Concrete Angel

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Angela didn't feel pain that night.

How could she, when she was surrounded by her father's scent and Luke's smile, her two favourite things in the world?

“Daddy!” She had cried, as she stared up wondrously at the smiling face of the superman in her life. She had missed this feeling of being in her favourite place in the world, in her daddy's arms.

And then as quick as he had come, her father had vanished, and in his place stood Luke. He was holding his palm out to her, giving her a grin that was missing two teeth, a smile she had grown to love.

“Come with me Angela.” Luke invited, looking at her with pride in his eyes. “You have been freed from the cruel world that once trapped you, and now you are an angel, a part of us. The world that awaits us is a far more beautiful one. Your wish has been granted, will you now run free with us?”

Angela felt her heart bursting with this invite, her heart full that she can now finally be with Luke. She stretched her hand out and placed it in Luke's, feeling a smile come upon her face, a natural reaction only when she's around Luke.

“I'd go with you anyday Luke.”

Hand in hand they walked up the slope of the small hill, and as the sun shone down on both of their smiling faces, Angela could see that all their friends were waiting for them at the top of the hill.

There was Sara with her dimpled smile, and Harley, Mike and little Joanna, and many many others, all waving to her as they smiled at her.

As Angela let go of Luke's hand, but only to run up and hug all her other friends, she knew that she could never be happier.

Angela had been freed that night, brought to a place where she was loved, a world filled only with happiness, smiles and laughter, as she played along with other kids around her own age.

But the same could not be said for all others standing in front of a grave, a grave marked with the words 'Angela Carter' on a smooth polished rock. They will instead be haunted forever, knowing that they had been unable to prevent the loss of a life, that a young girl had died because they had been to afraid to do what's right.

Angela Carter, aged six, was but one of five that died that day, one of thousands that died that year.

Young Angela had died, yet another victim of child abuse.