Journey Home

2. Broken

I softly enter the tiny room at the end of the hallway and see a small brown haired girl sitting on her bed, leaning against the wall crying.

She snaps her head up when she sees me and backs up against the corner of her bed and wall curling up into a fetal position, whimpering.

"Hey, its okay, I'm not going to hurt you." I quietly tell her as I sit on the empty bed across from hers, so that I am sitting diagonally to her, as to not crowd her.

Isabella continues whimpering and looks at me with her brown, watery doe eyes but doesn't respond.

I feel my self slipping into therapist mode so that I don't upset her more than she already is. Mike said that she has "problems" but I don't necessarily believe his crude remarks towards her.

"My name is Edward." I tell her "Can you tell me yours?" I ask softly. Even though I know her name already I don't want her to feel like I know a lot about her.

Before she gets the chance to respond Mike rudely cuts in, "I already told you, her name is Isabella. I don't even know why we are here, its just a waist of time Edward. She does this all the time, its just an issue she has."

I am shocked at his attitude toward Isabella when she is right in front of him. Mike is acting like she cant understand anything he just said about her. It has become clear to me that he doesn't care at all about the children he is supposed to provide a home to.

The worst part is that Isabella tensed up immediately when she heard Mike's voice, indicating that this probably isn't the first time he has been mean towards her.

"Mike, I'm going ask you to leave so I can handle this, it is my job you know." I ask glaring at him.

"Fine, meet me in my office when your done here." he remarks. I don't care if he is my boss, right now he Isn't doing the right thing and he needs to leave.

After Mike walks away I lean in closer to Isabella, "I'm sorry Isabella, that was very rude of him wasn't it? Can you tell me whats wrong, why your upset right now?"

She looks at me and starts wiping some of her tears away, "Why should I tell you?" she sniffles out.

"You don't need to, I just want to help. Like I said, my name is Edward and I just got a job here as the new therapist, todays my first day. So far I've noticed that there are a lot of things that need to change around here. The way that Mike just treated you was wrong and needs to change." I tell her truthfully.

"Its okay, I'm used to it. You don't need to go through any trouble for me." she says softly. Her crying has stopped.

"Sweetheart, it wouldn't be any trouble. My family owns a non prophet organization that helps out different charities. I have only been here for a few hours and I can tell that there are many ways we can improve the way things are run around here. I want to help you." I don't know why I am telling her all of this, but its like I have a little voice in my head telling me to reassure her that things will get better.

I see her starting to relax a little but she doesn't come out of the little ball she has curled herself into.

"How old are you?" I ask curious. She looks to be around fourteen, but she is very small.

"Fifteen." she answers.

I smile at her, "Can you tell me how long you have lived here?"

She shifts around a little before she shyly responds "Um, almost a year." Later I will press more on why she is here but I can see that she became uncomfortable with just that one question so I back off a little.

"So what do you like to do for fun? You are the fist person I've talked to, besides Mike and I don't really agree with his opinions so far."

I look around her shared room a little and find nothing on her half of the room to be personalized in anyway. The only thing setting this room apart from the others is a tiny stack of books on the built in desk.

"Nothing much." is all Isabella replies. She seems very guarded in her actions and tone of voice.

"Well there has to be something you like to do." I say playfully.

Shrugging, she says, "I like to read."

She is still curled up in the corner but at least I have gotten her to have a conversation with me.

"Oh me too!" I say eagerly "What is your favorite?"

"Wuthering Heights"

"I had to read that in high school and I really enjoyed it." I agree, smiling at her.

"It was my mom's favorite." Isabella blurts out. Her face instantly blushes and she shies away.

Glad that she keeps the conversation going I reply, "Thats nice, what was her name?"

I know I've said the wrong thing when she recedes into a tighter ball and doesn't answer me.

"Hey, its okay. We don't need to talk about that right now. But can I ask you one more important question?"

She slowly nods at me

"Has anyone tried to talk to you about your parents before? I mean someone like me, a therapist?"

I am assuming that she was abused before she came to this children's home. From what I have seen already, Katrina shows all the signs that come with abuse.

It doesn't seem like she has been to any therapy, and she has been here for a whole year already. The staff that work here really need to be more on top of things, especially important things like the therapy that most of these children need.

She looks at me with her beautiful, yet sad eyes and shakes her head no.

"Thank you for telling me that. I think now that I am here were going to meet a few times a week, but don't worry about it. I am here to help."

"And I don't mean to sound cliché, I really do want to help. Okay?"

"Mh hm" she quietly responds.

"Alright, I am going to get going. I will see you later and if you need anything at all I'm down stairs." I tell her seriously.

I get off of the plain bed I am sitting on and stand up to leave.

Before I get any where though Isabella quickly cuts in, "Thank you" she tells me.

" There is no need to thank me Isabella." I say genuinely and then quietly leave the room.