I was walking down the sidewalk to my shabby little yellow apartment in Chicago, Illinois, when I noticed a little girl about the age of 6 or 7 standing near the street. My eyes welled up with tears. She reminded me of my own sister, Anna. But Anna wasn’t in Chicago. She was back in Miami. My hometown. I was living in Chicago with my aunt and uncle because my parents had too many kids and couldn’t afford all of us. William (Billy) was the oldest at 18, Katherine (Katie) was 16, I (Elijah “Eli”) was 14, Peter (Petey) was 12, Mollie was 10, Knox and Andrew (Drew) were 8, Anna was 6, and Ethan was 3. Therefore, Mom and Dad sent me and Billy to Aunt Rachel and Uncle Chris, Katie to Grandma (mom’s), and kept the rest with them in Miami.

As I approached the girl, she startled and ran across the street. I decided to follow, and saw her disappear into an alley. By the time I got there, she was gone. I searched high and low for her, but she was nowhere to be seen. “Eli! Is that you?” A voice said, scaring me so much that I knocked my head on a trash can. “Who is it?” I asked, rubbing my scalp.

“Emma. Your cousin?”

I laughed. “What are you doing here, Emma?”

She shrugged. “Following you? What are you doing here? You know it’s not safe.”

I groaned. “I’m looking for a little girl who’s about 6 or 7 years old. She reminds me of Anna.”

Emma sighed and put a hand on my shoulder. “Eli. I know how you feel. It’s not easy being apart from her. Are you sure you weren’t hallucinating?”

I nodded, hot angry tears welling up in my eyes. “I’m sure. Why does everyone assume that I hallucinate every time I see someone?!”

I stood up, glared at Emma, and ran as fast as I could as far away from my messed up life as possible. I rounded the corner and almost ran into a police officer. He grabbed my wrist and said, “You look angry and scared. What’s wrong? Who’s chasing you?” I shook my head and struggled to get away from him. “No one. Just…..running. I need to clear my head.” The officer chuckled. “The look on your face says otherwise. You’re running AWAY if I’m not mistaken. I’m going to bring you to the station. You can decide there if you want to stay or go back home. But I’m not letting you run away.”

“But you don’t understand!” I screamed, struggling even harder. I was crying now. “I don’t want to go back home!” The officer looked at me curiously. “What’s wrong with your home? You don’t look like you’ve been beaten and you look like you’re fed well. What’s the problem?”

I sheepishly looked down at my feet. “Everyone in my family thinks i hallucinate when I tell them I’ve seen a little girl or boy on the sidewalks or in alleyways. They always say, “You’re hallucinating. You miss Anna, Drew, and Ethan too much.” I tried to wipe my tears away. “But that’s not true! I’m just trying to help the homeless children I see!”

“Calm down, young man. It’s alright. I understand. It doesn’t matter if your family members don’t, but I do.” The officer smiled at me, reminding me of my dad. I started to cry again, and he hugged me. “I’m going to have to take you back home now…..”

“Eli.”

“Eli. You and your family can decide whether or not you stay with them or go home.”

I nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

………The next day, I was walking to school when I saw the same little girl. I ran up to her and when she didn’t run, I hugged her, then brought her to the police station to show the officer. As soon as we walked in, all the other officers gave me a weird look. “What are you doing with that girl, young man?” an officer asked me, pointing at the young girl. “She’s an orphan! She keeps running to the alleyway across the street from my apartment! She needs help!”

Just then, the officer I had met yesterday ran in. “This is the little girl who reminds me of my sister, sir! Please help her!” I said, begging him with all my heart. He took one look and LAUGHED. The little girl was also laughing, and this made me really confused and angry. “Eli, meet Olivia. My daughter.”

As they embraced, my cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. “I’m so sorry, sir, I didn’t know. I feel horrible. I’m so sorry.”

The officer put a hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay, Eli. We all go searching for familiar faces. I did that once too. With my wife. She died from cancer 4 years ago, when Liv was 2. Every woman remotely close to her looks, I followed. I knew it wasn’t her, but my instincts told me it was. Grief can do weird things to people.”

Then, he smiled at me. “But Liv has been running away from her babysitter and school a lot recently. So thank you for returning her, and now I know where she’s been going. I can’t thank you enough.”

I smiled at him then hugged him tightly. “You remind me of my dad. This hug is all I need.”

The officer chuckled. “Thanks, Eli. You’re also like the son I never had. How about-I mean, if it’s okay with your aunt and uncle-I make you a junior officer?”

I smiled so wide, I thought my face would get stuck like that. “Thank you so much, officer. Thank you so much.”

As I ran out the door to tell my family, he said. “Eli. It’s Carl. You can call me Carl.”