Alignments

Chapter 4

The water splashed lightly as the woman washed the little girl who just sat in the tub quietly. She didn't say anything. She didn't do anything. She just sat there. The woman scrubbed her tiny body, revealing the girl's original skin tone. Her heart broke more and more as the guilt in her body continued to rise. All this time. All those hours and days alone in that house. If only she had believed her son before. She tried not to feel guilty about it, because who would ever think a seven year old was left in a house alone, but she did. She felt awful and the more she cleaned this baby, the worse she felt.

The once clean, clear water was now brown from all of the dirt that came off of her body causing the woman to have to drain, clean, and refill the tub after giving the girl a quick rinse. Once the tub was refilled, she went back to cleaning the little girl, just to ensure that she was clean. After that, she moved on to her hair. It was matted together and extremely dirty, but she was going to fix it. She gently wet and combed the hair. There were moments when she knew it was hurting the little girl to get her hair combed, but just like before, she was just sitting there. Completely still.

The woman managed to get the hair unmatted and detangled. Grabbing her shampoo and conditioner, she scrubbed the child's scalp. She took her time to massage and comb it through, which in turn had an effect she didn't expect.

The little girl started to cry. She took deep breaths and cried. So many tears fell from her face and it broke the woman's heart. She pulled the little girl into her and hugged her, not caring about how soaking wet she was. "Let it out, sweetie. Let it out." The little girl began to shake in her arms as she cried harder. What did she go through? What happened to her over in that house? The woman thought to herself that it had to be something and whatever it was, it wasn't good.

From the hallway, the little boy watched the little girl cry into his mother's chest. It made him wonder about her. He had seen her before, in passing. They lived in the same neighborhood for a few years so it wasn't shocking that he recognized her. He knew she was younger than him, but she still was always in his classes at school. So she was smart and she knew how to do multiplication good, but he never saw her happy or laughing a lot like the other kids. Why?

After a while, the little girl stopped crying and laid on the woman's lap as she finished washing her hair. She managed to wash, condition and rinse her hair before getting her out of the tub. "Walter." The husband came from the guest room.

"Can you drain the tub for me please?"

"Sure."He headed for the bathroom, but stopped to examine the little girl. He rubbed her back to try and soothe what little he could for her, but had to stop before his emotions got the better of him. Going into the bathroom, he drained and cleaned the tub. The events of the evening were really hitting him. As a father, your first obligation is to protect your family. So knowing that there was a man out there who would willingly leave his child in a dangerous situation like that made his blood boil, but he couldn't show his anger right now. The first priority was this little girl. She needed to be cared for. He could do that.

"How does that feel?" Back in the bedroom, the woman had gotten the little girl moisturized and dressed in a nice nightgown. She brushed her hair up into four cute ponytails and braided them down. In the hair stuff, she found some barrettes that had been left behind by her nieces and put them in. "That's better." The little girl looked at herself in the mirror that was across from them and saw how pretty her hair looked. It made her feel a little better. Looking up at the woman, she put on a small smile.

"Thank you."

Janet's entire body shook as Esther tried to pull her out of the closet. "Come on." Janet shook her head. "It's okay. He's gone."