Bluebird

~Segment 1~ Bluebird

In a small yard made of mostly concrete sat a child murmuring softly. Carefully practicing the enunciation of words that once she got just right she would ask her mother to define for her. Mama was so pleased when she asked about public transportation that her face lit up and she cooed and cuddled her close as she praised her. Mama had been crying a lot lately, ever since that tall dark man came to stay with them and so she decided that maybe if she knew more words it would make her smile again.

The words the dark man used seemed unkind and she was careful not to say those though she often wondered what they meant. They must mean bad things to hurt Mama so much. Or maybe it was because he said them so loudly, his voice hurt her ears like the sirens on the fire trucks did and maybe if she knew what they meant she would cry too.

The small child sat so calmly and spoke so softly that quite often small birds would land beside her and hop closer to her, sometimes even on her. She would smile and try her best to stay very still so as not to disturb them allowing her to look at them closely. On this day as she sat Indian style a small chick with pretty blue feathers had perched itself on her ankle. She changed her tone to a whisper naming all the parts of the bird she knew.

A scream and the sound of breaking glass startled the bird it spread its wings to take flight but one of its feet got hung on the fabric of her sweater. The small blue bird began to panic flapping its wings and pecking at her tearing the cloth of her blouse breaking the skin underneath. Tears welled up in her eyes and though she was scared she would not cry out loud fearing that she would further upset the bird. As she worked determinedly to free the bird's foot it pecked furiously at her face gashing her.

Once free the bird did not fly away instead it flapped one wing the other wing lying open and unmoving as it hopped around frantically. Realizing the blue bird's wing was broken she began to sob knowing she had hurt the poor creature. Not knowing how to help it she ran for her mother. Warm blood mixed with salty tears streamed down her face as she ran through the back door into the kitchen. "Mama there's a hurt bird in the yard, I didn't mean to Mama but I broke its wing can you help it?" She choked the words out before the scene before her eyes could sink into her mind.

The dark man had her mother's hair clenched in his fist holding her head as he reprimanded her for the broken glass she was trying to clean up. As she would reach for the glass he would jerk her head back growling the mean words at her. She struggled and broke free from his grasp when she saw her child's bloodstained cheeks and ran to her.

The little girl's mother scooped her up into her arms as the child relayed what had happened, taking her to the bathroom to check her wounds and clean them. The dark man upset by the interruption stormed out of the kitchen slamming the door behind him. "Are you alright Mama?" She asked. "Yes sweetheart but I don't think you are, now hold still." Her mother replied gently turning her head towards the window. "Why does he hurt you Mama?" She asked looking out the window. "He's just silly, now hush." She said, her voice trembling.

Her mother gasped unable to turn the small child's attention away before she saw the dark man crush the birds head under his boot. The girl screamed leaping towards the window to watch the man repeatedly bring his foot down on the already dead bird before pitching it into the trash can.

The child thrashed wildly completely horrified by the events just witnessed. Her mother grabbed hold of her clutching the girls head into her chest rocking attempting to calm her. The dark man came to the bathroom door his hurtful words muffled out by her mothers grasp. The man wrenched the child from her mother's arms as she protested that the girl would need stitches, and they had to go immediately to the emergency room.

"You're not going anywhere you fucking whore, you're going to clean up this god damned mess." He yelled loudly holding the girl by her arm like a rag doll. "This little bitch just needs to shut up and put a band aid on."

She saw her mother reach for her as she spat at the dark man, her words laced with vehemence demanded he release her child and allow her medical attention. Enraged he backhanded the woman so hard she collapsed on the floor in an unmoving heap. He turned to face her as his massive hand closed around her throat. Terrified for her mother she struggled with every muscle in her body until finally consciousness slipped away from her.

She awoke briefly on the cold hard gritty ground to the sound of moving water. She tried to turn her head to see where the water was but despite her efforts she could not move. She saw wispy grey clouds surrounding the painfully bright moon as she stared up at the sky through swollen eyelids. She called out weakly for her mother but could hardly hear her own voice. Again she tried to move wanting so badly to get up praying her mother was alright she lifted her head. Dizziness made her sick to her stomach and blackness threatened to wash over her.

