Aphasia

Part 1

Tamara Marcel was quite curious as to the sudden excursion her father and her embarked on one sunny Saturday morning. At the crack of dawn he woke her, gently rousing the girl from a peaceful sleep.

"Tammy," He cooed, brushing her brown curls from her soft face. "Tammy, wake up," The child yawned and slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes with a pudgy fist. At the age of seven, she still retained her childlike face and innocence.

"What is it Papa?" Tamara said, yawning once more as her father stood from his stooped position at her bedside.

"Get dressed, we're going on a trip today," The man said, his shoes scuffing quietly on the carpet of the one bedroom apartment as he made his way to the locked chest that sat in the corner of the den, gathering dust during its months of isolation from human touch.

Tamara slipped out of the cot she slept upon, her nightgown barely gracing her knees as she tottered to the dresser where her and her father stored their clothes. She emerged from the bedroom not too long after her father had opened the chest, and had begun to remove its contents.

"Papa?" She asked groggily, slowly making her way through the small kitchen to the den where her father was packing the contents of the chest into a large duffle bag. "What's for breakfast?" The man finished his task of packing the duffle and zipped it shut. Carrying the bag to the kitchen, he motioned to his daughter to follow.

"C'mon, let's have some bagels before we head out," Now, Tamara was quite disappointed by this, hoping for a warm breakfast made by her loving father, but the intrigue of their trip lured her back into the kitchen as her father placed the bagels into a toaster.

"Where are we going?" She asked, looking at the duffle questioningly. She had never seen her father open the chest before, let alone place whatever its mysterious contents might be in a black bag. "Are we going to the movies?" Her father laughed at this, and patted her head.

"No, but it'll be just as fun, you'll see," As the two ate their meager breakfast, Tammy couldn't imagine what could be more fun than a trip to the theater.
The small family made their way down the creaking stairs of the apartment building, Tamara urging her father to race her to the ground floor. Of course, not weighed down by a heavy duffle bag, the girl clearly won the race.

Outside, he placed the large bag in the trunk of the tiny Honda, Tamara jumping into her booster seat and fastening her seatbelt while she waited for her father. He soon got into the driver's seat, and started the car.

At the early hour, Tamara was amazed by the lack of crowds and bustling traffic in the city streets, the quietness of morning leaving the metropolis a dew covered house of mirrors. They drove past the cinema, the mall, the business district, and right before the morning rush hour lay siege to the city, the Honda raced along the highway.

"Now can you tell me where we're going?" Tamara asked, swinging her legs back and forth as the other cars and the white line raced by. Her father laughed, and glanced at her in the mirror.

"It's a surprise,"

By the time the little old Honda shuttered down the exit ramp, the early afternoon sun beat down harshly on the pavement. Tamara had half dozed off, but the music her father played on the static filled radio kept her from fully resigning herself to sleep.

Her bright hazel eyes scanned the side of the road, the suburbs quickly fading into a wooded area. The quaking aspens shivered as the car whizzed by them, their leaves flickering green and silver as they sped past.

Before Tamara knew it, the car was slowing down, turning onto a twisting back road into the green sanctuary of the woods. For a while, Tamara worried something was wrong, and they were running from some unseen adversary in the city. However, the calming rural setting overpowered that worry.