Missing pieces

Chapter 18

"Sweet angel, are you awake?"

The little girl was fast asleep, then the woman sees the book Peter had told her about and she realizes that Araya had woken up again and moved on with the reading. That little girl was a book eater. Since she had met her it was easier to see her with a book in her hand than with an electronic gadget that kids love today, she was an old-fashioned little girl and that was something that drove Mariska crazy in a good way.

When the woman approaches the girl to wake her up at her first touch, the girl snaps and takes a defensive position.

"Baby it's only me" the woman says in a soft voice trying to caress her head again.

"Sorry.." the little girl is justified.

"May I..?" the woman makes a sign to the girl if she could lie down next to her. The little girl makes room for her and when the woman is lying down the little girl takes refuge in her embrace.

"After Peter left, you continued reading, didn't you?"

"Sorry.." she justifies herself again.

"It's ok that you love to read but we have to find the right time to do things we don't want you to be tired in the morning" the little girl expected to be scolded but Mariska's tone makes her understand that she was not in trouble and raises the look looking in the face of the woman "Good morning bambina" resumes the woman smiling.

Mariska knew that they should have given her rules to strengthen their parenting figure but that little girl went to through so many things that she didn't feel like doing it at that moment and for such nonsense. She knew that with Raya they should have been more wary because of her past.

Pampering her was something that made her love her new role even more, she found her perfect and sweet and she saw the perfection in Raya, she was small, beautiful and surely her rare hugs could warm a mountain of ice.

"Today it's just you and me, Peter has some work to do and I won't start working for a couple of weeks yet so you'll be tired of me" 

The little girl smiles at the information she has just received. She liked spending time with Mariska, she isn't scary but instead she give to the girl a sense of protection that she had never felt before.

"How about getting ready and going out? I have something in mind that you will like.." the woman says tickling the girl

"Can we stay here? Just like that" the little girl asks

"All day?" she asks and the girl nods "Hmm why do you want to stay here all day?"

"Because it's safe, we have food and if we leave the station and they steal it, we don't know where to go"

The little girl's words saddened the woman instantly.

"Baby this is yours and here we are at our house no one will touch anything and when we come back it will all be here as we left it" the woman says stroking the girl's cheek "Get dressed and I assure you that nothing will happen, do you trust me?" the little girl nods again and without saying a word gets up and does as she was asked under the watchful eye of the woman.

"Can you wear a sweatshirt for me over this cute outfit? Where we go it's cold" the girl had no objection and chooses a sweatshirt from her closet.

The car ride was quite long but Raya didn't notice because she was reading her book. She walked into a perfect world, not that all the stories she read were good but they always ended up somehow in the right way so that the characters had that happy ending that everyone wants. Mariska on her side was intent on reading the newspaper on her phone, political news, city news and lastly the gossip that strangely saw her as the protagonist. They were all curious, they all wanted to know and they would not leave them alone until they knew. She sends a message to Peter.