Somewhere in the distance she could hear the faint sound of a car approaching. She was so cold and so tired but again she tried to call out to her mother. To weak to speak she raised her hand to wave it hoping mama would see her there and saw in the pale moonlight that her hand and arm were nearly black with bruises. Listening she heard voices that sounded urgent but too far away for her strained voice to reach. She laid her head and wounded limb back down and somewhere between silent sobs she gave into the blackness of coma.

~Segment 2~ Dreams

The small child saw the little blue bird hopping around as if she were watching it on a television screen. She heard it chirping happily singing its song in her ear. The view of the yard dissipated into a haze and there laid her mother on the kitchen floor a motionless figure making no audible sound. Her head turned strangely to face her mouthing the words 'I love you'. The face while she was sure it belonged to her mother seemed wrong, her eyes were black as pitch and her body did not move at all leaving her head cocked in a surreal angle.

The images flitted through her mind like a slideshow, sometimes merging. The small bird would sing its sorrowful song sitting atop the pile that was her mothers figure. At times there would be no pictures at all only sounds of rushing water, distant voices, and sirens that made her head throb. Unknown voices exchanging language that was English but sounded strangely foreign skewed with grieving and desperation.

She thought to move but felt unattached to her body her mind sought out her limbs but could not locate them. She felt as though she were floating atop a cushion of air not uncomfortable but wholly unfamiliar and frightening. A rush of cold air seemed to embrace her and suddenly her surrounds were full of noises. She listened carefully trying to identify the sounds.

There was beeping and a slow steady hum not quite a buzzing sound but she felt if it were to come closer it would make her ears burn. A shell of heat began to sear her and a dull throb encased her. She felt first what must have been her skin and then pain emanating from what could only be her bones. The sound of footsteps approaching and a voice wrought with agony pleading "Please, please just let me go to her…"

A harsh voice spoken with authority denied the verbal attempts. "I'm sorry ma'am that isn't possible. You will need to have written consent to enter the room. Speak with your case worker. I shouldn't even let you look through the glass; you aren't allowed to be here." "Look at her! Can't you at least tell me if she is going to be alright?" Begged the voice unwilling to give in.

 "It's still too early to tell Ma'am if she is going to come out of the coma it will be within the next 24-48 hours. I hope for your sake she does. More than 85% of her body is covered in contusions and abrasions. In my entire career never have I seen someone so viciously beaten as to have bruises between their toes and on the soles of their feet. Whoever did this to her took their time and did not aim for her to survive. I'm truly sorry Ma'am but that is all I can tell you and I could lose my license for telling you this much already, please leave I don't want to have security remove you. It will only make it worse for you in the long run." explained the harsh voice.

The frail battered child heard the nonsensical words trail off in the distance the dreamlike state overpowering her sense of reality as darkness once again washed over her. An undetermined amount of time passed. The sound of clinking and a cold burning sensation raced up her arm as the shock of breath ached in her lungs. She opened her heavy swollen lids taking in a dark room that smelled of antiseptic.

Her eyes scanned her surroundings. Steel bars loomed beside her, tubes snaked out from under the white blankets running off into what seemed like thin air. Again she perceived the steady rhythmic beeping and far away sounds of people speaking that strange language. She thought those were like the five dollar words. Words like perforated that her uncle would drop money into her piggy bank for if she could say them and tell him what they meant. But those must be ten dollar words because they were well out of her league she had never heard anything like those before.

"Mama" She muttered. She could neither see her mother nor feel her presence. Panic coursed through her fearing her mother had suffered the same fate as the blue bird at the dark mans hands. If her Mama were alright she would be here with her now. Tears rolled down the sides of her face spilling into her ears. "I'm so sorry Mama I didn't mean to make the man angry. I promise to be a good girl, please Mama please don't leave me here alone." She cried. "Please, please be Ok."

