by Joyce Richie

Created on: December 07, 2008

The changes were slight at first. Disheveled hair. Clothes that didn't fit properly. A lack of luster in her eyes. Even the little girls friends wouldn't have been able to pinpoint a time when she seemed different. But changed she was, suddenly aged beyond her seven years. The people closest to her surely should have noticed the way she didn't seem interested in play anymore, or of interacting with others. Sadly, they would only comment on how studious she was. How absorbed in the fantasies she devoted so much of her time to reading. Stories she used to escape from her existence. Stories she wished so hard she could be living rather than the hand she'd been dealt.

But the stories could only last so long...eventually bedtime came. With bedtime came story time, always followed by a thorough tucking in. Her "special" time with daddy. The secrets they shared that were supposed to make her feel special, but only made her feel dirty. Her daddy tells her he went on camping trips with his daddy where they had" special time " , and that it was a secret too. Telling mommy would only make her feel hurt and angry, so that's why secrets are sometimes okay. The little girl couldn't disagree, she didn't want to cause her mommy pain ever.

So the little girl kept her special time with daddy a secret all to herself, even though sometimes it made her tummy hurt when her friends talked about things they did with their daddies, and she couldn't tell about hers. She tried to think of only happy things, like the puppy she'd been promised for being such a good girl for her daddy, and weekends when her mommy was home and she felt safe. Once she had her puppy she wouldn't feel so alone, she'd have a best friend to tell ALL her secrets to, since she couldn't tell mommy.

The months passed by, as they're required to do. The little girl grew, learning to cope the only way she knew. Until one day she came home from school to find her mommy lying in tears on the kitchen floor, bleeding from her mouth and an eye swelling closed. The little girl knelt and cradled her head in her arms "Don't cry mommy. I'll never tell daddy I know he hurt you."

Her mother stiffly pulled herself from the floor "Annie, why would you think daddy hurt me?..."

The little girl gazed back at her all too knowingly...recognition slowly dawning in her mothers eyes...

"Oh no, Oh Annie...what has he done to you?"

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