. They made my soul hurt like this, made my heart ache. Forcing me against him, that putrid smell again. His rough skin on mine was like a fire; burning wherever it touched, destroying whatever it touched. Leaving a mess after its done killing everything. The bruises they made, the red scrapes, the emptiness. How the pain never really went away.
My vision faded fast. The ground was dirty and broken glass shined in the moonlight. Those figures faded in the distance, away from that alleyway, away from the carnival. I still remember, I don't want to remember. I waited for you, Sally. Help me forget, Sally, help me to let go. This smell, his scarring touch, that dark place I was in. That memory not forgotten still lingers in my mind.