A woman in a white dress and a strange hat ran into the room. She came at the small child with instruments that looked much like her doctor toys. A cold thing placed on her chest, pressure on her wrist, and burning cold racing up her arm made her nauseous. She looked at the woman choking out "I want my mommy, please where is my mama?" "Shhhh don't speak. Be still." The woman spoke tersely before calling over her shoulder loudly, more ten dollar words to people the girl could not see.

"I'm scared and I want my mommy, please stop touching me it hurts. Get away!" Her frail voice trembled. "Where is she, where is my mommy?" She demanded. The woman shushed her again as more people came in surrounding the cage she lay in. A mans voice spoke softly to her "Your Mom can't come right now little one but she will be here as soon as she can ok? We're going to take good care of you."

"Why? Why can't she? I need her and I want her now." She told the man. "You just rest for right now and let the doctors help you. Everything will be ok." His soft voice instructed her. He told someone to put another one of those ten dollar words into her eye-vee and slowly the world ebbed away from her yet again.

~Segment 3~ Pi

The small girl lay still listening, she could hear a familiar voice but she wasn't sure it was Mama because it was so angry. Even when she got Vaseline all over her new teddy bear Mama's voice was not that mean. Mama had a soft voice. If she had to describe what love sounded like she would tell you it was Mama's voice, even when she was upset.

She tried to open her eyes to see who the voice belonged to, but no matter how hard she tried she could not wake up. Still she could hear all the noises around her. It was a cruel imprisonment locked in sleep yet conscious enough to catch bits and pieces of what was going on around her. The voices were coming closer now and so badly did she want to hear her mother's voice that she let her breathing slow so she would not miss any words.

Footsteps echoed through the antiseptic smelling room. "Ok she can come in now." A thickly accented voice said. Then she heard running footsteps moving towards her, the owner of them must have moved so fast they did not see the caged bed because they ran right into the bars shaking the bed. "What have they done to her?" The voice rang out angrily.

"Hello Ma'am, my name is Dignora. Dignora Luciano pleased to finally meet you. I'll be handling your case." The accented voice introduced itself.

"Why is she sleeping? Why won't they let me speak to her? Don't you people understand how scared she must be?" The angry Mama like voice rang out.

"I'm sorry Ma'am but it's for the best. They are afraid seeing you could put her into shock; traumatic events like this can impact a child's mind in ways we do not understand." Dignora answered.

"Bullshit. My baby is not afraid of me, she has no reason to be." The angry Mama voice Said.

"She's been acting out a lot Ma'am." Dignora replied.

"They shaved off her hair. Why is she strapped down?"

"As I said Ma'am she's been acting out. When they tried to shave her head she fought so hard that she ripped her IV out. She was screaming profanity at the nurses as well. Do you know where she might have picked up such language?" The case worker asked accusingly.

"Did they bother to tell her what they were doing or why? Her head is all black and blue."

"No Ma'am she's just a child she wouldn't understand if they told her. They discovered the bruising on her scalp and feared there might be damage to the brain. She's suffered some very extensive injuries. You haven't answered my question." Dignora said indignantly.

"I don't know where she got the bad language from, and I don't believe for a minute that she was violent or deserves to be tied up like an animal. She is the gentlest child I have ever seen, so gentle in fact that wild birds and stray dogs aren't afraid to approach her. You people think I did this to her don't you? That's why you won't let me speak to her, there is no other reason she would go into shock from seeing her own mother." The woman said.

"No Ma'am in fact we are sure that you didn't do this, only a man could have."

"What do you mean?" The woman asked.

"The test results that have come back indicate that she wasn't just beaten. Apparently she was raped and sodomized as well." Dignora delivered the blow harshly.

"Oh my god…" The devastated woman replied as she began to weep.

The girl cried inside as she comprehended that the angry voice belonged to her mother. Still despite her efforts she could not wake up, she lay there powerless willing her thoughts to reach her mother. If only she could make Mama understand that she was alright and wanted more than anything in the world to hug her tightly. She did not hear the rest of the exchange between the accented woman and her mother as medication induced sleep permeated her consciousness.

