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Glimmer in the Darkness

By Robin Patchen

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My name is Ella, and I am precious.
No matter what anybody said, Ella Cote knew who she was. Daddy had said so.
She lay curled on the thin pad, thumb in her mouth like when she was a baby. She closed her eyes because, even though it was dark then, it was less scary than when they were open and everything was still dark.
The howling outside the cave sounded like those wild dogs she saw in movies, the kinds that snatched away pets and little kids and ate them up.
The wind. It’s only the wind.
Owls had been hoot-hooting. Now, other birds were tweeting to each other, probably saying to go back to sleep ’cause it was still dark.
Inside the cave, crickets had chirped all night long. They sang to her after the sun went down. They kept her company when she was alone. The crickets were her friends. Like Jiminy Cricket, only they didn’t dance.
Being alone with the crickets was better.
Her forehead and knee were pressed against the cold stone wall beside her. She’d scooted as close as she could, but the man had only scooted with her, his heavy arm wrapped over her middle. His hand on her tummy. His front against her back. He was hot and sweaty and smelled like Daddy after a workout, except not good and comfortable. This man smelled like something yucky, like onions and green beans and old fish.
She wanted Daddy.
The man’s breath blew against the back of her head.
She wanted her soft bed and her stuffed animals and her daddy to kiss her and tell her she was precious. Tell her she was worth more than all the diamonds and all the rubies and all the emeralds in all the world. Tell her he wouldn’t trade her for ten bazillion dollars.
Tears fell into her hair and onto the skinny blanket beneath her, but Ella didn’t wipe them. She didn’t dare move.
Finally, light glowed beyond her closed eyelids. Morning again. Maybe today, Daddy would come for her.
Please, God. I wanna go home.

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