Raphael gave her a resigned nod and then stood back up. “I will stay with them until help comes.” Sirens could be heard, so Emma knew it wouldn’t be long. She needed to find the girl who might be Callie before some well-meaning adult terrified her even more.
She hurried out of the room, following the directions Jaser had given. When she reached the line of shadows he’d described, she took a step into the darkness and began to count. Her voice was shaky as she whispered out loud. She shook out her hands at her sides, trying to quell her nerves. What would she do if it was Callie? What would she say? What if she wasn’t alive? What if that is why the screaming stopped and Flannigan didn’t bring her back to the others. Emma wished that thought hadn’t come into her head as she breathed out. “Twenty-seven.”
She turned to the right and placed both hands on the wall. She felt the seam in the door and lowered herself until she found the knob. It turned and there was no sound, no creak, no squeal, no grating, nothing. Flannigan must have kept it well oiled.
As she entered, she paused and fumbled around on the wall, looking for a light switch. “Bingo,” she whispered as her fingers finally landed on the switch, and she flipped it on.
At first, nothing happened. But then a florescent light flickered to life, it’s humming filling the silence. It wasn’t a bright light and barely illuminated the corners of the room. She walked further in and saw a chair and a couch. The couch, which was grey and covered in holes and torn fabric, was against the back wall. The chair was in much the same shape but set perpendicular to the couch on the left side forming an L shape. It was in the small space left between the two pieces of furniture that she found the girl.
“Callie,” Emma said as softly as she could.
Her friend was in the same kind of gown as the others, but it was no longer clean. She had it wrapped over her legs which were drawn up to her chest, and her head was tucked down against her knees. She was rocking back and forth, humming a tune that Emma couldn’t place.
“Callie, it’s me, Emma,” she said a little louder and sterner.
Callie froze and slowly her head began to raise. When their eyes met, Emma saw herself, her own pain, and what she’d been through with Reginald Jones, looking back at her.
“Emma?” Callie breathed out, sounding confused and unsure.
“Yes, we found you and the others. You’re safe now.”
Callie shook her head. “There is no such thing as safe, Emma. Right here, I know. Couch, chair, wall, floor all around me. Out there I don’t know what’s around me or what’s coming.” She narrowed her eyes on Emma and asked, “What really happened to you? You didn’t fall of a porch Emma, I can see it in your eyes.” The shift in the conversation threw Emma for a few seconds, but then she finally answered.
“I was in my closet when he attacked me,” Emma said with a sad smile. She lowered herself down to the ground and sat, pulling her legs up into the same position as Callie’s. “That’s where I live, in a closet. I can usually avoid him, the man I live with. He managed to catch me unaware. He did what not ought to be done to an eight-year-old kid. And, well, I was a bit beat up and scared. I was able to cover up the worst of the injuries with the help of a friend until my face wouldn’t look so bad.”
Callie’s eyes were filled with tears, and her hands shook as she twisted them restlessly against her knees.
“I know you’re scared, Callie. And I know that what we’ve been through isn’t exactly the same. I left my closet, still afraid, but I didn’t want to stay there frozen. If you let me, I’ll help you leave yours.” Emma motioned to where her friend sat.
“You’re afraid?” Callie asked through shaky lips.
Emma nodded. “I am. Sometimes I’m less afraid than others. And sometimes I need a good, ugly cry. That’s what my mama used to call it when the crying became what she called a whole-body affair and no longer just tears.”
“Why don’t you live with your mom? Why are you with the man who hurt you?”
“Because my parents were murdered. It’s just me now.”
Callie stared at her. Indecision, fear, dread, pain, and longing filled her eyes. “You can’t go home,” she said.
“But you can,” Emma said gently. “You can go home, where no one can touch you. Your mom will sit with you, and you can tell her about being afraid, or you can just sit next to her. But you have to come out of there to do that.” Emma reached out her hand as she scooted closer to the frightened girl. “I’ll stay with you until you tell me to go.”
Callie’s brow drew tightly together, and her nose flared as she took a deep breath. “You promise? You won’t leave me?”
“I promise.”
Emma held her breath as she watched her friend unfold her small body and crawl out from the tiny spot. What breath she had left was knocked out of her as Callie flung herself into Emma’s arms. Emma pulled her tight against her body, the way her mom used to do when she’d had a nightmare and been too scared to go back to sleep. She always felt as though her mom had been trying to pull her inside of herself, as if to protect her from everything and anything that could harm her or scare her. She tried to do that same thing now for her friend who had been harmed and terrified in the most horrific ways.
“Emma.” The deep voice she recognized as Raphael’s came from behind her. “Can I allow her to see me?”
“Callie,” she whispered. “I have a friend here who is going to help us get out. Would you like to see my friend?”
Callie looked confused as she sat back from Emma, though she still clutched one of her arms.
Emma nodded to Raphael and then watched in awe as he revealed himself in his angelic glory.
“This is Raphael,” she told Callie. “He’s, well, as you can see.”
“He’s an angel,” Callie said softly.
“Yes.” Emma smiled. “He is.”
