"Baby, Sam's here with his friend Ms. Griffin. They want to talk
to you a little bit, okay?" Bianca says, leading us into the room with
Gloria. The little girl is now in a hospital gown covered with a blanket.
An IV in her arm pumps fluids just like Caleb, but there doesn't seem
to be the same level of desperation. A nurse standing beside the bed is gently
cleaning cuts and scrapes along her arm, but Gloria doesn't seem to mind.
"Hi, Gloria," Sam smiles.
Her eyes light up, and she reaches her little hand toward him. He
takes it and squeezes as he steps up close enough to run his hand over
her thick, dark hair. It's tangled and bits of leaves cling to it, but she looks
like she's in fairly good condition.
"Hi, Sam," she says. "Thank you for coming to visit me."
"Of course. I'm here. But I'm not just here to visit you. We need to talk
about what happened, okay?"
"Okay," she nods.
There's obvious discomfort and nervousness in her voice, and she
glances over at her mother for reassurance.
"You're not in any trouble, sweetheart," Bianca says. "You didn't do
anything wrong."
"But I did," Gloria says. "I did do something wrong."
Sam and I look at each other. There are so many questions I want to
ask, but I stay back. This little girl is cared and has just gone through
something traumatizing. She doesn't know me yet and won't be as will-
ing to open to me as she will to her mother and a man who she trusts.
"What do you mean? What did you do wrong?" Sam asks.
"I know I'm not supposed to leave the community center without
Mama," she says. "I'm supposed to stay inside with everyone else until
she comes in, and I all out with her."
"But that's not what happened," Bianca says.
Gloria shakes her head. "I was excited because I knew she was coming
to get me early. I think it was supposed to be a surprise, but Miss Holly let
it slip. I was excited to get to spend the day with her. We were going to
play, and I was going to ask if we could go have a picnic. I was waiting all
morning for her to come. I couldn't even concentrate on my art project.
Then it got close to the time when she usually picks me up on her early
YOU ARE READING
The Girl that vanished
Mystery / ThrillerA ten year old girl has vanished on her way home from camp. And things took a turn for the worse when another child, a child that Emma knows, goes missing. Disappearances death and tragedies have followed Emma Griffin throughout her childhood. Her o...
