The window of HOPE...

Chapter 14

            Now that was a bolt from the blue........!!! Chloe was astounded she couldn't believe her ears.......her own niece......., was thinking that she forgot about her. Chloe was prepared to face everything...........Jenny's tears, her sadness, her fury, apathy but even for her life she hadn't expected bitterness, this kind of acrimony from her Bambi. She couldn't understand how someone so juvenile and innocent can bear such animosity in her heart. That thought distressed her. She had to help her; nobody can live their lives upholding such unpleasantness within them. Deep in thoughts, silently, she exited the room and started moving down the stairs slowly, when all of a sudden, she stopped, putting two and two together...................Chloe realised that that abrupt outbreak of Jenny's emotions were basically her defence to protect her frail and brittle mind, an attempt to drive away the people who try to come near her vulnerable inner self. Jenny was using her anger as a defence mechanism to deal with everything, but inside she was a terrified little girl, who was scared of what may happen next.

Without a further ado, she speedily climbed down the stairs and was going to take a turn for the kitchen when she stopped short; the front door of the house was wide open. They were temporarily residing in the town's guest house. Apparently, out of guilt, people wanted to help them, so they offered them to stay there for free........and she had agreed........So here they were. Like a ghost, she proceeded towards the door, inside questioning herself if she had remembered to close the door or not. The nearer she got to the door she could see a small silhouette sitting on the front porch of the house. But, the more closer she got, she realised that it was her niece, who had angrily walked out of her room just a few moments ago was sitting here in a heartbreaking position. Jenny was hunched over, as if she was burdened with something, that she can't withstand. She was quivering in the bright summer light. Her hairs which were tied loosely at the back looked dishevelled and shaggy.

Chloe gently continued her walk till she reached the spot where Jenny was sitting, and sat beside her in silence. She turned her head and studied her face wordlessly, she noticed the paleness of her Bambi's cheeks, and how pasty she looked. Chloe's heart bled by looking at her, immediately her heart took into account the jolly memories of them, those merry moments of them together with Helen and then the day she had left town, and her little niece had sobbed her eyes out asking her to not go, "Please Aunt Chloe, please don't go.......I am sorry. I promise I would be a good girl but don't go" but she had left. Unconsciously, her fingers lifted and lightly caressed one of the fading scars of her niece's forearm. Jenny flinched and Chloe at once withdrew her hand back and apologized tentatively, "I am sorry, I meant no harm." Slowly Jenny turned her head and cautiously stared at her aunt for a long time, as if waiting for the chastisement, her blank eyes took in the gloominess of Chloe's face. She tried to find anger, on the face at her side but all she found was the same care and adoration that she used to see when she was little and also some sadness, for her. Timidly Jenny replied "It's alright, I am just not used to....you know-"I understand, it doesn't matter" Chloe rejoined with a little smile. And again they became silent, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Both of them were lost in their own thoughts and somewhere a truce has been settled.

From nowhere Jenny suddenly spoke "Why does it always happen with me, Aunt Chloe?"

Jenny looked so miserable and distressed, that all, Chloe wanted to do was, to hold her in her arms and keep her safe from everyone and everything dreadful.

"Why am I always left alone......, I try sooo hard to not do anything wrong, be perfect.....so they won't leave me......No matter how much I cry, how much I plead them, it just doesn't matter......at the end it's always me, on my own........all the promises, all those words of assurance are like always big fat lies on my face."