“You’re going to take me to my parents?” Callie asked him, her voice sounding just a little stronger.
Raphael bowed his head and placed a large hand over his heart. “On my honor, I will if you will allow me.”
Callie clung tightly to Emma’s arm as they followed Raphael back down the dark hall. When they entered the main room, they saw Mrs. Sunders sitting on the floor with one of the younger girls wrapped in her arm. The other kids were sitting around the teacher, gathered as closely as they could. Emma understood their draw to her. Mrs. Sunders was full of light, and kindness, and it radiated off of her like heat from a furnace.
She turned and looked over at Emma and Callie. “Girls,” she said sounding breathless with relief. “Come sit with us, and Raphael too. We are waiting on everyone’s parents to arrive.”
Emma walked over to the group with Callie in tow. They sat down, and Callie leaned her shoulder against Emma. Emma could feel her friend trembling.
Mrs. Sunders began to sing, and Emma recognized it as an old hymn her mother used to sing every now and again.
“I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.”
Emma glanced over at Raphael. His eyes were closed, and his head turned up toward the sky. His lips moved, and she realized he was singing the words as well. A single tear slipped from one of his eyes, and it was then that she realized and truly understood why Raphael did the things he did. Not because it was his job as an angel. He did it all because he loves his Creator. He mourned because he knew the Creator wept for these children.
Emma felt Callie as she pressed closer to her, but the shaking had gotten better. As she looked around at each of the faces watching Mrs. Sunders sing, Emma wondered if they felt what she’d felt in her time of need. She still didn’t fully understand why these things happened. But she had to believe that these lives, sitting there in that circle, bruised on the inside and out, scared and badly shaken, would be able to help someone else one day. She prayed with everything in her that evil would n
ot win today.
A female police officer stuck her head down through the door and called out. “Parents are here. We’re going to call for the children one at a time to come up the stairs. Their parents will be directed, with the child, to a paramedic.”
Mrs. Sunders nodded. She placed the young girl on her feet and then climbed up off the floor. All of the kids were standing now and looking terrified to go up the stairs. Emma stepped forward and cleared her throat to get their attention.
“Would it be alright if Raphael walked up the stairs with you when it’s your turn?” She met the eyes of each of them so they understood she was talking to all of them. “Your parents, and the others, won’t be able to see him,” she explained. “But you will feel safer having a guardian angel with you.”
Jaser, the self-appointed leader, nodded. “I think that’s a good idea.”
And so that was what they did. Emma watched as, one by one, the children’s names were called. Raphael walked beside them, some of them taking his hand, some of them simply walking close to him, up the stairs. She could hear the cries of the parents, the sobs of the children as they finally broke, and all the emotion they had shoved away so they could survive came flooding out of them.
When it was Callie’s turn, Emma smiled at her friend and walked with her up the stairs. Raphael was behind them, with Mrs. Sunders walking beside him. She’d be the only adult that would know he had been there today. Emma would have to find out from Raphael exactly how she handled it when he revealed what he was to her.
She was jarred from her thoughts when she was suddenly jerked forward. They’d made it to the top of the stairs, and Callie’s parents had pulled her into their embrace. Instead of letting go of Emma to hug her parents, Callie continued holding on to her. Emma stood there with her arm outstretched, her friend’s hand clasped tightly to hers. She remained silent, letting her friend reunite with her family. She’d promised she wouldn’t leave until Callie was ready, and she intended to keep that promise.
When they finally pulled away so they could look at her, they noticed Emma.
“Hello,” she said.
“This is my friend, Emma,” Callie said quietly. “She found me.”
Before Emma could say a word, she found herself once again pulled forward, only this time Callie’s parents were hugging her and Callie was the one standing on the outside of them with her arm outstretched while Emma was embraced.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” her mom muttered over and over. She sounded as though Emma had handed her back her life. And maybe in some way she had.
“Callie,” her mom said once the hug had ended. “The paramedics need to look you over.”
She nodded and then looked at Emma. “Would you come with me?”
Emma smiled. “I told you I wouldn’t leave until you were ready for me to go. I keep my word.”
The rest of the morning the school was a circus. There were police, fire trucks, paramedics, news crews, even a helicopter flying overhead. There were also other parents that came, their eyes full of hope that maybe their child had been found. But Emma knew from Jaser that the kids that weren’t found had been sold. Would they ever be found? Was there any way to stop men like Flannigan from exploiting children? She didn’t know. But she vowed that one day, when she was grown up, she would do everything she could to help stop children from being taken and sold into slavery, in whatever form it might be.
Around noon, Callie hugged Emma and whispered in her ear, “I’ll be okay because you showed me that I can be, one day.” She stepped back and took her mom’s hand. “I’m going home. Thank you for staying.”
“That’s what friends do,” Emma told her.
“I guess I’ll see you,” Callie paused, seemingly unsure what to say but finished with, “sometime.”
Emma nodded and smiled. “Sometime works for me.”
It wasn’t until after Callie had left that one of the police officers noticed her. She walked over to where Emma stood. Raphael was next to her, but the woman couldn’t see him.
“Are you the young lady who went down there and found them?” the police woman asked.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Where are your parents?”
