Overcome Read Online Free PDF

his head and though he wanted to say something more, that was all he could get out.  He turned his face back to his bag, searching for his athletic shorts, but his mind wasn’t there.
    “What are you talking about, dude, you did have a sister named Bree.”
    “Don’t you have a party to go to?” Parker mumbled, keeping his head down.
    Parker spent years in therapy trying to get passed what happened. He had to work to forget his neglectful mother who left him with his little sisters before he was even in kindergarten.
    It wasn’t Bree’s fault, but she was part of what he wanted to forget. He still periodically dreamt about her and Maggie, his other sister. He’d always wondered what happened to them, but his therapist helped him work through the guilt and worry he carried. Somehow, even at five, he’d thought it was his fault. If only he was better behaved, if only he didn’t have that speech problem, maybe his mom would’ve cared more.
    “I’m good,” Spencer eased into a chair.
    “She’s my best friend,” Carly stepped further into the room. Parker noticed her bare feet and only one foot with painted toes.  “I can take you to see her. She’d …”
    “I don’t want to see her.” Parker looked up at her face, which fell from a smile like she’d found her long lost friend, into that snarl.
    “Why wouldn’t you want to see her?” Her hands landed on her hips and hair covered her eyes as she bobbed her head.
    “Yeah man,” Spencer chimed from his perch. He propped up his feet and crossed them on the table when Parker glared at him.
    Parker turned back to his bag and grabbed the first shirt he could find. He shrugged the fabric over his head as his audience waited for an answer.  “Because I don’t.”
    “You’re a jerk,” Carly spat at him.
    “You’re no bag of peaches either, Snarly.” Parker grabbed his hat from the night stand. He shoved it on his head with both hands, one on the back and the other on the bill, making sure it covered his face. He swiped the keys from the dresser, where he’d just sat them and was thankful he hadn’t taken the time to kick off his boots yet.
    “Whatever. Bree’s really cool and I know she’d wonder what hap …”
    “I don’t want to hear about her.” He held his hand, palm up, toward Carly’s face as he stalked out the door.
    Carly swatted it away, but he didn’t stay for any further reaction. He hurried to the Jeep to escape.
     
        *****
     
    The wind blew and the brown pigtails swung.
    "Parker, will you swing me?" Bree's thin legs dangled from the rickety swing hung up on the old tree. Her hands wrapped around the fraying rope.
    Parker bounced over to her, taking his attention from the toad he'd been poking at.
    "Yesssh," he had a little bit of a speech delay at five years old.
    Parker pushed on his sister's back. She giggled and sang "Wee." The bottoms of her bare feet were dark with dirt.
    Parker chuckled and he pushed her higher and higher.
    Bree leaned her head back and stretched her legs in front of her.
    He held his hands out, ready for one more push, to keep her going, when the next thing he knew, she was falling toward the ground without the swing.
    He wasn't sure how it happened, and it scared him when her body hit and cracked on the ground.
    Bree screamed and jolted up, gripping her elbow.
    Parker ran to her. He didn't know what he was going to do, but he didn't want mommy to come outside.
    She told Parker and Bree they had to stay out and play until she came out to get them. It was normal for them to play outside when their baby sister was napping.
    But the door opened and Parker began to cry along with Bree.
    "What did you do to her?" His mommy shouted. Her eyes looked red and watery like Bree's and her hair was messy. She stomped to the tree they sat under.
    Bree gasped for air in between cries.
    "Mommy, I didn't do it, she felled."
    "It's fell, are you stupid?" She snapped at him as she picked Bree up.
    Parker's heart