Little Footsteps

Scratches:

When Paula saw her aunt return home through the little forest, she sighed in relief. She had not wanted to re-enter the house because terror had paralyzed her sense of rationality. Paula looked at the house as if the child's spirit was going out at any time through the front door.

But none of that happened. The house remained calm and quiet, innocent of everything that had happened inside but was it really so innocent?

"For all saints, honey! What happened?" her aunt exclaimed when she saw her there, worried.

When Paula heard her, she reacted immediately and watched her. At that moment she remembered all the pains in her body and understood why her aunt had been alarmed to see her.

"Oh!" she said but stopped because she didn't know whether to tell the truth or not, would Aunt Parker believe her? No, surely not. Maybe she would be more alarmed and make a big fuss believing she was having more hallucinations. So she decided to lie: "I fell down the stairs."

Mrs. Parker was alarmed anyway and, while helping her up, asked her a thousand questions that Paula answered with regret for lying.

"But what were you doing outside the house?" the woman asked as she took her hand.

"Mmmm," the girl babbled without knowing what to say.

Anyway, Paula didn't have to explain why her aunt didn't ask any more questions. The woman was really worried and only interested in attending to her. She worried that her niece had been badly hurt. She didn't want people to think that she hit her.

"I must heal that wound on your head. Oh my god. You could have killed yourself!"

When they both reached the front door of the house, Paula resisted and stopped. She looked into the hall, believing that perhaps «the boy» was in there, waiting for her to attack her.

Mrs. Parker looked at her. Paula noticed and changed her attitude immediately, before her aunt began to suspect something, but it was too late. The woman looked behind her with a little fear.

"There is no one else here, isn't it?" she babbled when she noticed the mess in the lobby.

"No, of course not," Paula said. «At least I think so,» she thought and entered the house closing the door behind her.

Dirty clothes were still scattered throughout the lobby and Paula hurried to pick it up. Mrs. Parker, still puzzled by her niece's attitude, entered the kitchen to leave the bag with the purchases on the table. The house was silent and submerged in semi-darkness. As the heat of the summer became unbearable after noon, Aunt Park kept the doors and windows of the house closed, in an attempt to keep the interior cool, but that effort was often useless.

Paula walked very carefully to the laundry room and left the dirty clothes she was carrying. Her hands had stopped shaking but she was still accompanied by fear, she only calmed down after an hour. Then, in the kitchen, Mrs. Parker healed her head wound with the help of a first aid kit. She also gave her a pill for her wrist pain while giving her thousands of instructions so that the accident would not happen again.

"I am worried about that wrist, if it continues like this; we will have to call the doctor," said the woman.

Paula knew that what worried her aunt the most was the lack of money. A doctor was very expensive and was even more so if he made home visits. That is why she responded as follows:

"Don't worry, it will heal. It has not broken."

A while later, Mrs. Parker went to her room to rest after that long day. She had not wanted to send Paula to town because she preferred to go herself, so she could go to church to pray. Although after returning home she thought it might be better to have stayed at home with her niece.