Chapter 2 - Finding Marah

A Chapter by Lilia

Chapter two of "What She Is"

Marah woke up laying on her bedroom floor. The carpet around her was stained with blood, but her head hurt too much to process anything. Her vision was blurred, but she tried to get up. Putting pressure on her arm caused a jolt of pain, and she fell to the floor once again. She began to cry, but nobody came. It was early in the morning, so her mom still would have been there. At least, she would have been there if she hadn’t gone out after throwing the child into her room. Marah would be alone until her uncle came.

Hanson was having a busy morning. Adam’s car broke down so Hanson had to drive him to work. Then he had to go shopping for food to bring to Marah. When he got back home to prepare to bring food and clothing for Marah, he found that he left their new puppy out and she chewed up everything. He looked at the clock and decided that Marah could wait a little bit, and he started to clean his destroyed furniture up.

Marah did not have much time. She continued to bleed and her head was throbbing. The poor child could barely make a sound. No one could hear her. If her uncle did not get there soon, she would surely die. Her uncle, of course, did not know this as he hurriedly cleaned his house. Marah passed out.

Hanson arrived only fifteen minutes late to his sister’s house. He opened the door to the house and was surprised to not get his usual welcome. No hugs, the child was not even in the living room waiting for him. Maybe she thought I wasn’t coming. he thought. He went to the child’s bedroom door and attempted to open it, but it was locked.

“Marah?” Hanson said loudly, but he did not get a reply. “Marah!” he yelled, but still no reply.

He looked all through the house for her, but she was nowhere to be found. She had to be in the bedroom. He decided to call his sister.

“What do you want?” Hanson’s sister growled when she picked up the phone.

“Marah isn’t picking up the phone. I tried calling your home phone to wish her an early happy birthday, but she didn’t pick up. She usually does. Did you take her to work with you?” he asked, but he knew the answer to that.

“No,” she replied. She could not recall what had happened yesterday, but she did not care what happened to the child.

“Is she somewhere else?”

“No. Call again.”

“I called a bunch of times, sis,” Hanson was getting annoyed.

“Then I don’t know.”

“Do you want me to go check on her?”

“No. I have to go, Hanson. I’m sure she’s playing outside or something,” she hung up the phone.

Hanson was not sure what he wanted to do. He thought for a moment, but he could only come up with one logical answer. He never wanted to do it, but it was all he could think of. Call the police. You need to call the police, Hanson. Call the police.

Hanson felt himself involuntarily reaching for the phone. The last thing he wanted to do was report his sister to the police, but it seemed like the only option. This had never happened before, and it was quite strange to him. Marah was always out and about, she rarely stayed in her room. He doubted that she would lock her own door, too.

“911, what’s your emergency?” the person on the other line asked.

“I believe a child may be in danger. I can’t find my niece and her bedroom door is locked. She’s only five, and her mother is not very responsible. I fear that she could be hurt,” Hanson tried to hide the worry in his voice, but this girl was like a daughter to him.

“I have sent some officers to your current address. They will be there in just a few minutes. When was the last time you saw your niece?”

“Yesterday evening, I stopped by to drop off a few things since her birthday is tomorrow.”

Hanson heard the sirens of police cars pull up. They must have reported that they were there because the lady on the other line said, “They have just arrived, you can hang up now.”

A man and a woman came to the front door. Hanson opened it and greeted them. “Good morning officers,” he smiled nicely to them as they nodded.

“When was it that your niece went missing?” one of the men asked. The other was scribbling things down on a notepad rather quickly. Hanson wondered for a second how the man could read the scribbles later on, but he decided that is was not important.

“I’m not sure, I saw her last yesterday evening and I just arrived here this morning and she was nowhere to be found. Her bedroom door is locked, she might be in there,” Hanson could not hide his fear. His sister was abusive, and he knew that. Marah could be dead.

“We would need a warrant to search the house, and this isn’t high priority since you don’t even know if she’s-” one officer said, but the woman cut him off.

“This is high priority, I can tell what he’s going through. And I believe we have probable cause, the woman’s record shows counts of minor child abuse. Nothing enough to get the child taken away, but it shows that this is possible. I have kids, I would never want them to be missing,” she said, feeling sorry for Hanson. It was not long ago that her own child went missing and was found at the bottom of the river running through town.

“Thank you, officer,” Hanson said gratefully.

One of the male officers began to pick the lock, and Hanson feared what would be behind that door. He could hear the pop of the lock giving up, allowing the people to turn the handle and open the door. The door opened slowly, and Hanson was pushed back. The two male officers entered the room, and the female officer pulled Hanson away from the door.

“Hey!” Hanson shouted, but she continued to pull him out of the house.

“Sir, I can’t let you see what’s in there. I’m supposed to, but I don’t want you to see,” the officer told him.

“I want to know!” Hanson yelled and took advantage of her loosened grip on his arm. He ran back into the house to find the officers running outside. One held a limp child covered in blood. Hanson collapsed.

Hanson awoke in a hospital bed. Adam was talking to someone familiar, but Hanson could not recall what had happened. He hit his head on the sidewalk when he collapsed. His fiancé turned his head and smiled. He walked towards Hanson and sat beside him.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Adam joked, but Hanson was in no mood or condition to laugh.