Some time later the disheartened child felt a warm hand holding hers. Her heavy eyelids opened slowly her vision not yet clear she blinked several times trying to shake off the grogginess that saturated her body. She fidgeted and sat up lazily her eyes wandering to the stand beside her bed before seeking out the source of the warm embrace. There sat a small blue bird made of glass sitting on a rounded pedestal and beside it was Teddy the stuffed bear she could not sleep without.

The small child smiled for the first time since the day this all began. "A little birdie told me to tell you that's a music box." A familiar voice said softly. She looked up and when she saw Mikes face her heart was so filled with joy she thought it might burst. He let go of her hand to wind up the trinket and as he released it the little blue glass bird twirled to the tune of Swan Song.

 Her uncles room mate Mike was her best friend in the whole world aside from Mama. He kept her company many rainy nights teaching her to count after each thunder clap and wait for the lightening. It was he who plugged her ears on the fourth of July during the fireworks show so she could see the sparkling colors in the sky without her ear drums feeling as though they would burst. She had never been so happy to see him in all her life.

"Oh Pi.." She slurred. Her teeth clicked from the force of her jaw snapping shut. Her pale cheeks got hot and began to flush with embarrassment. She was mortified by her mistake not understanding the effects of the powerful drugs they had used to sedate her.

"It's ok Kiddo you can call me Pi, I really like that." He said warmly smiling at her.

He knew the medication was strong and made it difficult for her to speak. He remembered the night he and her mother first found out she could speak. They heard her in her crib practicing pronunciation. The following morning she let loose her new arsenal of words: kit-tee, kis-ses, and hap-pee. It was then they realized she would not say a word in front of anyone until she could say it properly. He knew his little big girl had to be struggling with this situation and he wouldn't allow her to feel any worse.

He took her small hand in his letting his thumb work in small circles over the back of her hand comforting her. "How about I tell you a story and you just listen until you feel strong enough to talk?" He asked her gently. Relieved she smiled and nodded. "When you can talk again, I want you to call me Pi okay?" Her cheeks regained their color as she anxiously nodded again and listened to the story of Puff the Magic Dragon.

~Segment 4~ Bargains

 "Pi…" Her small voice said nervously. Her big green eyes showed signs of wear in her youthful expression. 

"Hey kiddo, how are you doing?" asked Pi. 

She put her head down staring into her lap. "I'm scared." 

"Your Mom brought your Teddy to help you sleep. They tell me you're giving them a hard time. Do you want to talk about it?" He asked her, handing her the stuffed animal. 

"They're really mean to me." She said her eyes welling with tears. 

"What do they do?" He asked gently.

"They wake me up to stick me with needles; they tie me down and use that noisy machine that hurts my ears to take all my hair away. One lady in the white dress stuck a needle in me and taped it there. She makes it burn when she comes in to poke me and wake me up. Nobody will talk to me, they tell me to shush and they won't let me see Mommy. They won't even let me get out of bed to go pee." Her lip quivered as she pulled back the lower portion of her blanket revealing an IV taped to her already black and blue foot. 

"I was bad but I didn't want to be. They won't stop hurting me even when I tell them it hurts." I pulled the burning needle out of my hand and they got mad and put it in my foot. I tried to tell the nurse I'm scared in the dark but she just gives me the dream medicine and I have really scary dreams." Tears ran silently down her cheek as she replied. 

"Do you think yelling at the nurses will help?" He asked.

"No, I just wanted them to stop and they won't listen to me and I got scared and thought if I used the mean words maybe they would stop. But they got more angry and made it hurt worse. Can you take me home?" She didn't dare look up afraid he did not want her.

"I'm going to try kiddo. I can't make any promises yet, but I'm trying. Right now Mommy can't come see you until your asleep, because she has to work. But first you have to make a deal with me and be a good girl ok?" He asked her covering her tiny bruised leg. 

"I will, I promise." She said beaming. "Pi, what is the grown up word for being a good girl?" She asked.

"Obedient." He said looking at her. 

A man in a white coat with a clipboard opened the door after knocking and approached the pair extending his hand to the man across the small child's bed. 

"Hello sir I'm Dr. Mitchell, I'm here to ask this little lady some questions. Given the legal nature of her answers I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave." He told the man sympathetically. 

