Like Mother

It all started two years ago, today. The trees were just starting to blossom and

the air was refreshing and clean. The rain had stopped and all the grassy fields were as

bright green as bright green could be. Mothers and their children were going to the

park across the street more often, and people seemed to be in all around higher spirits.

It was Chelsea and my sophomore year, and all we basically thought about was

if our hair was the right length and which boy was the cutest in our grade. I had just

finished dinner with my parents and my two little brothers, Kyle and Jordan. I called

Chelsea up to see if she wanted to go star gazing, like we had done every Friday night

since we were old enough to go out at night without our parents watching our

We both got ready and headed out for the meadow which was two blocks

“Oh hi Mrs. Mathew’s! How are you doing?“ Chelsea said as we saw the mom

“Chelsea! Have fun tonight!” Mrs. Mathews said as she walked by us. We both

smiled as saw our group of friends gathered at the spot already. In the middle of the

meadow, about thirteen yards away from the community sitting bench located

between the two largest trees in sight, was the exact spot our clique of about twenty

boys and girls always gathered.

As Chelsea and I approached the crowd of teenagers, we giggled about

“We have already all seen, like, seven shooting stars! Where were you guys?”

Asked one of our friends that was cuddled up in her sleeping bag so you could only

“Naomi had to have dinner with her family, and I waited until she was ready so

I didn’t have to walk here alone,” Chelsea replied.

It was true, Chelsea was indeed a scaredy cat. She always had to have someone

with her when she was doing anything that shared the slightest bit of uneasiness.

She was always uneasy like when I walked with her while she took her dog for a walk

at night, going with her up her stairs to get something from her room when the lights

in her house were off, or walking with her to her car that was parked right smack

outside of my house. She was afraid of the dark, which I constantly made fun of her

for because I was the total opposite. One night, she even wet her pants because I

pretended someone was chasing us. I just started screaming and running randomly to

freak her out, and she screamed so loud her throat hurt for a week. I always got a kick

out of teasing Chelsea, especially when it came to scaring her.

“Aww, is Chelsea scaaaared? Come lie by me then!” Phillip Mathews said to

Chelsea as he patted the empty sleeping bag space right next to him.

Chelsea had been on and off with Phillip since the seventh grade, and I never

really saw what was so ‘great’ about him. He was most definitely handsome. Tall,

brown curly hair, and bright blue eyes. He played lacrosse and was liked by many

different girls, but his personality was the reason I wasn’t too fond of him. To almost

everyone else, he was a likeable, friendly guy with a good sense of humor. But he

would have these mood swings that would be crazy and he would take his anger out

on Chelsea, which most definitely wasn’t cool for him to do in my eyes. The last time

they broke up was when he grabbed Chelsea’s arm when she tried to walk away from

a fight they were having. Chelsea didn’t like his aggression so she called it off, but not

for long. They were of course back in the swing of things again, after a night full of

him sweet talking her. Their relationship wasn’t healthy, but this was one topic

Chelsea wouldn’t allow me to have hardly any input on. So I ignored it just like she

That night wasn’t exactly the most fun of nights. It was actually kind of boring

as I just laid there talking to a boy in my geometry class. I was finally saved by a text

message I received from Chelsea asking me to come with her deeper into the woods to

go pee. There were only a few people left at the gathering spot, and just as we both

got up to go into the woods, everyone else left.

“Phillip is so cute!” Chelsea told me as we walked deeper into the trees.

“Haha, why? What was he saying this time?” I asked while rolling my eyes.

“Just more stuff about how I’m the only one for him and how we should start

over and how he has changed into a nicer more laid back kind of guy,” Chelsea told

“Well I still think you guys should try out other people first, but oh well,” I

said. “By the way why are we walking into the woods when we could just as easily

“Good question. Haha, oh well, we’re already here,” Chelsea said,

unbuttoning her pants. I turned away to keep a look-out even though only trees and

darkness surrounded us. I stood there whistling to myself and thinking about who

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” Chelsea screamed the absolute loudest I

have ever heard her, making me jump two feet off the ground and spin around like a

“Ok, funny, funny. You almost got me,” I said, just thinking she was trying to

get me back, but when I squinted my eyes and looked at Chelsea, I could tell that she

was definitely not kidding. Her face was serious and her eyes were wide. She stood

pointing at the ground and just as my eyes fell to what she was pointing at, I felt

myself mirroring her expression. We said nothing as we stared at this bloody

“Oh….my…god,” Chelsea said, her eyes wide and body tense. “This is

Phillip’s nanny!!!” She threw her hands to her opened mouth and dropped to her

“Are..are you sure?” I said, taking a closer look as shivers ran up my spine.

Chelsea said nothing but nodded her head, her eyes still glued to the body.

“Well what should we do? Call the cops?!?” I asked as I frantically got out my

“We have to back to the gazing spot, there’s no service this far out in the

meadow,” I said taking Chelsea’s hand. We called the cops, and then our mothers.

“Oh, honey, are you alright?” My mom asked me as she saw I was crying. She

embraced me and it was nice to be in her warm arms. I looked over and saw Chelsea’s

“Alright girls, you need to show us where this body is,” said a short, fat bald

“Yes, sir. This way,“ I said as I let go of my mom and lead the whole group

straight back to where Chelsea and I were five minutes ago.

“Where did it go?!?” Chelsea said, sounding really scared. I looked up and

Chelsea and I looked at each other to see if we agreed it was the same spot. We

“We are positive it was right here,” I said pointing at the ground. “Someone

must have moved it. It was right here next to this big rock. I’m positive, I really am,” I

The cop shined his flashlight at the place where the body used to be. Sure

enough there were blood stains on the grass. Thick, dark blood stains. I looked up at

Chelsea and just as she caught my eye, she bursted out in tears. I had never seen her

that scared before that moment. The cop then shined his flashlight slowly around in a

circle. Nothing was in sight except more grass, and more trees. He then reached for

his walky talky and called for some back up assistance.

