Chapter 36: A heartbreaking meeting
You Were Meant To Be Touching
The Lives That You Touch
And Meant To Be Here
Making This World So Much More
Than It Would Be Without You In It
You Were Meant To Be Bringing
The Gifts That You Bring
And Singing The Songs
You've Been Given To Sing
Meant to be - Steven Curtis Chapman
Jack lifts his eyes from where he's goofing around on the floor with Mark and Luke and freezes when he sees a little girl standing at the top of the stairs, watching the people having fun with big dark eyes, staring at him between the banisters of the stairs.
"Hey, I haven't met you before." Sarah looks up at the little girl, whose little face is stuck between the banisters.
Her squared jawed face was framed with beautiful curly brown hair, her deep brown eyes staring at the antics of the children with longing and a tiny bit of sadness.
"Naomi, would you come down, please? There are some people I'd like you to meet."
Joseph guides Maggie by her shoulders to the end of the stairs, and both watch the girl studying them with serious eyes for a minute, before leaving her position on the top of the stairs and slowly climbing down the stairs, her tiny hand gliding down the railing.
She stops at the last step, and looks with serious eyes at Maggie. She's curious about this lady who had been in one of the pictures in Joseph's wallet. She then glances at Jack and Sarah, who are silently observing her too.
"Naomi, this is Maggie, my wife. Would you say hello her to her?"
The little girl's attention is on Jack, who is sitting with a wiggling Luke in his lap on the floor.
"Don't be silly, Mr. Buchanan. She can't speak. How will she say hello to Mrs. Buchanan?" moans Grace, looking at brown haired girl with contempt.
"Grace," growls Joseph, getting mad at the oldest girl attitude. However both he and Maggie are surprised when the little girl takes a step forward, staring at Maggie's middle with a frown.
"Hi sweetie." The little girl leans and touches Maggie's tummy, poking it as if looking for something.
Maggie looks confused at Joseph, who frowns for a moment as he looks at the little girl trying to see under Maggie's jacket, before he smiles and holds out his hand, taking the little girl's hands in his, "No, no. She's not pregnant anymore."
The little girl looks up at him with a huge question mark in her face, and Maggie frowns at their exchange, "What?"
"The picture in my wallet. Ah.. You were pregnant with Faith when we took it." He says to Maggie. "That's an old picture. Faith is already gone to University. Maggie is not pregnant anymore," he says to the little girl, whose face changes in a ah, I got it expression, then takes a step back to look up at the brunette looking down at her.
Jack stands up from the floor, and starts walking towards the Buchanan couple, "So are you really thinking about -" he freezes, when the little girl stares at him with huge eyes when she notices his size and takes two steps back, her skinny pj clad arms automatically going to her head as if to protect herself from him.
The silence becomes deafening in the room, as the adults stare at the little girl recoiling in fear, their hearts breaking a little before such clear sign of abuse.
The kids fidget uncomfortably, uncertain of what is going on.
Jack, in turn, feels his heart constricting as he sees the girl shaking in fear away from him, the goofiest guy on earth, who loves kids and who would never hurt a child. This tiny skinny doll had the power to, in one single act, destroy everything he thought he was. He glances at Joseph, and sees how heartbroken his friend is, looking at her with sad and teary eyes.
Joseph kneels before the girl, taking the care of not touching her, "Hey, look at me."
She slowly moves her arms away from her face, her tiny nose and mouth and one eye appearing from behind her lifted arms, "this is a friend of mine. His name is Jack." She blinks and slowly starts to lower her arms, looking at Jack wearily, still ready to bolt. "He's not going to hurt you. Just look how he is with Mark and Luke. He would never hurt you or any other child."
She studies Joseph's face, examining him before looking at Jack, who had in turn knelt on the floor beside Joseph, just a couple of steps behind, and now had Luke sitting on his folded knee.
She studies his hands, how he holds the little boy with care and slowly relaxes, her face becoming a placid mask again as she dismisses the adult and starts walking towards the kitchen under the careful watch of the grownups, takes a banana from the fruit basket and sits in the corner of the kitchen, on the floor, eating it.
