by Daya Daniels
“A very special gift for a very special little girl.”
I unwrap the gift, tearing it so fast there’s no way she’ll be saving the paper for next year.
“Oh wow, Mommy! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
It was the Easy-Bake Oven that I’d been begging for all year.
“Daddy, look at what I got!” I shout.
“Oh, honey, I’m glad you like it,” Daddy says sweetly as he cradles me up in his arms and gives me a kiss on the cheek.
This is the best Christmas ever!
I was jolted awake by a loud sound. My chest was heavy and I felt a familiar fear coming back to me. Overhead, a skein of geese scrambled from a fir tree, clearly startled by the same noise. The sound continued, until it stopped for a few seconds and began again.
Instinctively, I tried to move but I could do nothing. The crisp sound of the leaves and branches on the ground crackling filled my ears. Something was moving towards me. Maybe the wolves were coming to finish me off? The bison could be moving through where I lay and trample me.
I considered what it would feel like to have a wild animal tear the flesh from my bones, or to have my bones crushed into tiny pieces, if I’d feel anything at all. I was already numb. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad?
The rapid sound of barking caught my attention. I gazed at the pine trees above me. Their snow-covered branches swayed in the wind’s quiet howl. Thick tears fell, hot against my cold face. I was going to die on my birthday...how ironic. Exhausted, I drifted off again into a haze.
“What do you mean they’re dead?” I cry clutching the dreamcatcher my mother had given to me just before she and Daddy left.
“Lily, I’m really sorry but they’re both gone.”
The social worker went on to explain how my parents’ flight had gone down over the Pacific on their way to Hawaii on vacation. They perished along with two hundred and thirteen other unfortunate souls on the same plane. The social worker is a pretty lady and tall. Miss Owen is angel-like just like my mother.
Out of all the social workers appointed to me to find me a new family, it’s Miss Owen that I know I’ll remember most because of her resemblance to my mother. I can’t understand how this could happen. My parents seemed so happy when they left...so perfect.
“Since you don’t have any other family, sweetheart, we’ve found you a new family to stay with just temporarily, until we work something out.”
“Okay,” I whisper, never feeling so alone in my life.
The sound of panting brought me back to the present. The skin on my face was being assaulted by something wet and warm. My eyes shot open. I blinked slowly. I was being licked by a dog. I recognized its saggy features and sad eyes as being a bloodhound. The dog resembled Trusty in Lady and The Tramp. It was one of my favorite cartoons when I was a kid. The dog was energetic, full of life, and looking at the copper tag it wore, its name was Rocco. He never bared his teeth, he just kept licking me. Rocco whimpered and repeatedly nudged the side of my head hard with his nose. Another dog appeared and hopped around in the snow to the side of me, brushing its wet nose all over my face. It was a black Labrador that wore a similar copper tag that read “Sable.” Rocco continued barking and then sprawled out next to me. Perhaps, in some attempt to keep me warm. Then both dogs barked in a frenzy together.
There was a high-pitched whistle and Rocco quickly jumped off me and disappeared from my view, darting away. My eyes flitted around in a panic, searching for him. Had he left me? Please don’t leave me! I wanted to scream. The ground crackled again and I knew something else was approaching where I lay.
The stranger knelt beside me and didn’t say a word. He was relaxed. There was no panic or shock that registered in his features. The stranger just stared at me intently, with a deep dent etched in between his thick eyebrows. He was carrying a rifle, a .308 Winchester and a backpack. The stranger first looked me over, pulling the tarp off slightly, winced and muttered something to himself. Then he came back to my face. I blinked slowly. It was the only indication I could give him that I was still alive. I prayed that he noticed it.
His kind eyes were a deep brown. He had a full trimmed beard that covered his olive skin. A black knit hat covered most of his dark hair that was past his ears and curled at his neck. The stranger wiped the wetness from my cheeks with his rough hand and pressed down lightly around my neck, looking for a pulse.
