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Log#** Date ** ** ****
She was sitting up and had pushed herself so hard again against the arm of my couch I was sure she was going to break it when I got home. The food I left out on the coffee table hadn’t been touched at all.
“Ya gotta eat somethin’, you know,” I told her. “Ain’t ya starvin’?” All I got was a tiny nod. “My food’s good, promise. It ain’t poisoned, an’ I may not be th’ best fook, but it’s still good.” She shook her head, and I sighed, dropping my gun on the table. The clang made her jump. “Ya don’ talk much, do ya? I’m not gonna hurt ya, y’know. I want t’ help ya. If ya don’ eat, I gotta take ya t’ doc.” The name didn’t seem to mean anything to her.
“Look,” I sighed again, “I’m gonna go change. If ya haven’ eaten by th’ time I’m back, I take ya t’ doc.” She didn’t respond, so I left.
When I returned, the food still hadn’t been touched, and she was curled up, hugging her knees.
“A’ight, that’s it. Get up, kid, we’re goin’ t’ see doc.” I pause. “Ya gotta name, kid?” She shook her head, slowly uncurling and hesitatingly put her feet on the floor. She wasn’t wearing any shoes. I suppose I ought to get her some. “Course ya don’. C’mon.” I went to open the door, expecting her to follow.
She was taking an awfully long time, so I turned around to see her slowly, gingerly shuffling her way across the floor, hands stretched out as though to catch herself if she fell.
Turns out that was a good thing, because she ended up tripping over a pile of my books and landed on top of them. Even then, I didn’t hear a noise from her.
Geez, ya okay kid?” I held out a hand to help her up, but she didn’t seem to see it. She was looking straight past me. It was then I got a good look at her eyes. “Hey kid.” She tilted her head towards me. “Are ya blind?”
For awhile, I stood there, and she gave me no answer. Eventually, she nodded.
“Well why di’in’t ya say somethin’?” I bent down and took hold of her wrist, tugging her to her feet. “I coulda saved ya from trippin’.” I turned and led her to the door. I expected some sort of resistance, but she was fine the entire trip to doc’s.
When we reached the hospital, she froze. I tried tugging on her wrist to get her to go inside, but it didn’t work.
“What’s th’ matter, kid?”
She just shook her head and didn’t budge. There was the resistance I was expecting. But I had to get her to eat, so I dragged her to the doors. Then she gave the loudest shriek I have ever heard.
“No! No- I’m not- No!”
Her voice was cracked and hoarse, probably from disuse. It made me stop, and I stared at her. I heard of people being scared of hospitals, but this was way beyond that. Maybe I could make a deal.
“I won’ make ya go in there if ya promise t’ eat somethin’ when we get home.” Because I wasn’t sure if I had enough money to pay for a hospital visit anyway. At first I got no response. Then,
“Fine.” That was it, but that was all I needed.
“A’ight kid, let’s go home.” I took her wrist again and led her home. True to her word, she ate some dinner. Not much, but it’s a start.
Lt. W. Barringar.
 Faith-Hoping-Love · Tue Sep 15, 2009 @ 06:39pm · 1 Comments |
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