Girl
By: Jessica Gupta
Tags: Literally Literary, Crime, Trauma, Fiction, Family

Image by Aamir Mohd Khan from Pixabay

The door swung open with a bang. A giant shadow engulfed the girl where she sat on the floor.

“You think you can hide from me in here?”

She shook her head, eyes darting everywhere but his looming face.

He crouched down to her level and put his mouth next to her ear.

“There’s nowhere I won’t find you,” His breath, hot and bitter, curled down her neck.

He grabbed the collar of her t-shirt and hauled her to her feet. Dragging her outside, he threw her down into the dirt.

“Go down to the store and get me a six pack. Be quick about it,” He tossed a wad of wrinkled cash at her feet.

The girl gathered up the bills and clenched them in her hand. As she walked down the road, gravel crunching beneath her feet, she began to sing.

With these eyes, I will look for you to come.

With these ears, I will listen for your call.

With these lips, I will softly speak your name.

With this heart, I will love you for always.

With these hands, I will wipe away your tears.

With these arms, I will shield you from the storm.

With these feet, I will find my way to you.

With this heart, I will love you for always.

As the girl drew near the store, a grizzled hound trotted up to greet her. She dropped to one knee and ran her fingers through his mottled grey and black fur.

“Hey boy,” The dog nuzzled under her chin, and the girl wrapped her thin arms around his middle.

“Hey, Lazarus! Who you socializin’ with out there?”

The dog turned its head toward the store, then looked back at the girl and whined.

“Okay, let’s go.”

The girl’s flip flops, two sizes too big, slapped against the wooden steps leading up to a screen door with rusty, complaining hinges.

“Well, afternoon missy.”

The girl nodded and headed to the cooler at the back. Up on tiptoe, she wrapped her fingers around an icy can and pulled the pack carefully off the shelf. The heavy swinging door caught her foot, and she saw a lone quart of milk towards the rear of the bottom shelf. The girl tucked the six pack underneath her arm and reached for the milk.

“Find everything you needed?”

The girl placed the six pack, milk, and wad of cash on the counter and stepped back.

The clerk counted the damp, wrinkled bills and frowned. “Looks like you’re a little short, missy.”

The girl’s eyes fixed on the six pack, then the milk, then back to the six pack. She raised her hand to grab the milk.

The clerk’s hand shot out and pulled the quart of milk back from her outstretched fingers.

“You know, I think I counted wrong. You’ve got enough here for both.”

The corners of the girl’s mouth turned up just a little as she withdrew her hand.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, missy. You tell your daddy, next time give you a bit more cash, so you can get yourself some snacks, too. You need a bit more meat on them bones.”

“Mister says I have to earn my keep.”

“Mister? Is that what you call your daddy?”

“Don’t have one. Just Mister.”

“Huh. I always thought he was your daddy. Where’s your momma then?”

“Don’t have one of those either.”

“Guess I never have seen a woman around the place. It’s a shame. Little girl needs a mother.”

The girl curled her toes in her flip flops and pulled at a loose thread on the hem of her t-shirt.

The clerk scratched the back of his head, his eyes studying the girl. His head swiveled to a bright white poster on a crumbling cork board to his left. A sea of yellowed scraps of paper with curled edges and faded words peaked out from around the poster’s edges.

“Say now, that little girl looks a bit like you, don’t you think?”

The poster had two photos side by side. On the left, a young girl with dark brown hair pulled up in two pigtails smiled shyly. She wore a yellow dress sprinkled with daisies. On the right, an older girl stared unsmiling. She resembled the younger girl, but with longer hair, bigger features. The eyes were different, too. Empty.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t think she’s a little like you?”

“Mister doesn’t like mirrors.”

“Huh.”

“Used to be ones on the car in the yard, but they’re all broken now.”

The clerk looked between the girl and the poster once more, then shook his head and shrugged.

The hound trailed the girl back down the gravel road until the clerk finally whistled for him to return.