Words We Didn't Get To Say

1

Summer's pov

11 years old

I couldn't remember a time before the orphanage. Sometimes, during nights like these, when I was lying on my stomach on my bunk to avoid putting pressure on the wounds on my back I would get flashes of memories. Of tiny little hands running through a woman's long black hair. Of running towards a woman with her arms outstretched. But it was always fleeting and I would wonder if it was really a memory of just my mind desperately to give me something to hold onto, to take my mind off the constant pain and fear.

The turn of a door knob immediately silences my thoughts and I hold my breath hoping and praying to anything out there that it isn't Ms. Jacinda, the woman who runs the orphanage. The door opens and the light from the hallway snakes into the room. A small form could be seen in the crack. Adam.

I and also the some of the girls who share the room with me breathe a sigh of relief thankful it isn't Ms. Jacinda.

"Adam" I whisper, "what are you doing here?!" I ask him as he gently closes the door and walks over to me. He know if he gets caught in here there would be hell to pay. Ms. Jacinda would probably take him to the basement to whip him and them put him in solitary. Adam walks over to me. Even at ten years old like me, he's bigger than any of the other boys in the orphanage. But we both know from experience that it's both a blessing and a curse for him. Able to handle more of the routine punishments than any of us but also more of target for the same reason.

"Shh, I had to see if you were okay and I brought this." Adam whispers. He holds up the tube of aloe gel that he had stolen from the older woman who lives in the house close to the orphanage. "I know it hurts to move so scoot over and let me put it." Adams gently shifts me on the bed and climbs in next to me.

"No. You know she's gonna whip you again at some point and it's almost out. You'll need it more. She always hits you harder." I whisper back to him.

"I don't care Summer, I can handle it. You need it more than I do. Let me help you." Without any more waiting, Adam lifts the back of my shirt and hisses and when he sees the destroyed flesh. "I hate her." He seethes in anger.

I press my face to the pillow to avoid letting out any sounds of pain as he starts to gently apply the cool aloe gel. I think about how out of all the kids at the orphanage Adam is the one who hates Ms. Jacinda the most. Not only because she hits him the most but also because she's his actual birth mother. Whenever we get a new kid here and they find out that Ms. Jacinda is Adam's mom they always think that he gets treated better but they find out pretty quick that it's the complete opposite.

I lift my head when Adam finishes applying the aloe and lays down next to me. "You should go," I whisper to him. "If you fall asleep in here and get caught....."

"I won't get caught Summer. I'll leave as soon as you fall asleep okay?"

"Okay." 

Then I feel asleep in the arms of the of the one person in the whole who makes me feel safe.