Althea

|𝟯𝟵| 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗮𝘀

The tall windows are behind her, snow falling on it, making it slightly blurry.

When she hears the door click behind me she looks up with raised eyebrows and then it dawns on her who I am.

I smile and wave. "Merry Christmas!" I throw my hands up a little.

A bright smile immediately takes over her face. She takes her glasses off and places them beside her before scooting back from her desk and standing up.

"Hello, Althea! Merry Christmas to you to,
love. I've been waiting for you!" she says in that very happy voice of hers.

It calms me. Im a very happy person, I've realized and being around other happy people relaxes me. Including my very grumpy Tater Tot.

"Am I late? If so, it's Enzo's fault. He's the one who drove me here. I'll give him a good talking to about stopping for candy on the way here next time." I shake my head. I'm not gonna tell her that I'm the one who wanted candy, of course.

She chuckles, her crows feet at the corner of her eyes very noticeable. She waves me off. "No worries. Your not to late, honey. Would you like to get started now?" she asks, her eyes following me as I make my way to the window.

I look through it, pressing my face to the glass. I immediately spot Enzo's shiny black car from up here . I'm not sure if he can see me but I wave anyways.

I spin around, looking at Miranda who has taken a seat in her arm chair facing a long dark grey couch. She's staring at me patiently. That's what I like about her. Nothing ever seems to be a rush with her.

"We can if you want." I shrug, making my over to the couch and plopping down. My eyes almost immediately land on the bowl of Jolly Ranchers she has on her coffee table.

She chuckles again. "I mean, I'm ready whenever you are, honey."

I nod, looking around. "You don't have any Christmas decorations. Do you want some of mine? We have tons of extra."

Miranda shakes her head a little, pulling her dark grey hijab down a bit. "Muslims do not celebrate Christmas but thank you so much for the offer, love."

"Oh ok! I like the calmness of your building anyways." I say, nodding.

She nods. "Well that's good. Now, how have things been? Any nightmares lately?" she looks genuinely concerned, leaning forward, a notepad laying on the little table beside her.

"Yeah...a lot. Not as bad as they were but there's still a lot of them." I shrug, picking at a loose thread on the cushion of the couch.

"That's good. Progress is good."

"Not really any progress happening." I mumble, pursing my lips.

Miranda is quiet for a moment. "I need you to know something, Althea," she says, looking me straight in the eyes.

"Okay." I cross my legs on the couch , putting my elbows on my knees and resting my head in my hands. I gesture for her to continue.

"You won't see drastic changes right away. It takes time. Little by little, thing will start to get better. Whether it's day by day or week by week or month by month...things will get better."

I think about that for a moment. She's right. I think. I hope so.

"John will be going to prison." She states. "how do you feel about that?"

I look down, instinctively touching that spot on my arm. Like I've said before, I'm not a mean person. I hate saying the word hate and wishing horrible things on people but...it's different when I think about Mr. Peters. I get so...angry when I think about him. What he did. And it makes me want to wish that man will never ever leave prison.