Her New Hope

CHAPTER TWO

Gloria Cullingan

"Autumn!" I swear it like this dog is getting more and feisty by the day. My husband, Stanley lets out a soulful laugh as he looks on as I try to keep up with Autumn. "She keeps on out running you Glo" he spoke as he finally caught up to me. "At this rate I'd be modelling in Milan by summer" I said waiting for his reaction. We decided to take a jog around the farm early in the morning before we went for our And just like that, his face filled with glee a smile filled his entire face and light wrinkles danced around the edges of his mouth. I'm glad to see him happy like this after such a long time. I was pushed out my thoughts by the Autumn's barks. They were not the playful barks that Stanley and I are used to. There's something wrong, I can feel it. "Stan-" as if he had read my mind he started moving towards Autumn. I followed briskly behind him. Well it could be a dead moose or some woodland creature that might have been caught in the fence. "Gloria come see this run!" Oh goodness this might be more serious than I thought because I could hear the urgency in Stanley's voice. I finally caught up to them. Oh my god. It's a girl!

As a mother my maternal instincts kicked. I had to act and act fast. "Stanley!, Stanley where did she come from." I looked at the pale frail young woman who was lying unconscious in a ditch. I started to examine for any more injuries than the ones we could already see. My poor heart went out to the poor young woman her scars told a horrendous story before we could even speak to her. She had different hues of purple, black and a deep shades of blue all over her skin. Her wrists showed that she was bound by restraints at some point. And her feet, they we covered in blisters and were scotched showing that whatever happened to this girl she was fighting for her life. She slowly came back to life as her eyes creaked open for the first time. She has the most beautiful cerulean eyes I had ever seen. So pure and so soft, until realization crept into her eyes, I could see fear gripping the irises.- something was wrong and I could feel it. "No, please don't come close to me" a small, desperate voice escaped from her mouth. - She's dehydrated. She tried to get up and make a run for it but her legs gave out and she fell with a thud. She was so weak my heart was so pitiful. As if my husband could ready my thoughts he said, " we'll take her in." I gave him a reassuring smile. "Call the ambulance Stanley." I said to him as I knelt closer to the girl. "No!" She tried with all her might to stop me. "Please don't call in the ambulance – in fact don't even help me he'll find me" her voice slowly fading out again. No,no,no,no,no we're losing her. Not this time I will not let other young woman die in my hands again –never. Stanley quickly took her up in the space of his hands. The last thing she said before blacking out was "please don't let him find me" And it was here where I took a silent vow to protect this girl no matter what.

Stanley and I badged into the house like maniacs. We were in panic mode but all the adrenaline was rushed to our feet as we were trying to save this young woman I opened the doors to one of the spare rooms that where in our farmhouse. Stanley placed her fragile body on the bed. We both looked at each other and simultaneously asked each other what we should do. " okay first we should remove her from those rages she's wearing and put a little decency on her. Secondly, Glo, she did mention that we shouldn't call the hospital and get her admitted. So what- I interrupted Stanley with a thought that had popped up in my head " Call Frank honey- call Frank he can help us" Stanley bolted down stairs to get the phone. I sat next to the unconscious girl. I could help but run my hands over her face. Oh my goodness she's burning up. I walk into the bathroom and got a clean towel to clean her up. The dirt all over her shows that she had encountered some real physical damage. I cleaned up her face from all the dirt, I noticed she had a cut on her cheek, well it was healing but it shows she was punched. I let out a small prayer, praying that she would be okay. Shortly after, Stanley came back into the room. "He said he'll, be here in 15 minutes tops." Stanley said as he came and took a spot right next to me. I was overcome with so much emotion, I reached out to him and hugged him "oh Stanley this child has been through a lot I can feel it. Just look at her she's just so vulnerable." He held me there for some time. Allowing me to process what was going on. I finally broke the embrace and Stanley gave me one of his "everything is going to be alright" smiles .I moved back to the girl and continued cleaning her up again.

