When The Sun Rises

Seven

Indy and I had been meeting for 2 weeks and had been doing all kinds of things: going to the park in the middle of the night… It was fun and kind of mysterious. We played on the swings and the slide. Other nights we got chips from the fish and chips shop in town and ate them on the jetty. Although the best night was when Indy accidentally nudged me into the lake surrounding the jetty. Then she jumped in after me. We played in there even though the water was freezing cold and Indy couldn’t swim, so I held her in my arms and made sure she wasn’t going to get herself hurt. Luckily I could swim well. We laughed and splashed around in the lake for a few hours. We sat to dry off.  My brown hair didn’t take long too dry but Indy's beautiful long hair took a lot longer. On the cold nights, I took a blanket and we sat under the stars, staring at them. You wouldn’t believe it but Indy fell asleep with her head resting on my chest. I felt like she was my child and I was looking after her.

I woke up Monday morning. I hadn’t see Indy the night before because we didn’t meet on Sunday nights as I needed sleep for at least one whole night a week. I was looking forward to seeing her later that day.

At school all I could think about all day was if what Indy had been doing up yesterday. What if someone hurt her, or she was hungry.

When I got home I cooked the food for her as normal but this time she got a bit extra, just because I hadn’t bought her food the day before.

 A few hours later it was time to go; I grabbed all my stuff and climbed out of the window. When I got to the jetty, Indy was sitting on the end. She seemed fine from behind but when she turned around her eye was slightly purple. She looked horrible, out of place, and was crying.

“Oh my gosh, Indy what happened to you?” I sat down next to her and wrapped my arms around her to make her feel safe.

“The…The gang, I got out of my room and they didn’t want me to, I was running down the corridor when I looked behind me to see if they were following me. As soon as I looked they threw a hard green tennis ball right at my eye. I stopped in pain as they dragged me back into my room and kept me there. I only wanted to go and get some food, but even that’s not possible.” She explained in a slur of gushing tears.

“Indy I am so sorry, I should have been there, or met with you to give you food, and then you would have stayed in your room, and wouldn’t be hurt.” I apologised.

“No, Lily it’s not your fault, you can’t blame yourself for this. If there’s anyone to blame it is me because I should have just stayed in my room like they told me to.” She argued. I turned her around, held her hands and looked her directly in the eyes.

“Indy, listen to me.” She looked up. “You can’t keep this up. How long are you going to keep this a secret? They can’t keep bullying you like this; it has to stop - soon. We need to tell someone.” I snapped.

“NO! Lily you promised.” She yelled.

“I know what I said but this is wrong. You are nine. You are supposed to have a happy life.” I pointed out.

“My life is happy when I am with you.” She replied.

“That’s not the point! You need to be living in safety, not fear of stepping out of your bedroom.”

“You don’t understand Lily if I tell someone they are just going to beat me up even more for telling!” Indy screamed.

I sat there trying to think for a few minutes. This was madness, I was telling Indy to tell someone, but what I was afraid of was when she told them would they listen? Would they care? I wasn’t sure.

“Please?” she begged.

“But…” I thought.

“Please, don’t make this worse.” She pleaded.

“Ok, but you have to promise me something. We meet every day. You don’t leave your room unless you need the toilet or you are meeting me. I will bring food every day.” I couldn’t believe I had just agreed again. I am not sure how much longer I could let this happen.

“I promise.” Indy agreed.

“Good, but I am still not happy about this.”

Indy looked into the water at her reflection, which was being distorted by tears dropping on top of it. She was really sad and I could see she was in pain. It was really difficult to just sit there watching her like that, so I lifted her onto my lap.

“I'm sorry, I just want you to be safe, and you know that.”

“I know, my eye just hurts so much.” I didn’t know what to do. How do you make bruises better?

“Here, I got your dinner.” I handed her the container with chicken, potatoes and vegetables. She ate it pretty quickly so she must have been hungry.  After she had finished I remembered I had a gift for her. It was only small but I thought she would like it.

“I got you this.” I handed her a brand new pad of paper and a pack of pencils and colouring pencils. Her face lit up and a beaming smile spread across her face.

“Thank you, thank you lily!” Indy jumped up with the pencils in her hand spinning around and jumping up and down.

“It’s alright, you deserve it.” i explained.

“Now I can draw all I like!” she shouted happily.

“Yep every day, for as long as you like.” I agreed.

We sat there for hours Indy drew the nearby street with lampposts and shops. Her warming smile made me happy, I was finally making her happy. I went home at normal time, just before watching Indy skip of down the  street.