Stuck With The Guy In A Cow Costume

Part Seven

PART SEVEN

 

In the end Samuel switched places with Anya because it was too hard for him to stay around the ducks without puking. So, now he was working with Cohen who was apparently more irritable than usual. Ahrielle said that it was his own fault so no one should pity him.

Anya avoided Cohen for the next two days, making sure to lock her bedroom door before she went to sleep. Every night he knocked and asked to come in but she never answered. She had a sneaky suspicion that he slept against her door every night, though she didn’t have the courage to go out and check, because he seemed to always have a sore neck.

On the following Wednesday, five days before their flight back to America (the delinquent camp only lasted two weeks), Cohen was being even more persistent. Samuel and Ahrielle helped by distracting him so Anya could get a clean getaway. She ended up in an unfamiliar room.

The walls were pale pink and the only window had lace drapes pulled across it, blocking out the Australian sun. There was a beautiful antique white bed in the middle of the room with a vanity opposite it. A hand-made dollhouse was next to the vanity.

It took Anya a few minutes to realize that there was a lump in the bed, meaning that someone was lying in it. She cautiously itched backwards for the door so she didn’t wake them.

“Don’t go,” a small voice whispered. “You can’t catch it. Please don’t go.”

Anya paused, her eyes widening.

“Who are you?” she questioned softly. “What can’t I catch?”

The lump in the bed moved and sat up, revealing a small little girl with blonde hair and big blue eyes.

“My name is Lily and my heart is broken. Mama says that you can’t catch a broken heart like you can catch a cold, so you don’t need worry.” The little girl smiled weakly, her lips cracked and frail.

“Lily’s sick,” she remembered Finn had said when questioned about the third kid’s room.

Blinking in surprise, Anya moved a little closer until she was gently perched on the end of the bed. It was so big it almost seemed to swallow up the little girl. Now that she was closer, she could see the dark circles under Lily’s eyes and how unhealthily pale her face was. Her heart clenched.

“What do you mean when you say that your heart is broken, Lily?” she asked.

“Mama says that I was born special to God,” the little girl whispered, “because my heart is too small and broken. She says he will fix me soon because he loves me.”  

Anya frowned. “Fix you? How can he fix you?”

“I don’t know…” Lily let out a sad sigh. “I don’t think he loves me at all, pretty lady. If he loved me he’d let me walk and ran and dance like Ruby, wouldn’t he? But I’m not allowed to move from the bed. Not even to play with my dolls.”

Her heart clenched again for the little girl, who looked so tired and miserable. Lily settled back against all of her big, plump pillows and smiled sadly.

“Don’t cry, pretty lady. I don’t like it when people cry.” Anya wiped the few tears that had fallen down her face and sniffed.

“Sorry, Lily. It’s just… Are you sure nothing can be done? Nothing at all?” she pressed desperately.

“God isn’t willing to fix me,” the little girl replied. “And that means that I cannot be fixed.”

“But surely there are treatments at the hospitals in Adelaide-”

“Mama doesn’t trust hospitals.”

So they’re just waiting for God to come around and fix Lily? That’s horrible! All the while their daughter is suffering, sitting in bed day after day even though she should be playing like other kid! How can they just sit back and watch that?

“What about you Lily?” Anya whispered. “Do you want to be fixed?”

“I…” She paused, frowning thoughtfully. “I want to see the ocean before God takes me home. Daddy says that he’ll come for me soon and that’s why I puff lots when I get up. But are there oceans where God is? What if there isn’t? Then I’ll never see one!”

Her big blue eyes were wide with panic as she stared at the older girl. Anya bit her lip to hold back the tears that were threatening to leak out again. This girl couldn’t be over four years old and she was already contemplating what it was like in the afterlife.

“I don’t know what Heaven’s like, Lily,” she murmured soothingly and slid forward so she could place her hand on the girl’s arm. “But I’m sure that it must be wonderful.”

“I hope so,” the little girl sighed. “Can you bring my dolls over? I want to play.”

“Of course.”

The two of them played dolls until Isla called everyone down for dinner. Anya hesitated.

“You can go,” Lily said with an innocent smile. “I know you’re hungry. It’s my nap time, anyway.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.” She nodded her head. “I’ll come and visit you tomorrow too.”

Lily’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“I promise.” Anya held out her pinky and linked it with the little girls. “See you then, Lily.”

“Bye, bye, pretty lady!”

Even after she left the room she couldn’t get Lily and her wish out of her head. The farm was miles away from the ocean but… It just didn’t seem right that a little girl had to sit in bed day after day. She really wanted to do something to help.

But getting Lily to the ocean would be practically impossible. Anya doubted that her parents would approve of it, so she ruled out asking them. The only possible option was to steal the car and drive down.

The flaws in that plan were, of course, the fact that she had no idea where she was in South Australia or how to get to Adelaide. She also didn’t know how to drive a manual and the Abrahams only had a truck and an old Ford for their vehicles. Neither were automatic.

The more she thought about it the more impossible it seemed…

“Hey, Anya, come sit over here!” Samuel called when she entered the kitchen. She sat down at the small table and ate the spaghetti in silence, too rapped up in her thoughts to think about conversation.

There wasn’t really anyone that could help her here at the camp. Samuel probably had no idea when it came to driving and manual and Ahrielle’s only specialty was knives. She didn’t know anyone else that well so she doubted that they’d help her…

Well, she did know one person that had some experience with fast escapes. And she was positive that the truck he drove back home was a manual.

That night, when Cohen knocked and asked to come in, she stood up and unlocked her door. He opened it soon after and stood in all his manly glory with a confused expression on his face.

“Anya-”

“I need your help.”

***

Upload No. 2 for the day.

(this is what happens when I'm sick and don't go to school, haha)