Tiny Moments

15: Specks of Devils

Christmas Time 2011

Abby's POV

"Abb? Abby, you ready?" Mommy asked.

"Yeah," I nodded. It'd been a long year. Now here I am with my mom heading to grandma's. it's gonna be a long road trip home. One whole day. Mommy already changed my diaper and I had secured my leg braces. Now that my casts were off and my bones were healed. I just needed to work on walking.

Normally I was tossed around in foster care but now I have to walk.

The doctors in Louisiana didn't fully diagnose me. It turns out that I have a small bit of a growth problem, one in already tiny but my legs aren't the same height so they broke one of my legs and are working on evening them out. It's very complicated. I'm between surgeries right now and I have leg braces on both legs. I can walk but not very well.

Mommy lifts me up and set me in her car. She buckles me in and we head towards the high way. She turns on the Christmas music and starts singing along.

I snuggle up with my blanket and eventually close my eyes.

Anna's POV

It's about a few hours drive from New York to Maine. But it's a few more hours to my hometown.

Abby had fallen asleep and it was just me and my thoughts.

I kept thinking about how my family would react. I never told them that I found Abby. Just that I have a child. I always look back to the day that we said goodbye.

The air was a warm summer. Not humidity filled but a like a warm summer breeze. I was still in the hospital. It was barely 24 hours after she was born. Everyone I lived was crowded in the hospital room 247. We had tears running down our faces as we all said goodbye to her.

She has brown eyes probably like her father who to me is still a blurry memory. One night stands when your drunk aren't always forgettable. She has my nose and lips and ears. My mom said she was about the same size as I was when I was born. She had theses tiny unforgettable pale pink feet that just make me smile.

I still remember the first time her hand wrapped around my finger. It was a touch of an angel, a touch of an innocent angel.

The blue blanket my grandma made for her before my grandma past. Knitted white with bits of blue throughout and her initials in the corner. A name I carefully chose. Abigail Elizabeth Kendrick. Just whispering it or even hearing about someone else used to make me break down in tears.

Now she's here, here with me and everything's gonna be okay.

I smile through the tears I didn't notice we're flooding down my now red cheeks. I reach up and wipe them off while looking in my rear view mirror to see my innocent angel.

••••

"Okay Abby, wake up its time for lunch," I say unbuckling my seat belt. I climb out of the car and go around to open her door. After unbuckling her and putting a coat on her I gently pick her up. She cuddles into me for warmth.

I pull open the door to McDonalds. I order her a chicken nugget happy meal and myself a hamburger.

My name gets called and I grab the happy meal box and give it to Abby. Then I gently stand her up on her own two feet so I can get our drinks and my food. We head out to the car and I set my stuff in the front seat before helping her in the car.

I make sure she's buckled and can reach her food before getting in the drivers seat and pulling out of the parking lot.

••••

It's around five when I finally pull in to my moms driveway.

I can see my parents patiently waiting at the door for me. But I also know them and they can't wait to meet their granddaughter.

Abby was awake and she's barely said anything all day. Maybe she's nervous or something. I sure as heck am nervous.

I walk up to the doorstep with Abby on my hip.

"Hi," I say greeting my parents and brother.

"Hey," my mom install hugs me. I feel Abby flinch at the contact. That's when I remember that no one has laid a finger on Abby except Brittany, me and the doctors.

"Hi hun," dad says giving me a kiss on the forehead and a side hug.

"Hello, sweetie," my mom says to Abby who's currently hiding her head in my shoulder.

"Abby, this is Grandma," I say moving me shoulder to get her to sit up.

"Aw, she's just a little shy," my mom says.

"Yeah," I smile.

"Hello, I'm grandpa," my dad tries.

"Abby? This is uncle Michael. Or uncle Mike, he's my brother," I explain.

She looks up and around at everything. I know some days she just goes silent the whole day. It's hard but I can't help her. She's just not herself. Her energetic, bipolar, happy little girl I fell in love with.

"You wanna hear a story?" I ask her. She nods slowly at me.

"Okay, yeah a story?" My mom says, I know she really wants to connect with Abby. But Abby isn't a regular child.

"Alright, once upon a time," I start sitting on the couch in the family room. "There was a girl named Abigail and Abigail lived all alone thinking she was an outcast. She didn't know her mother was looking for her. Abigail was constantly put down. Until one day she was at a concert and passed out right in front of her mom. She didn't know that at the time. Her mother jumped in to action and called the police and they took away the bad man who hurt Abigail. But Abigail fell in a two week coma, and when she woke up she felt relived. To go home with her new mother. Her mother explained to her using the one of a kind necklaces that she was her birth mother. Later on Abigail went to more doctors and learned that she had as PTSD, Bio-Polar, and growth problems. Now Abigail's getting better and living happily with her mother," I say.

"Is that Abigail?" My mom stutters.

"Yes, this is Abigail Elizabeth Kendrick. Over two dozen foster homes in her four years of life. Multiple cases of abuse and worse of all she doesn't even understand love and how that works," I say suddenly getting angry.

"Anna, calm down, cool it," my brother warns.

"After all these years," dad says.

••••

Once we finish talking about Abby we had Chinese take out. Abby liked the rice and soy sauce. I kinda let her eat whatever cause she needs some fat on her bones.

Now we're watching the movie Beauty and the beast. It's one of my favorite and I think Abby likes it too.

When the movie ends I take Abby to my old room and change her in to her pajamas and a sleeper because it's helps her legs.

She falls back asleep curled with her blanket and her brown eyes under her dreaming eye lids. Her thumb in her mouth and her body curled in a ball.

The little innocent angel with specks of devils in her past.

A/n
Thanks for reading.

CQ: Should TM be a short book or long book?