“Akecheta,” he said as he looked into my eyed and nodded.
He pulled off the tarp, then fished a blanket out from his gear. He wrapped me in it, lifting me from the ground, holding me against his chest. The stranger made a loud whistle and both dogs scurried to heel at his feet. As we set off walking in the other direction, I couldn’t stop my tears from falling.
CHAPTER TWO
“Lily!” my mother, Jessica, calls out.
“Lily, oh my God, I can’t believe you completed this puzzle! It’s ten thousand pieces! How did you do it?”
I am so proud of myself. It’s a puzzle Dad had bought for the three of us to complete on family night that once put together shows a vivid depiction of The Last Supper. I vowed to myself that I’d get it done and finally take a picture of it.
Both Mom and Dad showed no interest in helping me complete it, likely daunted by the number of pieces, so I set to the task on my own. I never let my parents forget how I put the puzzle together without any assistance and constantly pestered them to reassure me what an amazing feat I accomplished.
“Mom, look!” I beg.
“Lily, I think what you did is amazing. You’re truly amazing but right now I really need you to wake up, honey. Wake up, Lily.”
The sound of a heavy door closing and a loud beep caused me to stir. I scanned the room, noticing the space was dimly lit and the air temperature was warmer. I think we were inside a house.
“Akecheta,” the stranger whispered, touching my face lightly. “I know you’re in a lot of pain but I need you to stay awake for a little bit.” The deep voice barely registered in my consciousness.
I was slipping in and out. I opened my eyes and looked directly into his. I could faintly feel his warm hands squeezing and rubbing my hands and feet trying to create friction. When he brought his hands back to my face, they were covered in blood. The man had removed his knit hat and coat and moved quickly. Then he was hovering over me, preparing to move me. I was wrapped, still naked, in warm blankets. Against my skin they felt hot but I knew it was only because I was already so cold.
The stranger carried me in his arms and rested me on the floor in front of a large fireplace. I groaned with the movement. He sat with me, tilted my head and poured something warm down my throat. It tasted sweet and strong at the same time.
I gurgled at the first sip of the liquid, leaving some of it running down my chin. The stranger tried again, forcing me to drink the rest, as he firmly kept his index finger under my chin, encouraging me to drink it down. I felt the liquid settle into my stomach. It was hot. It warmed my insides. He’d given me a drink with some type of alcohol in it. From where I lay, Rocco and Sable stood steadfastly, observing every maneuver the stranger made with my limp body.
“You’re going to be okay, Akecheta,” he said in a deep voice.
The dizziness set in. After a few minutes, I fell off to sleep again.
Faint sunlight slipped through the heavy drapes to the windows. It took me a few minutes to recall the events of the past few days and then I remembered all that had happened. I looked around curiously, taking in my surroundings. The bedroom I was in was cozy and warm, decorated minimally in blacks, browns and cream. The ceiling above me was at least fifteen feet high, with dark colored beams running across it. A large fireplace across the room with the massive head of a bison mounted over the top of it was lit and crackling.
The bedroom door was left cracked. Through it, I spotted a bathroom across the hallway.
I was still in pain. I crooked my neck just enough to see that my left arm was in a
white cast. I shifted looking to the other side of me noticing that there was an IV tube coming from my right wrist that gave me discomfort each time I moved. My whole body felt stiff and heavy like a block of lead—parts of me burned. I shifted a little more, looking around the large bed, brushing my face against the soft pillows. The thread count of the sheets I lay on hinted that they were expensive. There was a thick patchwork quilted blanket over the top of them. I peered over the edge of the bed and noticed the very large dog on the floor, just beneath me. It hopped up, just as startled as I was and began barking, backing itself out of the bedroom.
In less than a few minutes, the stranger appeared in the bedroom doorway with Rocco at his feet behind him. He was huge. The stranger stood at least six-feet-eight-inches tall and close to three hundred pounds. He was muscular but lean, not bulky. He was dressed not much different than when I’d first seen him, except his hat was removed, revealing his thick, dark hair.
