One minute he was crying, the next he was as still and silent as a doll. He looked peaceful at first, since he was crying so hard before. But then I realized what had just happened. Being my smart 10 year old self, I knew my brother was now a victim of shaking baby syndrome.

"Be good," my mother said giving me a kiss on my head as she walked out the door to go to work.

"Wanna watch tv?" the girl asked. "Sure" I replied. We had been watching my favorite show 'Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn' and talking about school for about an hour before my baby brother started to cry. It was just one of those cries and whines that sounded like he just wanted to be carried. So she got up and went to go check on him, but after a real long time after, he just wouldn't stop. I decided to go see what was wrong. As I started to walk up the stairs, the screams became not just from my little brother, but from the woman too. I started to run. I ran like my life depended on it. But then I just stopped. I just froze there in that doorway as I watched that girl kill my baby brother. I don't think I will ever get the image out of my head. The picture of his neck moving back and forth like a slinky. The screams and cries went from 2, to 1, to no one. It became as silent as a cemetery. That woman never let my brother live his life past 1.

I call her she and that girl, because I just can't bring myself to say her name. That woman, that murderer! She doesn't deserve to have her name said out loud. She may have not been thinking at the moment, but those 16 seconds cost my innocent, helpless brother his life; and I will never play with a slinky the same ever again.