Page 14 of Healing Hope
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Jess stareddown at the phone, feeling a little guilty. That message had seemed a little terse, but she’d gotten aggravated. The man texted at least once an hour, and she’d responded to the previous ten messages in a timely manner. He needed to let up, though.
Yes, Hope was a handful. The girl still refused to cooperate with even the easiest requests. Everything turned into a tense exchange. The cookies they made yesterday had been good bribes for a while, but she figured that game out.
This morning, though, she’d finally begun to relax. Jess had driven them to the beach for the day, top down on the Jeep, and Hope had finally begun to connect to her. They wandered the rocky shoreline, waded through tide pools, investigating creatures hiding in the crevices and under rocks. Sophie trotted along at their side, happy to stay on the shore while they waded.
“Oh, look at this,” Jess called, pointing down into the water.
Hope gasped as she caught sight of the red creature. “Is that a star-fish?”
“Yes,” Jess said, gently stroking a finger down one of the arms. It drew back, then rested its appendage on her finger.
Hope squealed, a sound Jess had never heard her make. “He’s touching you!”
Jess reached for Hope’s hand. “Let me see your hand.”
Once Hope’s hand was next to hers, she moved the little fingers closer. The starfish very gently settled on Hope’s skin, making her giggle. The animal’s feet moved sinuously against her. “He’s tasting you,” Jess told her.
Hope would have jerked back if Jess hadn’t been holding her hand.
“Ew! Don’t let him eat me,” the little girl cried, her dark hair flying in the wind and her blue eyes wide.
Jess grinned. “You’re too tough and stringy for him to eat. Don’t worry.”
They moved on down the beach, and Hope trotted along beside Sophie. The little dog yipped, making her giggle, and Jess snapped a few pictures of her, then sent them to Paul. Today, finally, she was beginning to act like a child should act, playing in the sand and sea. It made Jess’s heart hurt that her growth had been stunted, in a way. It was almost like Hope had never been allowed to be a child. She’d seen the ocean before, but when Jess had suggested going wading, Hope had looked at her like she was crazy. Till Jess had done it herself.
It was the same with parks. They’d gone to a couple of parks this week, but she’d been leery of having to play with other kids, so she’d sat on the bench with Jess, or walked the trails.She never left Jess’s side.
About four days after Jess had started, they were sitting on the bench listening to the birds chirp when a little girl ran over from the playground, an easy smile on her face. “I’m Amelia. Can you come play with me?”
Hope shook her head vigorously, and the other girl’s face fell. She turned and walked away. Jess didn’t say anything at first, just letting the incident filter through her brain. She wasn’t sure why Hope had denied the little girl, and she wasn’t sure Hope could even answer her if she asked.
“Amelia seemed like a nice girl,” she said eventually, observing Hope’s face out of the corner of her eye. Hope scowled and pulled Sophie tighter to her side. “Why didn’t you want to go play with her?”
Unexpectedly, tears filled Hope’s eyes and she blinked furiously, turning her head away to look down at Sophie. The little dog whined and went up on two legs to lick at her face.
Jess moved off the bench and sank down onto her haunches in front of Hope. “Look at me.” She waited until the girl’s big blue eyes flicked to hers. “What’s wrong? I promise you I’m not going to be mad or upset at you. I just want to know what you’re thinking. If you want to go play, I think you would have a lot of fun.”
Hope shook her head, lips clamped tightly together.
“Hope,” Jess said.
“If I go play, you’ll disappear,” she burst out in a rush.
Jess blinked, wondering if she’d heard her right. “I’ll disappear? No, I won’t. I’ll be right here. I swear. I won’t go anywhere.”
Hope shook her head, though, and a sinking feeling began to fill Jess’s heart. Had her mother left her in a park or something? “Hope,” she whispered, reaching out to rest her hands on the girl’s clenched fists, “if you want to play with Amelia, Sophie and I will come over to the playground with you. That way you can see us the entire time. Okay?”
Hope was quiet for a long while, and Jess could see the internal struggle. Then she looked up at Jess and made a brave decision. “You promise?”
Jess nodded. She pushed to her feet and took Sophie’s leash in one hand, and Hope’s hand in the other. “Let’s go.”
Amelia was alone on the swings, and a broad smile split her face as Hope came over to her. But Hope hung back, holding onto Jess’s hand. “You promise you won’t go anywhere?”
“I promise. Where would you like me to wait so that you can see me?”
Hope glanced around and eventually pointed to a bench a few yards away.