No Regrets

Chapter 5

     The police arrived ten minutes later, while she waited, she called into work to explain that she would be a few minutes late. Mother opened the door after hearing a knock.

     Two police officers, a fat, tall woman, and muscular tall man stood on the other side of the door. Mother let them in, "Please come in."

     They both entered and skimmed the living room and a part of the kitchen which could be seen with just them standing two feet inside. The woman asked, "Ma'am, what is it that you are concerned about?"

     Mother quickly replied, "I found this drawing of my daughter, Margaret." She showed them the drawing. They both stared at it impressed by the skillfully drawn face of myself. Mother noticed this, she told them why this drawing made her worry, "My daughter is six, she can't draw like this. No one else besides me and her live here and I did not draw this. There is someone who did this though, and I'm afraid that they broke into my house and are now stalking my daughter."

     The police looked at her, listening intently. The man then replied, "We will take a look for any signs of a break in." And they did, they looked around the windows, making sure they did not miss any broken locks or footprints that would confirm mother's theory.

     As they searched mother explained, "I looked around the whole house just a couple of minutes ago. I heard that homeless were breaking in homes and living there. I wanted to make sure no one was living here."

     "Yes." The police officer answered, she explained, "We have been getting reports of homeless around neighborhoods and some breaking in."

     The officers checked all the windows in the living room and kitchen and found nothing. They moved on to the bathroom which had a small window, too small for a human to squeeze through. Nonetheless, they checked with due diligence. After, they checked mother's room and then mine. Knowing that there was someone who was coming into my room, they were attentive to anything, any movement. It could be, that if someone was in hiding, they would attack when they saw police.

     As the police officers searched my room much more thoroughly than the other rooms, mother couldn't stop her thoughts from screaming. 'Did Maggie know this was happening? Or did she have no clue?' She thought as the officers checked the window for any damages, 'What if the person assaulted her, or worse, raped her,' the thought made her sob. The woman looked at her and went up to her, ready to console her. "My baby! What did this person do to her?" She screamed while covering her mouth.

     The police officer put her hand on mother's back and assured, "We will do anything to help you!" Which would only be true if they found something, but by the looks of how the search was going, they would not find anything.

     Mother nodded her head aggressively, "If someone did do something, she would tell me right?" She looked at the officer for self-assurance that I would be truthful and tell her if anything did happen. She believed deeply I would. She had taught me from a young age about respecting ones and other's bodies, and how I should tell her or some adult I trusted if something like that were to occur.

     The officer rubbed her back slightly, making sure not to make mother feel uncomfortable yet wanting to console her.

     'Would Maggie be too scared to tell me? I always made sure to assure her that I would never get mad at her for telling me something like that. But she is a child, could she be scared? Would she ever tell me or Dr. Jones if something happened? No. No. I cannot think like this! My baby would have told me if she got hurt.' 

     The officer finished checking everything, nothing. There was no sign of break in, and so, the hard part came. "I'm sorry, but there's no sign of a break in anywhere. There's not much we can do."