Excerpt from Johannas Secret
“My mind is running away with itself again, and I force my attention back to the book, reading the caption below the picture. Left to right: Lilia Sheffield (10), Annaleigh Sheffield (8), and Scarlett Sheffield (4). I read back over the names and stare intently at the faces of the girls. I feel I can glean pieces of their personalities just from this one picture. Lilia looks quiet and dutiful, more serious than the rest. Her dark eyes are cast slightly downward, her long dark hair pulled back, probably braided, her shoulders slightly hunched forward, as if at ten years old she already carried a burden. The oldest child who, no doubt, had to keep the younger ones in line, at least before Julienne came to live there. Annaleigh looks determined. A go-getter and take charge child, just like my sister Nan. Her hair hangs straight and dark in front of her, her dark eyes staring straight into the camera, a smile playing at the corner of her lips, as though she hid some secret she wasn’t about to share with the rest.” Scarlett, the youngest, appears a happy, delightful soul. She is smiling ear to ear, light-colored curls bouncing down to her shoulders. Her eyes sparkle, even in faded black and white. Underneath their picture is another, who I know at once must be Julienne. She is breathtaking with dark, wavy hair that must have gone half way down her back, wide dark eyes, and a perfectly angular face. She is smelling a flower, clearly posing for the camera. She is smiling a beautiful, wide smile, but her eyes look sad and far away. The person behind the camera was trying to capture a happy young woman, but she looks lost, her mind somewhere else. The caption reads: Julienne LaBame, age 19, picking flowers in the backyard at her new home in Massachusetts, just two months before she disappeared. So it was taken here, in my very own backyard. If I squint, I could see the outline of a structure behind her in the distance. The carriage house, I conclude. “Who could have wanted you dead?” I murmur out loud.
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