When he stepped closer, I was able to get a better look at his face out of my good eye. He was handsome. His presence was disquieting but he had kind eyes. He had a very faint scar that ran down the left side of his temple, along his cheek, and disappeared into his beard. He approached the bed slowly, leaning down to look into my face.
“Thank you,” I rasped out, which was all I could manage to say in my nervousness.
He didn’t smile. “My name is Gabriel. They call me Bear. You can call me either name,” he said, adjusting the IV and taking my temperature.
The feeling of his warm hands touching my skin was comforting, instead of feeling as foreign as it should have. He stepped away from me and nodded seeming satisfied.
“Are you hungry? Would you like some water?”
“Yes, please.”
He walked toward the large window across the room and pushed the drapes open wider, flooding the room entirely with sunlight. He looked over his shoulder back to me. “It will help but let me know if it is too bright.” Gabriel returned to the bed. His heavy weight making a large dip in the mattress where he sat.
He brushed his fingers over my forehead lightly and pressed them into the dip just under my neck, checking my pulse again.
“How many days have I been here? Are you a doctor?”
He shook his head and chuckled. “No, Akecheta.
“You learn a lot living up in these mountains. You’ve been asleep for four days. I put your arm in a cast to ensure that the fracture didn’t get any worse. It was pretty bad. Your bone was starting to push through the skin at your elbow. It will take a while for it to heal.
“You should rest up so that your ribs can heal and your eye should open up in a few days. The back of your right leg is black with bruising. I doubt you can stand on it right now.
“The cuts and other bruises will take time to heal. I’m sorry you’re still naked but it was the easiest way for me to get you bathed and to change your bandages since you’ve been unconscious. I’ll come back in an hour or so to clean and rewrap some of your cuts. When you’re feeling well enough, I can give you some clothes to put on.”
I couldn’t help but notice how matter-of-fact he was when he spoke. I began to weep again—stupid tears. He brushed my face gently, wiping my tears away and then left the room, shutting the door behind him.
All I could think about while lying there was Nina. That fucking Nina. How could she do this to me? How could I have been so stupid not to expect this from her? I inwardly chastised myself for being so naïve.
I met Nina when I was seventeen in Meridian after stepping off a Greyhound bus that left Boise the day before. It was the next stop after I ran away from the third abusive foster family I was placed with. I couldn’t take it anymore. I decided I was going to do this thing called life on my own, the morning that Mr. Bennett, my foster dad, told me I had to sleep with him if not “he would take it,” were his exact words. I ran and never looked back.
That same day in the afternoon, Nina and I stood in line together outside of a homeless shelter that I was hoping to stay in for the night that would also provide me with a hot meal. I had nowhere else to go—no family and no money. I had only the clothes on my back and the dreamcatcher my mother gave me on my twelfth birthday that I carried everywhere I went. Nina and I became friends then. We lived together. We pooled our money when we had to and we looked out for each other.
I knew Nina had problems. I mean, we all did, but Nina had major problems with drugs. She’d always been a user. Still, I considered her my friend. I didn’t know much about Nina, outside of what she told me. She didn’t talk about her family much or what they were like but she did talk about a sister that she had, only really ever telling me her name. Emily, I think it was.
I’d been in a lot of unsavory situations when it came to Nina and her drug use, from being in numerous physical altercations, getting evicted, even almost getting arrested once. You never knew what to expect when it came to Nina. She could go from loving, caring friend to hostile and selfish in a matter of seconds, if she was using. Every few months, or after something bad happened in her life, she always promised to get clean. After her mother died, she tried. After she lost the one steady and honest job she was able to find, she tried again. Nina even joined a church group for a time, claiming to have found the Lord. They promised they would help her get clean, but Nina only ending up reselling most of the charitable donations of food and clothing that they gave her for blow.