I had just finished cleaning up her wounds when I heard a car pull up front. I couple of minutes later. Frank was standing in the room with us. "Hi mom. Hi dad." he said with so much enthusiasm. I loved that about Frank. He's always in a cheery mood even though we were not this biological family he's always had been one of my many sons. He's smile faltered when he saw the girl in the bed. "What happened exactly" he asked as he took out his stethoscope from his bag checking for her pulse. "Her pulse is low, and well she has a fever, cause her temperature is a 100 degrees." He paused for a while before looking at us. "Did she mention something when you found her, any odd behaviour she was showing? Stan spoke up "well she didn't say much all, she spoke of was what I had mentioned to you – not to take her to the clinic. And there was one more thing, she asked us not to let him find her." Frank continued to examine her in silence. After a while he finally spoke up, "well mom, dad, we have a serious case here and I would really need your help on this." My husband looked at me and I looked at Frank we gave him a curt nod before he continued speaking. " well as of the moment she has come down with a mild case of heat exhaustion, but her neck looks crocked a bit and well although it's healing she has a deep wound at the back of her head. So I need to take her into our offices for an MRI" he paused before continuing. "We need to sneak her in without people finding out. And this is a great opportunity to do this when the clinic isn't as busy. But this is going to be illegal and also we don't know who we're dealing with and so if she turns to be a delinquent we turn her in deal?" "I mean sure Frank, if she does prove that she's trouble we're going to turn her in to the police. But if not we can take care of her until she gets better right?" I turned looking at my husband who was in agreement with what I had said. "Let's hurry then before it becomes too late. Stanley gently lifted the girl as I locked up the house and we all rushed in to Frank's car.

In a matter of minutes we had arrived at the clinic. As Frank had mentioned there were not so many people there the clinic had started opening up and not so many staff members had been there. Frank greeted Gladys, the receptionist and asked her if one of the MRI rooms were free. She gladly took to the vacant rooms. "There you go doctor, do you need me to get it running?' Gladys asked. "That would be just splendid" Frank thanked her. Stan placed her on the tray and the machine took her in. I personally never understood how medicine worked but I trusted Frank and he knew what he was doing. After a really long thirty minutes Frank called us back in for the results. He let out a small sigh before he spoke "well the good thing is it's not as bad as it looks. The patient seemed to have had a car accident of some sort and that displaced her neck a bit and also she suffered from a mild concussion, meaning she was hit in the head and blacked out. Also this girl has a lot of say when she wakes up because the MRI and X-ray shows that she broke at least two ribs." A wave of pity fell on me this child went through a lot. Frank also mentioned that she was going to get a neck brace and pain killers to help with her the pain she was going to experience when she wakes up probably in the next three to five days. Frank left the room as he went to go get the neck brace. Stan spoke up, what do you think happened Glo? I looked up to his eyes I could see he was as concerned about the girl as I was. I finally spoke "I don't know Stan but it must have been a real traumatic experience for her." A couple of moments later Frank was putting the neck brace on her neck and we waited for her medication to be prescribed and once it got here we were on our way back home.

The ride back home was silent not the awkward and uncomfortable silence but I could feel like everyone was trying to piece together bits of information that would at least begin to scratch the surface of this young lady's story. We got home and Stan and Frank helped each other to take the girl into the room we had had her before. I thanked them both and offered them a wholly breakfast. They both headed downstairs and left me alone with the girl. I proceeded to the head stand and kissed her forehead. Even with the bruises she had you could see that she was a very beautiful young lady. I whispered into her ear you are one brave cookie so keep on fighting against whatever this is. With that I pulled up the covers to cover her and I quietly closed the door behind me. I said a silent prayer and went to join Stan and Frank downstairs.

Author's note❗❗❗❗❗❗

Heyyyyy readers I'm glad you've read this far into the book. I'm just generally excited for this project.Just a reminder that this book is still ongoing, and is under the creative process. However updates will be up frequently. Also please vote and comment. Thanks for the support
Love
Tini♥