"Is she always like that?" asks Maggie, staring at the little girl silently eating the banana and swinging to and fro.
Joseph rubs trembling hands over his face, before he stands up slowly and looks at Maggie, "she's better today. At least she's not inside of the cupboard anymore."
Maggie turns to him, confused at his information. Joseph nods, "You know the laundry cupboard in the attic, where you keep all your mom's patchwork blankets? She's built a fort in there, and she hides in there whenever the boys are too noisy."
Maggie shakes her head, astonished with the information her husband is giving her, "Why?"
Heidy enters the kitchen, and puts the dirty juice cup in the sink, then walks towards the airman and collects his coffee cup, saying, "She doesn't know how to play. I don't think she has ever learnt how to. But that's not the only thing she does. Watch this."
She leaves the dirty cups in the sink, and takes two steps back. The girl glances up at her, then at the sink. She immediately throws the peeling of the banana out, gets one of the dinner table chair and pushes it towards the sink. She then proceeds to climb on it and carefully wash the two cups under the astonished eyes of the adults, who look at each other with surprise.
"I'll be damned," mutters Jack, just to receive a light tap on his middle from Maggie. "Ouch."
"Little pitchers have big ears," she points to the boys, who had lost interest in the new girl and are now back to playing with their toys in the living room carpet.
He rubs his middle, then looks at Joseph, who is watching the little girl with weariness, "Why does she do that?"
"I have no idea. As far as I know, she was taught that. I mean, Heidy can't even turn her back on the dirty dishes that she is already there tackling them down. It's almost …" Joseph sighs, and Maggie turns to look at him, silently begging him to continue, and Joseph says looking at his wife, "almost as she was conditioned to look after the household chores, with no chance of being a real kid. All her interactions are either filled with fear or dread. She doesn't interact with the girls, and to be sincere, the only one she gets along with at all is Matthew."
"But that's probably because Matthew doesn't speak much, and still whenever they are together they simply stay quiet, playing Lego," says Heidy, putting away the glasses the little girl has just washed.
The girl climbs down the chair and pushes it back to its place, then walks towards Joseph as if waiting for his next order. Joseph kneels before her, then she looks at him, her gaze however is fixed at something over his right shoulder, as the Sheriff had mentioned she would space out sometimes.
"Naomi, I want you to do something for me."
She nods silently.
"I want you to go play with Matthew. He needs help with the Legos. Can you do that for me?"
Her gaze moves from the point over his shoulder to his face, then she nods silently before going towards where Matthew is pulling the Lego pieces apart. She kneels beside the little boy, who promptly starts giving her pieces of the toy so she can attach them together.
Jack follows her with sad eyes, as the airman, which the adults had forgotten for a moment was also in the room, mutters, "I've known a kid like her before."
Joseph glances at the airman, who glances nervously at the officer and the scientist he was ordered to bring home. "What do you mean, like her?"
"Ah..." he turns his cap nervously in his hand, "you know, retarded. Or mentally hindered. But with proper medical follow up, kids like her can adapt and live in society."
Joseph frowns at the airman's words, who flinches as he notices his faux-pas. "Ah... sir... Ah..."
"Excuse me," Joseph says, before he leaves the room heading towards the music room, not before glancing the little girl slowly attaching one piece of Lego to other.
Maggie's heart goes out to her husband, who, in the short period in which he had contact with the little girl, has already bonded with the child.
Maggie glares at the airman, who fidgets a little under her heated glare, and follows Joseph out of the room, leaving Jack, Sarah and Heidy with all those kids in the living room.
Charlie starts to fidget, and the blond girls are all over Sarah wanting to look at the little boy. With Sarah's attention on their little boy, Jack slowly approaches the little girl, sitting on the floor with her back against the back of the sofa, and he studies her playing silently with the Legos with Matthew.
Matthew would tear apart the pieces he had already built, and pass the pieces to the girl, then he would stretch his little hand to her and she would put the piece in his hand again, while he would bite his lip with a frown of concentration trying to put the pieces together.