Emma sighed but smiled. “Do you want the long version or the short one?”
She smiled and held out her hand to Emma. “I’m Officer Freeman, but you can call me Dee. And I’d like whatever version you would like to tell me.”
Emma shook Dee’s hand. “I’m Emma Jean Whitmore. You can call me Emma. Mama used to say that there was no use in filling up conversation with unnecessary words. So I’ll give you the unnecessary words version.” Emma explained to Dee Freeman how her parents were murdered, how she ended up in Yellville, Arkansas, living with an aunt she’d never met. She told her about Darla, Wayne, Serenity, Dair, and Raphael. She didn’t stop to wonder if Dee would believe her about having an angel for a friend. She’d left out that Dair was the Sandman; it wasn’t necessary to the story. When she’d finally told Dee everything, she suddenly felt lighter, as if she’d just taken the weight of the world off of her shoulders and placed it on someone else’s.
Dee was studying her very intently, but Emma just stood there, waiting patiently. “Why did Raphael let you stay with Mr. Jones?” she finally asked, and it was clear that she wasn’t pleased with the angel. Emma found it interesting that the adults she chose to confide in didn’t pat her on the head and treat her as though she had a vivid imagination.
“Because I asked him to. I knew I needed to stay, and now I know why,” Emma explained. “I was able to help Callie. I was able to get her to crawl out of her hiding spot on her own instead of someone having to force her, scaring her even more. I had to be here, but I didn’t know why until today.”
“Don’t you want to go back to Darla and Wayne?” Dee asked.
Emma’s heart swelled at the idea of going home, because they were her home now. “Yes, I do. That’s why I’m telling you now that I need DHS to take me out of Mr. Jones’ care. Can you help me?”
Dee chuckled. “You must have angels, or the Creator, as you put it on your side, Emma Jean Whitmore. Yes, I can help you. My daddy happens to be the judge who handles the DHS cases.” She slapped her leg, as she shook her head. “Of all the officers that you might have spoken to, I found you.”
“Just as you were meant to.”
Dee’s head tilted ever so slightly to the side as her eyes narrowed. “I wasn’t supposed to be here today, in Pine Bluff, I mean. I was supposed to be gone the past two days to some training. But the instructor came down with the flu.”
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Emma told her. “You and I were supposed to meet. Just like I was supposed to meet Serenity and Darla.”
“Well, you’re the genius, so…” Dee chuckled. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number. Her face dropped the smile as she seemed to slip into her professional mode. “Sir, I need to request to see you in an official visit.” She paused and nodded then made some sounds of agreement. “Yes, twenty minutes, we’ll be there.”
Emma looked up at her expectantly.
“Alright, Emma, it’s time we get you back where you belong.” She motioned for her to follow.
Emma glanced back at Raphael who was following them. He nodded at her in his quiet, reassuring way, and Emma began to feel as though her world was finally righting itself.
Once they were in the police car, buckled, and on the road, Dee looked over at her. “I bet your friends and family in Yellville will be so happy to have you back. Especially Serenity, since you said you haven’t seen her since she was shot. I’m sure she has been beside herself with worry for you. I know I would have been if you’d been my friend and taken from me.”
Emma bit her tongue to keep from taking in the sharp breath that nearly seized her. In all the commotion of the day she’d forgotten that Serenity wasn’t just sitting up in Yellville waiting on her to come back. She was trapped in a nig
htmare by the devil himself.
“Do you know how long it will take for everything to be worked out so that I am back in Yellville?” she asked Dee.
“Let’s just say that if a regular DHS case moves along like the pony express from the eighteen hundreds, your case will be more like a text message.”
“Oh, wow,” Emma said with wide eyes.
Dee reached over and patted her leg. “You’ll be home tonight, Emma. My daddy is already getting in touch with Darla and Wayne. They’ll take temporary custody of you, and then DHS will come in and do a home inspection and a couple of visits, and then they will start the adoption process, if that’s what y’all want.”
“Just like that?” Emma asked.
Dee nodded. “Apparently, Yellville is where you’re supposed to be, now that your friend is safe, as well as the other children you found. Reginald Jones is being arrested as we speak. I received a text saying the officers found enough evidence of illegal contraband in his house to put him away for a long time. You’ve done your part in Pine Bluff, and I am so sorry it came at such a huge cost for you, but you can let us take it from here.”
“Thank you, Dee,” Emma said as she wiped away the tears that had gathered in her eyes. She was going home. She had been through a lot in the past month and knew that she’d need to deal with the things she’d endured eventually, and she would.
“You’ve been brave, little one.” She heard Raphael’s voice from the backseat.
Emma nodded so he’d know she heard him. She had been brave. But just like she’d known that she had needed to stay in Pine Bluff, Emma knew that before everything was said and done, she would need a whole lot more bravery.
Chapter 16
If you dream you’re a plant, it means you need to look at the things and people around you, and see who and what needs pruning.
“Maybe we should just kidnap her,” Wayne suggested as he, Darla, and Glory walked into the county courthouse. It was late, and they’d had to be let in by a security guard.