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How long it has been? She doesn’t know, but the fog from her mind lifts. The child finds herself lying on a strange bed in a sterile, all-white room. She hears muffled voices and a strange rhythmic beeping sound nearby. Wrapped in several warm blankets, she feels strangely numb from the knees down. Her feet sting, and she can feel ribbons of pain within, however, she can’t move them.
Worried, the child glances at her feet. They soak in a large bowl of murky water. She can’t tell if it’s warm or cold; she doesn’t feel it on her skin at all. Only now does she realize her stockings have been taken off; in fact, all of her clothes are gone. The little girl pulls the blankets tighter around her, looking about frantically. Where am I? What’s happening?
She sees two women standing at the foot of her bed, speaking in voices that she can’t quite comprehend. The older woman is stocky, middle-aged, with dark hair and smiling brown eyes dressed in a loose matching green shirt and pants. She listens respectfully to the second, younger woman who tucks a strand of red hair behind her ear. The redhead wears a white waist length coat and flips through a chart as she speaks.
“She has three broken ribs, and a mild concussion,” Doctor Thompson says. “Also, there’s some smoke inhalation in her lungs, a few minor cuts and bruises with some strange scare tissue over her left breast. From the look of her, she probably hasn’t eaten in days. And if that isn’t bad enough she has frostbite all over her feet.”
“So what do we do?” the older woman asks.
“Well, for now I’d like you to up her pain meds and bandage her feet. Also, let’s arrange to do some x-rays on her chest. Other than that there’s not much else we can do.” The younger woman slips the chart back into the slot at the foot of the bed.
“Yes, Doctor Thompson.”
Suddenly, afraid of these strangers, the girl tries to squirm away from them despite her injured legs but they are as dead weights. Hearing the sound of sheets rustling, the Nurse looks up to see the child, staring at them with wild eyes.
“She’s awake, Doctor,” Nurse Sumpter announces.
The doctor turns to look into the girl’s round face. Her yellow-green eyes confused, her long black hair tousled, resembling a bird’s nest, and her skin pale as snow. Poor, little thing, Doctor Renee Thompson thinks to herself. She can’t be any older than five, but she’s so frail and malnourished it’s hard to tell.
“What’s your name, sweetie?” The doctor flashes the child a kindly smile. The little girl just stares up at her with a blank face.
“She tried to talk to me earlier but I couldn’t understand her.” Nurse Sumpter informs the Doctor.
“There’s no need to be afraid, dear,” Doctor Thompson reassures the child, stepping forward to pat the girl’s hand. “We’re friends.” The child looks at her, befuddled, and scoots an inch or two away from her. “Do you know how to reach your parents? Do you know your phone number or your address?”
“Who are you?” The girl asks in her own tongue. The two women look at her oddly. She tries to tell them all about mama, the fire, and the man in the woods, but they don’t seem to understand a word she says; they look as confused as she does. They begin talking louder, as if she is hard of hearing, but the increase in volume doesn’t make their strange language any easier to understand. Once again, the girl sees strange images that seem to flow from the others’ minds into hers. She tries to shut them out to focus on what is going on but to no avail. Frustrated, she just shakes her head at everything they say, until they stop bothering her.
Eventually the two adults start talking amongst themselves, just as the woman in white lifts one of the girl’s feet out of the bowl. The skin is white and waxy, but the toes are black as if someone had dipped them in black ink. The girl tries to move them but they just won’t obey her. The woman gently places the girl’s foot back into the water, making comments to the Nurse. The Nurse nods at the instructions.
“I just hope they find her parents soon,” the doctor remarks. “Little girls need their mothers. She must be frightened to death.” With that, she exits the room, and the Nurse wheels a metal cart with medical supplies over to the foot of the bed.
Pulling on a pair of latex gloves, the Nurse notices the little green-eyed girl watching her suspiciously. Not wanting to frighten the child, the Nurse slowly administers to the frostbitten feet. Taking them out of the bowl, she sets the water aside on the lower shelf of her cart, and dries off them off with a rag. Suddenly, the girl reaches for her feet as if to touch them. Instantly the Nurse pushes her back down on the bed, trying to sooth her with her voice. Reluctantly, the child relaxes and sits back to watch the Nurse work.
The Nurse takes a tube of medical ointment and applies the strange smelling cream all over the blackened extremities. She tries to be very careful and gentle with her task. Picking up a wad of bandages from the cart, the lady begins to wrap the feet. After a while, the child begins to find this process soothing.
When the Nurse is finished, she leaves the room with her cart. The girl glances down at her bandaged feet. She wants the pain to go away. Sitting up she reaches out her hand and touching her covered toes, she sings in a cooing lullaby.
“Dah-Day-Wente, Curea-Longa, Babeta Lovota…”
The old familiar tune gives her comfort. Her mother had sung it to her whenever she scraped her knee or became sick. Those words, and her mother’s beautiful voice, had always made her feel safe and warm. Singing the lullaby now, she feels a contented warmth blanket her. The pain in her body fades away, yet leaves her weak and tired. Before long her eyes close and she sinks into the world of dreams.