After a while she became convinced she could do it on her own, refusing to seek help or participate in any drug treatment program. She would ease off for a few months and then bang, before you knew it, she was hitting the pipe again or snorting blow. It was always the same broken promises and disappointments from Nina. I was tired of holding on to Nina’s empty words. How could I possibly have expected anything different? I was embarrassed at my own lapse in judgment.
I fiddled with the soft sheet that lay on top of me under the quilted blanket and my hand ran across the tag. I turned it over. It read, Sfrerra Milos Egyptian Cotton-1020 thread count. I knew that wherever these sheets came from, they definitely hadn’t been purchased from Walmart.
Gabriel returned within a few minutes, holding a large bowl, blowing the steam from it.
“Minestrone soup,” he said.
It smelled delicious. I couldn’t recall the last time I had a half-decent meal before all this happened. Nina and I spent most of the little extra money we had eating fast food—McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Taco Bell. I was grateful for a simple bowl of soup.
“My name is Lily,” I mumbled out, after the last few tears trickled down my face, “Lily Elizabeth Kerr.”
He grabbed another tissue, wiping my tears away.
“Okay, Lily Elizabeth Kerr,” he whispered. “I know you’re probably scared and I know that I probably seem scary but I’m not going to hurt you.
“No one is coming here to hurt you. No one even really knows this cabin is here. This is my land for miles. You’re safe. You really need to rest.”
Gabriel’s large hand covered mine for a moment and then gestured towards the soup. “Just try a little. Not a good idea to eat too fast. I don’t know when your last meal was.”
“Okay.”
He fed me the soup slowly. He just watched me while he did it, not speaking a word. After I finished, Gabriel left promising to come back in a few minutes to bathe me and change my bandages. I wondered how exactly he was going to do that if I was naked. I couldn’t do it myself, so I didn’t have much of a choice. I could barely move.
Rocco came back to sit next to the bed, plopping his head on the edge. I used to believe that dogs could read human emotions. Maybe Rocco understood my current anxiety about what was about to happen next? I gave him a smirk and rubbed his head. He blew out a long dog breath, looking up at me with his big brown eyes. I wondered if I looked as pathetic to Rocco as I felt. I let him lick my face only once, which had to be his version of a kiss, making me laugh a little. It was likely only because of
him and Sable that I was even found.
“Thank you, Rocco,” I whispered. “Thank you so much.”
.
Gabriel returned carrying a small copper basin of soapy hot water, a sponge, two fluffy white towels and bandages. He sat on the edge of the bed, resting the basin on the table beside me.
“Lily, I’ll try to make this quick, okay?” he said.
I nodded, silently wishing I’d been unconscious for this.
“It’s okay,” he said as he held my gaze.
The water was scented with the strong but pleasant smell of eucalyptus.
He pulled down the quilt and the sheet, leaving me lying naked in the center of the bed. I was horrified by the sight of my own body. I shut my eyes as more tears fell while my chest shuddered. Gabriel didn’t look up again at my face while he moved around me. It was all a task it seemed to him. He proceeded pulling some of the bandages off, touching me as gently as he could. My gaze lingered on the size of his hands. I couldn’t understand how hands that big and rough could be as gentle as his were. They reminded me of how my mother’s hands felt, only these hands were much larger and more weathered.
“Lily, I’m not going to move you too much but I may need to turn you over partway.”
I continued to weep. I wasn’t sure if I was crying from the pain or because of how my once beautiful skin looked. It was very possible I was just crying from the humiliation of having a complete stranger looming over my naked body.
Gabriel was a handsome man, I considered. I was sure there was nothing I had that he hadn’t seen before that wasn’t offered to him willingly. My nakedness didn’t seem to phase him one bit. A warm towel was slid underneath me and another covered the exposed parts of me that weren’t being washed yet. He proceeded to wash me gently. My face, neck, my breasts, and my arms. The water was warm and soothing against my battered skin.
