Sweet Girl

Call Me 'Home'

A grey SUV rolled toward the front gate.

Shulamith met the buzzer's noise with excitement.

"Shhh, girl" Lindsey instructed gently, to no avail as he trod toward the front door.

Stevie hurried behind him, her black boots clomping on the tile and echoing through the high ceiling foyer. She took a breath and smoothed her ink cardigan. She smiled at Lindsey before he reached for the intercom button to open the gate.

They stood, smiling anxiously for five seconds. A car door closed in the front yard. Lindsey nodded to Stevie and he pulled the front door open.

An unfamiliar woman clopped up to the door. Behind her, she lead a small, skinny, girl. Stevie could just about glimpse the young girl's curls in her pigtails, from behind the slender social worker who now stood in front of them. The woman smiled at the couple.

"Good afternoon" she stated, fondly.

Stevie smiled as the woman eyed Lindsey, who turned toward his love and smiled. Stevie felt her chest warm as she caught sight of the tiny girl. She felt blood rushing to her hands and her feet again, as if their presence had been absent since she lost her last baby. She couldn't help but grasp, however, the skeletal form of the toddler who hid in her driveway.

"My name is Rebecca," the woman began.

"Lovely to meet you," Lindsey extended his hand out for her to shake.

Stevie was quiet, trying her best to refrain from greeting the little girl before she was introduced. She didn't want to scare her.

"This is Bella," the woman continued, guiding the girl out from behind her suit.

Lindsey smiled.

"Hello" he gestured a wave.

Stevie bent down.

"Hello Bella," she said gently.

"I like your ribbons in your hair!"

The girl stared at her, wide eyed.

"Um-" Stevie got up and looked at Rebecca.

"We have a dog." She turned toward Bella.

"Do you like doggies, sweetheart?"

The girl shrunk into her shoulders a little.

"Bella hasn't been around many animals, yet" Rebecca interjected kindly, ringing Bella's hand in hers and smiling down at her.

"Alright, well, we have a little doggy inside, who is very excited to meet you!" Stevie placed her hands on her knees, bending over.

"And I'm sure that you will be her very best friend in a few minutes! Do you want to feed the doggie a treat?"

"Oh I'm sure Shulamith will love that" Lindsey encouraged.

The girl stood, half frozen, on the porch.

"Maybe we should meet the doggy first and we can show Bella how to pet her and how to feed the doggy." The soft spoken lady suggested.

Stevie rushed out with a bag of dog treats, with Shulamith under her arm.

"This is Shulamith. Would you like to say hello? If you put your hand out like this," she flattened her palm "She might give your hand a kiss" Stevie smiled as she crouched and rested her dog in her lap.

Bella tentatively stepped forward and reached her hand out in front of the dog, who frantically sniffed her hand. The girl's mouth tilted into a slight smile.