A rainy day in Phoenix doesn t happen very often. Neither does the blessing of a child. Renee slept peacefully, sporting a very faint smile, in the passenger seat next to me. Rainy weather happened to be my favorite; I was sure this day couldn t get any better. I couldn t be more thrilled to be starting a family with my wife; our new baby girl rode silently, in a deep slumber, in the backseat. In my mind nothing could possibly go wrong. Charlie, Renee, and Isabella, we d make a perfect, happy family.
*Bella: One Year*
I was beginning to believe that something was awry with Bella. She was nothing like any child I d ever seen. Perhaps I was just delusional considering she was my first child; hell, I had no idea what I was doing! Renee and I just played it by ear. Bella was one year old and I d yet to see her smile. Her array of facial expressions seemed to consist of pained or blank looks; yet she s never even cried! We ve discovered that the only things that seemed to arouse her interest were sparkly objects, or large stuffed animals (Which oddly enough tend to be wolves, dogs, or other animals of that nature). Her favorite snack was ice cubes; we couldn t keep her away from the freezer! If things didn t start to improve or change in matters of her behavior I think we re going have to resort to a specialist.
*Bella: Three Years*
A couple years ago we had taken Bella to a doctor, in hopes we could discover the source of her bizarre behavior. We drove in an awkward silence to the hospital on yet another drizzly day. We d been referred to Dr. Carlisle who d been in town for a couple of days on business. He seemed to be a very kind man, but the intensity in which he gazed at my little Bella made me somewhat squeamish. To me, it seemed that he almost looked Hungry, starving, in fact. The appointment went smoothly and the doctor informed us that there was nothing wrong with our little girl, and accompanied with a warm smile told us just to give her some time to break out of her shell. As we left his temporary office, I felt his eyes burning through my back, almost as if he was watching Bella right through my flesh.
A couple years after said doctor appointment, things didn t seem to be improving. Bella appeared to be getting increasingly worse, in fact. Speech had found its way through her head, but she didn t speak often, or willingly. When she did it came across as a slow, stumbling, drone. I had no idea where my Bella s personality was hiding, but at the time, it didn t appear that she had one. All speech was monotonous, and dull; I felt horrible that I didn t care about anything my own daughter was saying!