After all these  years, I still don’t understand why.  I was just a little kid, but what I remember is it was the first time I remember saying prayers for someone.  I prayed for his family.  I will never forget that moment.  We were all at recess.  The teachers began shouting for us to go inside, back to our classes.  Once we were inside, we were given the terrible news.  A few minutes later I remember hearing one of the teachers began screaming.  We could hear crying.  One of the women stuck her head in our classroom and said just two words.  “He’s dead.”

I still don’t understand why.  It was so unnecessary, so strange, and so horrific.  It changed our world.  It destroyed our innocence.

Why?

The other day, while cleaning out my mother’s things, I opened a trunk where she kept her favorite old clothes.  My sister and I started laughing.  If Jackie wore it, she was going to wear it.  Digging through her things I discovered an identical version of the pink suit – only in yellow.