Elsie Taylor knew nothing more than the life that involved the constant moving around. She had always thought that it was normal to not have a place to call home, as she was too young to understand what was really going on.
"I knew nothing more tha...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
| Oliver Taylor |
I awoke, feeling something wet on my arm as I craned my head away from leaning on Ezra, who I could feel was still asleep. He would be, until someone had to literally shake him and tell him that an earth quake was literally about to swallow him whole. That was what happened when you had insomnia.
Finally looking down, to where it was wet on my arm, I noticed that there was a small child on my lap, clutching my arm, as her face was resting on my arm, millimeters away from falling off it and into the spare seat beside me. Wait, the spare seat.
The seat beside me was now not occupied, making me wonder. I looked to the front, realizing that Beau was passed out in the passenger seat, while the drivers seat was vacant of Henry. Turning my neck around without moving the rest of my body, I noticed that Milo was also no longer asleep in the back.
Turning my attention back to the sleeping child, I realized how some of her features looked familiar. The freckles that so softly doted her cheeks that were still damp, while her cute little button nose scrunched up every couple of seconds. Her brown straight hair was just sitting below her shoulder blades, tied in a loss bun that was about to fall out if she made the wrong move.
I so badly didn't want to move, but I could feel my stomach was about to eat itself, as I tried so hard not to twist in pain from it. I was way beyond starving. So, I made the decision to try and pass the sleeping child over to Ezra, as I put my arms underneath her. Stirring in my sleep, I had somehow woken the sleeping child. It reminded me of myself, as I usually wasn't a deep sleeper, only if I was beyond exhausted, and these past few days had been exhausting.
But back to the problem at hand. The child that was once sleeping, was now awake and looked to be as if she was moments away from tears. "Hey, it's alright" I murmured, pulling her back towards me, as I pushed her head into the crook of my neck, while she wrapped her arms tightly around my neck and had her knees near the bottom of my stomach.
I could feel the hiccups as I ran my hand up and down her back as some form of comfort. She had clearly been through something, but confusion clouded my mind. Henry was a lawyer for god's sake, there was no way that he would have stolen a child, fully aware that our car was already jam packed and we had nothing for this child, as we were going camping.
"Can you tell me your name?" I tried to converse with the child that must have been on the verge of sobbing right here and now in my arms. There was no way that I could deal with a child that would not stop crying. I was never fantastic with children, being the youngest in my family had never really taught my how to look after someone that was younger than myself.
"It's Elsie" the name sounded so familiar, even as she hiccupped up through it and it was quiet incoherent. "That's a beautiful name" I muttered back, trying to keep my voice as light and soft as I possibly could. The last thing that I needed to do was scare the shit out of this poor child that looked beyond tired.