“You ladies go home, and try to get a good night sleep. Don’t worry about a

thing, we will find this body and get to bottom of what is going on,” the cop said as he

“Phillip! Oh my gosh do you know what just happened?!” Chelsea screamed as

she ran over to him. I looked up in confusion of why he would still be here.

“No, I uh, just came back to get my cell phone. What’s up Chels? You look

stressed.“ Phillip said, holding her in his arms and rubbing her back. I felt bad for him

now. He was just going to find out that his poor nanny was dead, and that we had

“Linda! She’s….she’s dead Phillip, she’s dead!” Chelsea cried as she hugged

“What? What are you talking about? She’s still at my house reading my sister a

“No! I’m positive! I saw her! I’m positive!” Chelsea said, not calming down at

Chelsea’s mom walked over to them to try to calm her down.

“We’ll see you tomorrow Phillip, Chelsea needs to go home and get some

sleep,” Chelsea’s mom said calmly as she took her daughters hand and started to walk

her home. I ran up to Chelsea, and gave her a hug. Her back was all wet.

“Why is your back wet?” I asked as I looked at my hand. Chelsea felt her back

“I dunno, Phillip must have had wet hands or something,” she said as she

I woke up the next morning to find a text message from Chelsea that read:

“Call me when you wake up!” Along with seven missed calls. I immediately called

her back.

“Naomi! Finally! The cops called my house and they located the body by the

river. I know this might sound crazy, but I’ve been up all night thinking about who it

could be that would do such a thing to Linda…” Chelsea was talking like an

“Ok caaalmmm down. Slowly tell me what happened after taking a deep

“I think its Phillip, Naomi, I think it’s Phillip,” Chelsea said still as fast.

I jolted up from my pillow in less than a second.

“No, but so many things are pointing to him. He would always complain about

her, but I never found anything wrong with Linda. He would joke sometimes about

wanting her dead because his little sisters liked her better than him…I just would

never think that Phillip would do something like this…”

“Chels, are you really sure?” I asked, still not quite believing her. But then it

all clicked. The cops found the body by the river. Chelsea’s back was wet after Phillip

hugged her. He had wet hands! He had wet hands because he was just at the river! He

was trying to put Linda’s body down stream so nobody would find it after he heard

Chelsea scream where he first disposed of the body! He had to have moved her when

“Naomi…..Naomi are you still there?” Chelsea asked.

“Chelsea…it’s Phillip!” I said while nodding my head.

Chelsea was over at my house in less than two minutes. Her face was red and

swollen from crying. I hugged her and brought her inside.

“What are we going to do?” Chelsea asked. I could tell she was about to start

“Well I don’t think we should call the cops and turn Phillip in yet because

what if it actually isn’t him?” I said realistically. Chelsea ran to my couch and threw

“Why does it have to be Phillip? How did I not realize this before? I have been

going out with a murderer for four long years! How did I not realize this?” Chelsea

yelled, crying into a pillow. I went over to her trying to calm her down. I stroked her

blonde curly hair, and tucked it behind her ear. I wiped the tears from her face and

“We’re not positive Chels, don’t stress out about until we are positive,” I said.

“How are we going to be positive?!” Chelsea screamed back. I thought for a

“Lets go to his house. He’s usually at lacrosse practice at this time right? Let’s

In moments time we were thirty yards away from Phillips house.

“Are you sure we should do this?” Chelsea asked, hesitantly.

“Yes,” I answered, looking her straight in the eye.

We hopped into Phillip’s room through his window. . We had exactly forty-

two minutes until Phillip was out of practice. We had to find something fast.

I searched through drawers as Chelsea searched under his bed. I tore down

every book from his bookshelf, as she dumped his trashcan out on the floor. Nothing.

I threw bits and pieces out of his closet as she took the sheets off his bed. Still

nothing. I lifted up the mattress of his couch, she went through his backpack. Nothing

nothing nothing! We both paused as we looked at his room. It looked like a tornado

had hit. We were just about to give up, when….

“Yea I think it’s all covered,” said Mrs. Mathews from the other room. I

looked at Chelsea. We walked over to Phillip’s door and pressed our ears against the

wood. Phillip’s mom took a deep breath, and sighed.

“What’s happening Chels?” I asked, my heart beating faster.

“I just can’t believe I did something like this. I’m sure it’s for the better. No

more flirting in the laundry room any more with Tim,” Phillips mom said. Chelsea

“Phillip’s mom?” Chelsea whispered as she grabbed my arm.

“Oh yea, Linda’s probably floated down to China by now,” Mrs. Mathews

“We have to get out of here. Now,” I said as I ran to Phillips window and

hopped out. Chelsea quickly followed.

“This is sickning!” Chelsea screamed.

“Phillip and his mom?!?” I agreed. This was by far the scariest thing any

Nutcreek high school kid has ever gone through.

We called the cops and we could hear the sirins traveling from a distance. It

was like suddenly someone flipped the switch on a remote to turn everything slow

motion. We watched as the police car drove slowly past. Phillip was already in the

backseat of the car as he gave one final glance at Chelsea and I. I looked over at

Chelsea as she fell into my arms bursting out in tears.

“It’s gunna be ok Chels, it’s gunna be ok.”

The police then arrested Mrs. Mathews, and off they were, mother and son, in

the back of the police car, never to be seen again.