Remembering Our Summer Tragedy

When we arrived at the site I could hardly get out of the car due to the weakness in my knees. The area was filled with curious people waiting to find out if indeed the clothes belong to one of the boys. As my family and I stood there motionless, a man walked toward us and disrespectfully blurted out "they found some clothes in the river! If those clothes belong to those boys, then they are dead. Their bodies must be decomposed by now and filled with water".

Cochy and I looked at each other with terror in our eyes. How can someone talk like that about children and not be aware of their surroundings?

Meanwhile back at the house David waited anxiously because there was no way he would be able to see if those were indeed Danny’s clothes. So his wife came instead to identify them. We waited in silence as one of the detectives came with a video camera to show the families the clothing. I was getting sick to my stomach. I saw the look of hurt and despair in my family’s eyes. I watched as the officer showed photos of the clothes. That being done, they all nodded no. It was a false alarm. Those were not Danny’s clothes. Thank you God. They are still out there safe. I know it.

When the sun finally left and the moon shown it’s light I began to realize that it was going to be another night that David would have to spend without his little boy. By that time Danny was suppose to be home getting ready to wash up to eat dinner with his Daddy and then get tucked in bed. David was in pain and I wanted so much to take his pain away but I did not had the power to do that. Only God could.

I sat in the car in front of David’s house debating whether I should go home for a while because my skin  felt uncomfortable and it felt like part of my flesh was burning. While in the car my husband bought me food and insisted that I eat because I haven’t eaten all day. I had kept myself going that day with water. I put the food in my mouth but it had no taste. I was trying to eat until I saw David’s face, at that moment I pushed the food away. He couldn’t eat because his little boy was missing, then how could I eat? I turned over the plate of food to my son Nico, who then turned it over to Brenda, his wife, and eventually no one ate that day or night.

I then decided to go home and wash up. I went to my room and the air conditioner was already on. It felt so good on my body and my skin began to cool down. I started peeling my clothes. I lay bared in my bed with my eyes closed wishing that this nightmare would come to an end. Very slowly I began to rise. Upon opening my eyes, it was then that I realized why my skin felt like it was on fire. I caught a glance of the most awful sight. Parts of my body were covered in ticks. I started screaming and running around my room, hoping someone would come to my aide, but no one came. I began to slap them off but they did not want to come off. It was horrible the way they were stuck on my skin. I ran to the bathroom, grabbed a pair of tweezers, and began to yank them off one by one. Afterwards, I took a long hot bath. Please God let this nightmare end.