As my brother and I left the little elementary school to walk home just like every other day, I noticed there were more people around us, but I didn’t freight seeing as  Hawaii has always been a very safe place. Close to no crime happened here because there was no way to escape. What are criminals going to do, swim away? There were two ways to get home from our school. The first route that could be taken was crossing at an intersection then continue straight. The second way to go was down a side road that you would eventually have to run across when no cars were coming. Usually we took the side road because there was less traffic and I believed it was shorter. Today we decided to cross at the intersection.

Our school wasn’t located in a “busy” part of town according to Oahu’s standards, but to anybody originally from Michigan, it was about as busy as Detroit. Located on one of the corners of  this intersection, where 5 streets collided, was a hotel that reached to the sky. There were always people coming and going from this skyscraper. As my brother and I waited for the red hand to switch and motion us to walk, people exited the hotel and joined us at the edge of the sidewalk.

As we waited more people came, maybe up to 10 of them, all slouching behind us after their days’ at their job. I started to get scared. What if they try to take us? Nothing like that has happened in a long time, maybe we were due for a kidnapping in our town. The red hand was still there, drawing out its existence as if the world would end if it changed to something else. The cars were speeding by, showing no sign of a yellow light in the near future. The scared feeling inside of me began to snowball, getting bigger every second we stood there. I leaned down a told my brother “As soon as the crosswalk changes, we run across”.

We waited at the light for a long time after that. Long enough for me to forget about what I told my brother and focus on keeping my cool. The light changed and my brother sprinted. At the same moment a car ran the red light. My brother stopped a few feet into the intersection at the sound of a lady’s scream in the crowd behind us. I still stood frozen on the sidewalk. The car sped past my brother less than a foot away after the driver jerked his wheel in order to not hit him. I looked at my brother’s face as he turned around to see who the scream had come from. I never turned to see the lady’s face, but I am sure he still remembers it.

I start walking slowly into the crosswalk, still unsure of how safe it was. I let out a sigh of relief once we hit the sidewalk on the other side. As we continued our walk home, looking at each other and giggling about what just happened, I leaned over to say one more thing to him.  I whispered “Don’t tell mom.” and that I remembered.