Finding Hope[l.c.]

PROLOGUE

Rain hammered against the roof of the police car as it glided down the slick country roads.

The officer turned on the radio, and let The Beatles "Blackbird" play throughout the car. After a long, painful silence, the officer looked in the mirror at his cargo.

"You doing alright back there kid?" He asked the little girl. She just shook her head, and pulled her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and burying her face in her bony knees.

The officer sighed.

It was gonna be a long ride.

The girl in the backseat of the cruiser, Lily, was small for her age of eight. She looked more like a six year old. But, at the same time, she looked older.

Maybe it was because of the dark circles under her big Doe eyes. Or the cuts and bruises littering her skin like confetti.

Or maybe it was the way she shivered from the icy cold fingers of the rain, strangling the warmth from her skin. After all, she was only dressed in a long t-shirt, a pair of sleep shorts, and underwear. She had no shoes on, no coat or jacket to protect her from the chilly October weather, and her very few belongings were in a black garbage bag beside her.

Her stuffed lamb, Sweetpea, a few items of clothing, a picture of her brother and sister, Jack and Anna, and her journal and colored pencils.

Lily's heart twinged as she thought about her siblings, and how things ended between them. How they were separated from each other.

She shook her head, trying to physically remove the images of the last two hours from her brain. But it was no use.

She couldn't rid the images of her father being taken away by a pair of angry policemen, or the shrieks of her mother as she was loaded into the back of a padded truck with bars on the windows.

Or the cries of her older brother as he was taken away in an ambulance.

And she especially couldn't forget the wails of her little sister as she was hauled away with a social worker. The way her arms reached out for her, and how her little feet kicked the air, trying to somehow run to Lily.

It had all happened so fast.

The world had come out from under her in one fell swoop.

What if the hiker hadn't heard Jack? She asked herself.

What if he had decided to take a different trail? Or, what if he simply didn't call anybody? Would she still be screaming at her mother to turn the stove off as Jack's hand was burned to a crisp?

Would she still be stuck with her abusive, addict of a father and her mentally unstable mother? Would she be tending to Jack's wounds as Anna slept, oblivious to what was going on?

Would she still be stuck in that house?

Thoughts raced through the young brunette's head as the police officer pulled up to a small cottage. It was blue, with yellow shutters and a white porch. A pickup truck was parked in the driveway, so the officer pulled onto the side of the road at the front of the little house.

It wasn't until the officer said the words 'be right back', that Lily finally was pulled from her melancholy mind. She looked up to find the policeman climb out of the car, and run up to the porch, where a couple was waiting.

He talked animatedly with them for about five minutes before he ran back towards his cruiser, carrying a black umbrella over his head now. He opened the door, and said, "Your gonna stay here for tonight sweetheart." He scooped the small girl into his arms after she grabbed her belongings, running to the safety of the front porch.

"Lily, this is Sara and Mark. Your gonna stay with them for the night, and a social worker is gonna come get you tomorrow morning. Okay?"

Lily just nodded as the man put her down on the porch, exchanging one last goodbye with the little girl, and jogged back to the car, taking off down the road.

The eight year old girl watched him go with teary eyes, not paying attention to the couple behind her. She wanted to run after him. To beg him to take her with him.

He had been the only adult who was ever genuinely nice to her her entire life.

"Lily? Why don't we go inside?"

Lily turned to find the lady named Sara looking at her with a soft smile. Lily nodded shyly, and the small group went inside.

And, just like that, Lily's life changed.