"I understand." Pi said leaning down to kiss the child on her forehead. "You be good now kiddo and I'll see what I can do." 

She stifled her tears though she did not want Pi to leave; she had felt safe for the first time days. She held her Teddy tight and sat up straight ready to be a good girl, ready to be obedient and maybe she could go home with Pi.

She looked at the man with weary eyes full of apprehension flinching as Dr Mitchell rolled the table over her. She watched him carefully as he placed paper and crayons before her wondering if he meant to poke at her too. She sat very still waiting for his instructions.

"Did I scare you?" He asked plainly. "I'm sorry. Was that a friend of yours?"

She nodded keeping her gaze set on the crayons before her. "Are you going to move me and make me hurt?" She asked him.

He laughed saying "No, I am just here to talk. I might have to ask you some really hard questions though, but if you can't answer them you just tell me and we can talk about something different. The nurses tell me you like words is that true?" He asked her sitting down beside her.

"Yes." She said hoping all his questions were this easy.

"How come you like words so much?" He asked.

"Because I can't talk without them." She replied.

Smiling he replied "That's true. They said you have a really good memory for words. Do you think you could remember some things for me?" He continued.

"I can try." She said.

"Can you remember how you got these bruises?"

Her face grew pale her expression contorted with pain. She closed her eyes as she nodded approval. "I was talking to the bird and he got stuck. I tried to help him get loose but her pecked my face and I hurt his wing."

"Did you hurt his wing because he pecked your face?" He probed.

"No, I didn't want to hurt him but he didn't understand I was trying to help him. It was an accident." She enunciated the syllables carefully. 

 "So you were trying to save him but he got hurt. Do you think the nurses here feel that way with their patients?" 

"I was trying to save him. The nurses say they mean to save me from the things the bad men did but Pi is going to save me from them." She said softly. 

"Did you say men?" He asked writing something down.

"Yes, the dark man and the man he gave me to. The other man talked funny and smelled really bad." She explained. 

"What did the men do then?" 

"The smelly man put a napkin in my face and I remember falling, and then I was asleep."

"Did you wake up after that?" He prodded further.

"Yes, I woke up and heard the river but it was dark outside. I heard the loud sirens and my ears burned and then I fell back asleep."  She replied opening her eyes.

"Can you tell me what they look like?" He asked

"The dark man was big but I couldn't see the smelly man very well everything was watery."

"Watery? Do you mean blurry?" He asked.

"Yes, blurry. It smelled awful and my throat
burned." She volunteered.

"Do you think you could do me a very special important favor?" He asked "It would take a very special big girl to do that, are you a big girl?"

"No, I am just little." She answered matter of factly. "But I am special, my Momma says so."

"I'm going to leave these crayons here and I want you to draw me a picture of how the men looked. Can you do that for me?" He said silkily. "I will come back tomorrow to see it, and we will talk about it some more, alright?" He said gathering his things as the nurse came in. 

The woman uncovered her without warning taking her bruised foot into her hand. A small gasp escaped the child and she asked the nurse carefully "Could we make a deal?"

The woman looked her over sharply and asked her what she meant.

"If I promise not to keep asking for Mama and I won't even bite and I will drink the nasty drink the first time. If I promise not to cry or shout, if I promise to be obedient and use my best behavior, would you take that needle out of my foot?" The small child pleaded.  

~Conclusion~ Escape

She awoke in a cold sweat her pillow soggy and her blankets in general disarray. The room was dark and noiseless save the sound of the rhythmic beeping she'd become accustom to. Rain spattered the small glass pains of the windows the steady pit-pat of raindrops interrupted only by the occasional crack of thunder and flash of lightening. Her heart was racing so fast the beating was hurting her chest. Her throat felt hard as if she'd swallowed a stone and she could hardly breathe.

She began to count slowly, one Mississippi, two Mississippi in an effort to calm herself. She saw the bright streak in the sky and waited for the next boom as she tried to sort out the events of the last few days. She'd been having nightmares again but she didn't dare breathe a word to anyone, too afraid they might hurt her more like they always did when she spoke up about what her body was doing to her.  

