Catherine

6. She's not yours to keep

The day was coming to an end. It was windy and she was in the car, eating a jelly doughnut her father had given to her. She was alone, waiting for him to come back from the pastry shop. In the meantime, she was staring the trees, whose leaves were blown away by the wind, just as if they were letters with no destination.

Ellen always loved trees. They always looked so... symbolic. At some point, she would picture them in her head as this colossal silhouette, slowly blowing on the wind, beautiful and hypnotizing. As she got deeper into it, she started collecting a few questions for her dad to answer.

At the other side of the street, she saw a black haired boy, with a brown skin, and judging by his height, he appeared to have more or less the same age as her. He waited for the green sign to cross the road, and it was at that moment she realized it was the same boy she saw the other day, with the yellow dog, the golden retriever. She started eating her cake faster so she could have time to clean her mouth. But it led her to nothing. The boy had already vanished from her sight. She quickly jumped to the left side of the car, got on her knees, on the driver's seat, opened the window and peeped out, in hope to see him on the sidewalk. It was too late, he was too far already, and she had lost her chance to say hello. She closed the window and went back to her seat, a little sulky looking.

After a few minutes, her father finally came out from the pastry shop, with a bag of bread and a box of cakes. Next to the entrance, there was a homeless man sitting on the ground. A few second later, he stood up. The grieved man looked up to Ellen's father and approached him.

" THEY TOOK MY DAUGHTER!! " he shouted, suddenly. " THEY TOOK MY DAUGHTER!!! MY DAUGHTER!!! THEY TOOK HER AWAY!!!

Ellen stood on her knees, looking through the window, worried about her father. Gordon just stood there, staring at the man shouting for his daughter, without knowing what to do as some people gathered around them. Ellen jumped back to the driver's seat and opened the window.

" Dad. " she called. The man looked at Ellen and rushed to the car. " Ellen! What are you doing!?" Her dad dropped his bags and grabbed the man's arm as Ellen was closing the window. The homeless man managed to get his arm in the car, and grabbed Ellen's. She started screaming. People started approaching faster, and two young men came out of the crowd to help Ellen's father.

" LET GO! LET GO OFF HER!!! " Gordon shouted.

" I'LL TAKE HER WITH ME!! I WANT MY DAUGHTER!! I WANT THE CHILD YOU TOOK AWAY FROM ME!!! "

Ellen was scared to death, screaming and beseeching for the man to let her go.

" IT'S ALRIGHT DEAR! CO-COME WITH ME AND I PROMISE I WILL NEVER LET YOU G-"

One of the young men punched him. He finally let go, lost his balance and fell. She fell on her seat, and leaned against the door, petrified.

The homeless man stood up, and ended up punching Gordon's face, defending himself, and ran away. The two young men tried to catch up with him, but he was too fast for both of them. Gordon stayed on the ground, holding his nose doe the intense pain. People grouped up around him, to help him stand up, asking if he was alright.

" Oh my God! He is bleeding! " someone from the crowd had noticed. Gordon had a lot of blood on his hand. A few people offered him some tissues so he could clean himself, and a middle aged man gave him the things he had dropped on the ground.Gordon looked back at the car only to notice that his daughter wasn't inside. He rushed to the car, passing through everyone and opened the door. The door from Ellen's seat was open.

" Shit! " he said to himself. " SHIT! " he closed the car, and walked away, looking for Ellen, shouting for her name.

Ellen had disappeared.