Asult by Night

Small acts of kindness lured a little girls’ loving neglected heart.

Promises of love connect her soul to his.

A foundation of trust laid upon her innocence was abused.

Compressed while slumbering constricted each breath until she lay unconscious.

Her little body skewered by acts of lust.

Ruptured inside she wavered between life and death.

She awoke stripped of clothes in a blood stained bed then became unconscious again.

Three nights and two days alone her little body struggled to live.

When she came to again she wondered out of her bedroom and down the hall.

She walked out the back door and up to a deserted street where countless toads crawled at her feet.

She was enchanted by their presence and grabbed four up into her arms.

She took them to the garage to keep them as pets.

When she got there her mentor stood crying and said, “I thought you were dead.”

She couldn’t make sense of what he said.

She told him about the toads in the street and showed him the ones in her arms.

She asked,” Where did all these toads come from?”

He answered, “They came from a dark place between life and death.”

Why are they here, she inquired.

He replied, “They came here for you.”

“I telephoned your aunt Lola to tell her you had died and she called upon the forces of nature to bring you back to life.”

The little girl couldn't make sense of what he said.

She placed the toads on the floor and they disappeared.

Then she ran up to the street to find more but they were all gone.

She went back to the garage and saw her mentor leaving in his car.

Later her nine-year-old sister came into the house and looked as though she had seen a ghost.

The little girl asked her, “What is wrong and where have you been.”

She replied, “I went to my friends ‘cause I couldn’t stay in our room with you.”

The little girl asked, “Why?”

Her sister said, “Because you were dead.”

The little girl was shocked and could not understand.

“What are you talking about”, she said.

Her sister replied, “You’ve been lying dead in your bed for days.”

“No I haven’t”, the little girl insisted.

“Yes you were”, her sister exclaimed.

The little girl went to her mother’s bedroom door and knocked but no one answered.

She hadn’t seen her mother for weeks since her returned from a metal hospital.

The little girl then went into the kitchen to find something to eat and drink.

She felt as though she hadn’t eaten or drank for days.

She drank from the facet and ate some bread.

Exhausted she went back to her bedroom and fell into a deep sleep.

It seemed like it had been a dream but it wasn't.

It left internal scars that were detected by a physician years later.

Now the little girl is a woman who is still coming to grips with what happened.

She is dismayed by this and other strange memories.

The realization of them torments her mind, heart and soul.

There seems to be no escaping them.