Package Deal(59)

The nice lady sat in the chair for the longest time. Then she stood and picked up the girl doll and gave her back to Cecelia, who cradled the doll in one arm and rocked her.

“Your little girl ran really fast. Why did she do that, Cecelia?”

“Her mama told her to.”

“Was the boy doll mean to her?”

Cecelia looked into the woman’s eyes when she reached out and covered her small hand with the hand that had so many rings on it. She wanted to trust her, to tell her what happened. She took a deep breath. She just had to tell her.If she did that, maybe her insides wouldn’t feel so hot and full. “He was sticking her in the back near her bottom. He was scaring her, really really bad.”

The nice lady nodded and squeezed her hand. “And her mommy told her to run away if that ever happened?”

She nodded. “The girl doll didn’t remember that right away, but when she did, she ran, and then she got hurt.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “And then her mama cried and cried.”

The lady put her arms around her and held her until she stopped crying. It felt so good to get it out, to tell someone. Her heart wasn’t pounding so hard anymore, and her tummy didn’t feel so full.

“Would you like your mama to come in here so you can tell her what you told me?”

“Uh-uh.” She shook her head until her pigtails bounced. “She gets sad when I cry, and I was bad. I ran into the street. I didn’t see the car. I shouldn’t have run into the street. The car hurt me because I didn’t listen.” Before she hadn’t been able to talk about it. Now the words kept tumbling out, faster and faster.“I told him to let me go and I scratched him. He told me to stop yelling, but I didn’t. I wasn’t s’posed to let anybody in except Marcus, but I didn’t know it was him. I tried to shut the door, but he wouldn’t let me. He was holding my arm so tight, and I was so scared when he wouldn’t let me go.” She used her right arm to brush away her tears. She looked at the nice lady. “I just had to get away from him. When I finally got loose, I stomped on his foot. I was so mad when he wouldn’t let me go.” Her breath was coming fast, thinking about it.

The lady nodded. “I’m glad you got away, Cece. I know your mama would like you to know that she understands why you ran away.” The woman raised her voice. “Amanda, would you come in here, please? Did you tell Cecelia she should never run into the street?”

“Yes, I did,” her mother replied, as she walked into the room. “I didn’t want her to get hurt.”

“Did you also tell her that if someone ever tried to touch her or hold her or grab her in a bad way that she should yell and run away?”

“Yes.”

“How do you feel knowing Cecelia did that?”

“I’m so glad she did. She did the right thing.”

The woman stroked Cecelia’s hand. “But she got hit by the car.”

“I know, but that was an accident. The man in the car didn’t see Cecelia and she didn’t see the car. That had nothing to do with her running away from the bad man who was touching her when he shouldn’t have.”

“Amanda, would you like to tell a story with the dolls?”

Her mother nodded and selected a mama doll and picked up the small girl doll with the yellow hair. She put the girl doll into the mama doll’s arms so that they were hugging one another.

“Here’s my story. The little girl has a mama who loves her so very much. She is very proud of her daughter because she knows how to get away from danger. She ran away from a bad man. And, her mama is so glad she did that. Now the girl is safe. And that bad man can’t scare or hurt her ever again.”

Cecelia smiled through her mother’s story. She was glad she told what the bad man had done. Her mama wasn’t mad at her after all, even though she had let the man in the house when she shouldn’t have. She was right to run away. Her heart didn’t feel heavy any more. When her mother reached for her, they hugged for several minutes.Then the nice lady sat with her and Cecelia told her about all those times in her mother’s office when the man was there, what the bad man had said to her, and tried to do, and the day she was waiting for Marcus to take her shopping.



Amanda sat quietly as the therapist talked with her daughter, appalled at what she heard. Then she went into the bathroom and turned on the water to hide the sound of her losing her lunch. She wept quietly into a towel, trying not to think what might have happened had Cecelia not run away from Carlton.

The therapist went downstairs with her after Cecelia lay down for her afternoon nap.