She didn't like the uncomfortable things they did, though they said they were supposed to be helping her. When she said she needed to go number two they stuffed some cold thing called a 'pan' under her and stood there waiting for her to go right there in her bed. Then they would roll her and spray her bum with water but they wouldn't wipe her. It felt gross and she hated them for it. She peeked under her covers relieved to see that they took away the wormy looking tube that seemed to eat her urine. She dreamed so much that she couldn't always tell if things were true when she woke up.

The Mitchell man kept asking her if she dreamed about what happened but she didn't understand what happened herself. She barely remembered and what did come to mind was just as fuzzy and surreal as her dreams. She thought if only the dreams were of that she could sleep, but instead they were of the dark man coming to the hospital to get her. She trembled and pulled the covers up around her tightly her only protection against the world.

When she had the needle in her foot and the tubes in her private places if the man came she could not get away. She tried to tell them if they tied her down and put tubes in her she could not run away when he came. She was saddened that she did not have the words to make the grown ups understand. She longed for home, because even if the dark man was there she could hide in her toy box like she had when he said mean words to her mother.

He had been to her room in the night before, after he made Momma cry. He stumbled and fell a lot and he couldn't use his words nearly as well as she could, he slurred badly. He would yell when he couldn't find her, but he would go away. She would hide in her dog toy box and slide the lid on. Momma had yelled at her for that when she found her asleep there in the morning. She had cut big holes in the lid but not on top, so you couldn't see her.

The man did not like it when Momma sent her with Grandma or Pi. They would yell and he would make her cry but Momma made her go anyway. She didn't like to leave her with the man all alone and maybe she had to be alone now for leaving her. She didn't understand why Mama didn't just tell them what happened so she could go home. Maybe Momma didn't want her back now that she was broken.

 She tried so hard to tell the Mitchell man what he asked of her. She made the mistake of telling him the truth. She told him that she thought this was her fault. She explained how Grandma got angry with her when they went to church because she asked too many questions. She went on to tell him that maybe she was evil like Grandma had said she was. Then they wouldn't let her talk with Grandma on the phone anymore.

She was afraid they were going to say she couldn't go home with Pi after she told them why she loved to be with him and his friends. She'd told him how everyone was happy and laughing all the time, Mama never cried when they went there. The man with the dresses and the big moustache would sit her right on the counter and let her help him make muffins and deck-a-dent deserts while the grown ups played cards in the other room. He taught her big food words and let her use the measure cups oh how she loved it.

He seemed awful upset that she said the man had dresses. He asked if the man wore make up when he wore them, but she told him she never saw him with them on. He kept on about the man until she showed him the picture in her book. She reached to her bed stand and opened the book to the page she had shown him. She ran her chubby little finger over the page. The picture depicted a man in a nightgown with a floppy hat and funny little slippers. She felt that these grown ups must not be very smart, because they only seemed to understand her when she used pictures.

A crack of thunder startled her from her thoughts just in time for the urgency in her bladder to worry her. She knew if she called for the nurse she wouldn't be able to hold it until she came; her bed would get wet, and the nurse would be angry. She scooted down past the bars and let her legs dangle off the side of the bed. It looked like a long way down but her urgent need was stronger than her fear. She took a deep breathe grabbed hold of the bar and slid off the side.

Her little bruised feet hit the cold floor, her legs buckling underneath her weight. She cried out from the pain that ran up her thighs like the lightning tendrils that stretched outward in the sky. Her body stiffened immediately hearing the commotion in the hallway. They must have heard her she thought and scanned the room quickly wondering how she could explain this.

"Sir.. SIR you can't go down there!" A woman's voice yelled.

She heard footsteps pounding down the hall angrily, not like those of the nurses and doctors. Doors banging open and sounds of glass and equipment falling reached her ears as one door after another followed by footsteps got closer and closer to her wide open door.

"Someone call security!" Another woman's panic stricken voice rang out. "Sir you have to stop, there are children in those rooms." Her voice echoed down the hall.
 

