Letters from Josie

Chapter 2

I hid behind the tree. "It's okay, dearie. I'm here to help." An older lady with undermining wrinkles and baggier skin approaches me. "Well, well, what do we have here? What is your name, hon?" I tried to say my name but I couldn't for some reason. It just seemed like no matter how hard I tried to make the sounds come out, they wouldn't. "Well, we can talk about that later. Come with me, let's get you inside and out of the cold." The old woman seemed harmless, so I went with her. It's not like going with her could be any worse than what's already happened to me. She took me to this nice little cottage in the middle of the woods, not far from where I used to live with my father. That word. FATHER. It's not a word in my vocabulary anymore. The word haunts me now. I walked into the lady's little home. It was very cute, reminded of a old woman's cottage. Which is was it was... "Here's some soup and a blanket, dearie." The old lady said as she went to sit in the chair across from me. "So, care to give me a name this time?" I tried to say my name again. I still couldn't. "Well you take all the time you need, hun. Make yourself at home. Oh, and by the way, I'm Marilyn." It became clear to me that I wasn't going to be able to talk soon. I looked for a way to tell Marilyn who I was. I suddenly spotted a notepad and pen. I motioned towards it, asking if I may use it. "Oh yes, of course." I wrote out my name: Joselynne. "Joselynne! What a darling little name. May I have the privilege of knowing your full name? You know, just for fun." She giggled again. "Mine is Marilyn Hazel Gray." I wrote it out: Just Joselynne. I don't have any other names. "Well, alright Joselynne. May I call you Josie? Just makes me feel closer to you, my dear." She smiled so warmly. I nodded. I didn't mind getting close to her. She already felt like a nice grandmother to me. "Good. Okay, so Josie, since I'm assuming you'll be for a little bit while you recover from those injuries..." She said as she looked at my bruised arm. I quickly put the blanket over it. "...May I know why you were alone in the middle of the woods?" I wrote: Well, it's kind of hard to explain. This may take a while.