A Day In The Life

Fear

Police showed up.
Of course they did.
But not because of the bruises Liz claimed she was gonna report him for.
No, that woman was full of surprises.

When Joel opened the door and was greeted by 2 policemen, he thought ok,ok,she told me she would talk to them.
But there were 2 women dressed casually with them. He didn't expext that. They introduced themselves, they were from the CPS. Of course. Joel expected it to be a routine because he after all got a child living there.

Either way, Joel had to let them in.
Of course they showed up right now, right on this day, when he had been awake the whole night with Sarah who had been fussing and crying a lot, and in every hope to try get her to sleep, the livingroom was filled with things, toys, stuffed animals and clothes (after Sarah being peeling everything off of her body), and there were some babybottles halffilled with milk standing on the table, and one on the floor (which Sarah had tossed away) and Joel had tried to sleep now when she finally was, making him embarrassed by the fact that he hadn't been able to clean before they suddenly showed up.

The policemen of course just HAD TO speak out so loudly even when inside, Joel felt how he cringed, only waiting for Sarah to shriek out again, she was a very light sleeper.

This time it was more like she was connected to a inner piece of Joel (he was sure she actually was able to read and feel his mind sometimes).
Because when the ladies from the CPS told him why they were there,
"You have been filed with child abuse",
Joel felt he was going to faint, and THEN Sarah screamed.

"Uhm, wait, what??"

Joel ran upstairs to the bedroom to fetch Sarah, he felt like crying, why the hell would anyone think and even believe he would have done anything to her?? It was ok about Liz and the bruises and all that, after all that was the truth, he had probably been taking her too hard, he would claim it as self-defense. But Sarah..? He would never be able to hurt her!

CPS wouldn't even discuss the case with Sarah being present, (as if she would understand anything of it) which made it difficult, because Sarah was absolutely depended on him, especially right now, when she was crying and waking up suddenly experiencing 4 unknown persons in their livingroom. She probably felt Joel's heartbeat racing as well, because she was NOT in the mood for this!
She was crying, crying, crying...
"Well, you can take a look at her, you will see she has no marks in any kind showing I've done anything to her".

One of the ladies thought this was such a good idea that she almost ripped Sarah out of his arms, which made Sarah furious and terrified at the same time. The lady brought her upstairs again and Joel could feel every scream from Sarah as a stab of intense pain in all of his body.
He couldn't really focus on what any of the 3 others said or what they wanted from him. His aching heart was bleeding and he started to feel frustrated as well.

He tried to tell the policemen what had happened between him and Liz, about how they met, what she was accusing him for and how she was trespassing in every single way.
"And now she tells me she's pregnant, which I think is a total lie, but seriously, if that's true, I really need you guys!"

The lady with Sarah came down again, not to give him his daughter back, even though Sarah was reaching and crying for him all she was capable of.
She had decided she wanted to change Sarah. Joel tried to stop them.
"Oh God! Please, let me do that myself, she is gonna be traumatized! She is VERY anxious around other people, and...clothes is a totally difficult matter. She is very aware of her body as well, not allowing anyone she doesn't trust to touch her. You can come with me and watch us the whole fucking time, just please let me take care of it!"
They didn't.
And Joel could only stand there, totally helpless, listening to what sounded like they tortured his only child, while they tried to question him at the same time, and he should be trying to answer in an honest but still ok way to let them know there was nothing going on.

Sarah hated that woman!
She smelled funny, her hands were cold and hard, slender, and she had those long nails, and they were painful against her skin no matter how she held her fingers and no matter how much Sarah tried to wiggle out of her grip.
Sarah called and screamed for Dad all she was able to, but he didn't show up.
Why??
He always used to come running when she screamed, not always when she was crying, but screaming like this would ALWAYS help. He would come running.
Not now, where was he?? She was sure she could hear him talk though. Why did he neglect her like this??
She tried to wiggle out of the woman's grip, then she could run to him. But she was not let go anyhow.

The woman carried her in to the bathroom to change her, which was something Sarah usually hated, and now this was suddenly turned in to a nightmare bigger and more terrifying than anything Sarah could imagine.

Sarah hated being undressed, feeling the cool air against her skin, she hated being washed for the same reason, she would freeze because of the water and the air, and she generally just hated being wet. Undressing and washing had to be done in the way dad did it, the only right way, everything else just... hurt.

Being dressed again had to be in the right order. She had to have put the pants on before the socks, the socks had to be outside the pants, or else they would chew on her ankle. The woman didn't know that. She had let the socks stay on the whole time, that would be so SO wrong!! Sarah tried to rub her feet agains eachother to rub the socks off, but that didn't work at all. It only made them turn around on her foot and hang a little bit off, which when she noticed that, the woman just pulled them up again, twisted! That made the seam in both of them end up between Sarah's toes, and she screamed from what felt like an unbearable pain.
The same happened with the pants and the sweater as well, the woman wasn't careful enough about where the seams were against her skin.

Sarah was absolutely desperate, tearing in all of the clothes, tried to turn them, twist them, rip them completly off, whatever. She just couldn't have it.
Every time she tried only made everything worse though.

Sarah had been screaming so loud for so long now her throat was aching, breathing felt difficult. She started hyperventilating, which made her dizzy and nauseous. She couldn't scream anymore, her throat couldn't deal with it. And then her stomach acted up. She was in the middle of twisting around to see dad anywhere, when she suddenly threw up. All over that ugly woman.
The woman didn't know what to do now, she had to let go of her, and finally, she was handed over to dad.

Suddenly the whole world turned black on her.