Her voice was coming closer too but the angry feet stopped and seemed to halt the woman's efforts. The small child's heart beat like a frantic drum in her chest. The air grew thick around her making her stomach churn with terror. The dark man was here and he was coming for her. Her face felt hot as she scrambled to her bedside table seeing her Teddy sitting beside her bluebird. He would see her Teddy, and then he would know she was here.

She forced herself onto her knees and dared to reach up for Teddy when she heard the door slamming resume.  She clenched the bears arm tightly between her chubby little fingers as the blue bird wobbled on the edge of the stand threatening to fall over and break giving away her location. She reached frantically, her elbow catching the corner of the door on her stand as she caught it.

The heavy footsteps were close and she could see a shadow creeping across the floor now. She had nowhere to run. She turned her head and saw the cabinet door again. She flung it open willing her reluctant limbs into motion and crawled into the bed stand pulling the door closed behind her. She sat like a pretzel her body to numb with fear too feel any real discomfort from the contorted positioning.

She held her breathe and squeezed her eyelids shut afraid he could smell her fear even though he could not see her. Her bladder could no longer resist despite her attempts to hold it back. She felt the warm gush on her thighs, disheartened she knew now, he would find her. He would find her because she wasn't a big enough girl to hold it and it would surely leak on the floor giving away her hiding place. She sat still and whispered in her mind the words her Grandma taught her to speak to the lord.

She heard the crash of his footfalls enter the room and his deep voice cajoling her "Come out come out wherever you are…" She heard the bathroom door flung open and a bunch of footsteps seemed to erupt from all around her.

A loud booming voice commanded "Step out of the room slowly and put your hands up." More footsteps moved in closer. She felt the cabinet shake as if something had banged into it and felt a splash of warm liquid on her feet. She chanced a peek down and discovered the pan the nurses made her lay on filled to the brim. The shaking had spilled some of it but hopefully nobody would notice it in the dark.

There was yelling and too many noises and commotion to discern what took place outside her little cabinet that doubled this day as a stronghold. Among the mix of sounds she could hear the dark mans footsteps as if she could sense his malign intent for her from afar. His footsteps ran away down the long side of the hall. She heard the rush of stampeding footsteps following the dark man's the echo's dying away until nothing was left but the sound of her own heartbeat.

Some time later she heard her nurse's voice telling several other voices "She's not here, he's got her, she's nowhere to be found. Good God he's taken her." Still to petrified or perhaps shocked to speak she sat still breathing into her Teddy bear so no one could hear her breathe. Her mind was racing wondering what she was to do now when she heard his voice.

"Wait a minute." Pi said. Light shone through the crack under the cabinet door. Her heart skipped a beat. Could it be? Please, please let it be Pi she thought still to terrified to move. She opened her mouth to call out to him but her voice did not cooperate. Silence hung heavy in the air until she heard him say. "What is this on the floor?"

The cabinet door opened, the bright light blinding her tired eyes. "Kiddo? Are you ok?" He asked her as he reached in and gently pulled her from her hiding place. "I'm all wet." she said to him as he wrapped his arms around her. "It's ok kiddo it washes off. Are you ready to come home with me?" He asked her smiling.

She collapsed into his arms sobbing into the crook of his neck as he wrapped her in the blanket from her bed. He put her music box in his pocket and commenced to giving the awestricken nurses orders. "Get the papers I need to sign NOW. As of 10:00 this morning I am her official guardian and I am signing her out right this minute before you fucking idiots get her killed."  

The nurses ran off hurriedly. The intrusion all the proof they needed to give her guardian what he asked for. She clung tightly to his neck feeling that now finally she would feel safe with him to protect her she began to relax her body sagging heavily into his care. "Everything is going to be alright." He assured her. "I'm going to take you to my house. We'll have some hot cocoa and give your mom a call. Would that make you feel better?"

She beamed happily. He gave her the best news and the most hope a small child had in what she felt was her whole lifetime. She nestled in the bundle of blankets he held carefully. Soothed by the rhythm of him walking she drifted contentedly off to sleep.