“What happened?” Hanson questioned. A woman was outside the room talking on the phone. Her face was serious, it worried Hanson.

“You fell and hit your head. Luckily there were some police officers around to take you to the hospital,” Adam said, trying to sound positive.

“Wait, it’s morning? Did you go to my sister’s to take care of Marah yet?”

Adam frowned. He had no idea how to respond. The woman came into the room and stood beside him.

“Who are you?” Hanson asked, forgetting about Marah.

“I am a police officer. Yesterday you-” she started, but Adam didn’t let her finish.

“One second,” he said, and motioned for her to go talk to him outside. They left Hanson alone in his room.

“He has to know,” the officer told Adam.

“Know what? That his sister nearly killed Marah, and she’s going to prison? He can’t know yet, it would kill him!”

“At least she isn’t dead. We need to focus on the fact that she will be moved to a better home. Even if she will be going to Hanson’s parents, she will be moving into a safer environment.”

“I hate that her mother is going to prison, but she still has it written down that Marah has to live with her grandparents if something happened to her. I don’t want to take Hanson’s parents to court for custody of her. That would be wrong.”

“You’re right,” the officer started, “that would be wrong. But if Marah’s grandparents want to make her happy, they’ll ask her where she wants to go. If they don’t, you can ask her yourself.”

Hanson was informed about what had happened shortly after the conversation. His eyes filled with horror and rage. It took Adam and a nurse to keep him held down in bed. Hanson wanted nothing more than to see Marah, to tell her that everything would be okay. At the same time, he wanted to kill his sister.

“No!” Hanson screamed. The police officer quickly closed the door to his room, concerned that people would come in to see what was happening, and why.

“Hanson, calm down, it’s okay… it’s okay,” Adam held the hand of the one he loved and felt frightened for him. He knew that Hanson was the only man he could ever love, for he had been saved by him. During that time of denial that he had been going through, Hanson showed him that is was alright to be gay, to love someone of the same gender. Not that Adam’s parents would ever love him the same, but he had Hanson now.

“It’s not okay… it will never be okay… she needs to know that she’s loved and that she is worth saving… that her mother is a psychopath that deserves nothing but pain!” Hanson stopped struggling to get up, as he was lightheaded from his injury. He simply laid down and cried, he was done.

“Hanson, it’s okay. Remember? She has something better now.”

“Marah still… had to go through… that,” Hanson was starting to fall asleep, he could not handle the stress in the condition he was in. Adam caressed his face lightly, kissed his forehead, and waited for his fiancé to fall asleep. He did not have to wait long.

Adam walked briskly to Marah’s hospital room. The girl was sitting upright when he came, and her eyes brightened to see a familiar face.

“Uncle Adam!” she squealed, unable to contain her excitement. Adam looked at the fragile little child, all scarred and bruised. Blood was dried on the side of her head, though it had stiches. It had previously been gushing out of her head, turning her hair redder than it ever had been. Her arm was bent in an unnatural way, and it rested in a cast. There must’ve been 20 tubes connected to her, giving her blood or fluids. There were too many things wrong happening to someone so small, so delicate. So… doll-like. Still, she looked at him with love in her eyes.

“Hey, Mar. How’re you doing?”

“My head hurts, and my arm, but I feel good.”

Adam gave a sideways glance to the nurse, and she nodded. Marah really was feeling better. Adam smiled, “That’s great sweetheart!”

“Where’s Uncle Hanson?” Marah questioned, tilting her head slightly. She winced in pain, and brought her head back to its original position.

“He’s in a different room, he got a big bump on his head just like you,” Adam knew that he could never sugarcoat things with this little girl, but he thought he’d try it. Marah looked at him, her smile had turned upside-down.

“What happened?”

“He got worried about you, and he fell on the sidewalk. He’s okay now, Mar,” Adam said softly. Marah’s excitement was replaced with weariness, and she was soon going to fall asleep.

“Uncle Adam,” Marah whispered. He leaned in close to hear her. “Tell Uncle Hanson I love him, and I don’t want him to be sad.”

Her words warmed her uncle’s heart, and he felt peaceful, just for a moment. Then he was back to worrying about his two loves, his fiancé and his niece. Marah was out like a light, so Adam decided to leave. He walked down the hallway of the place where he was in daily, and he realized how different it was. Instead of watching crying families, he was the one crying for his loved ones. The nurses that he usually struck up a conversation with were only rushing past him, paying no attention to the man that had tears streaming down his face. To them, he was not a doctor today. He was only a person.

Adam never felt that he was above anyone, that would be ridiculous. He was simply used to being treated like he was above everyone. Now he saw the world from an unfamiliar perspective. The people that he usually tried to avoid because of their tears was him. Instead of rushing from patient to patient, he was walking with his head down, stressing about his fiancé and niece. He was another person in the world, and nobody thought it was out of the ordinary to see his tears. The hospital was a place of loss, it was normal. For him, however, it was anything but normal.

A trail of blood was smeared across the bland-colored hospital floor, and a team of nurses and custodians rushed to clean it up. A teenage girl was passed out in the middle of the hallway, her arms lined with cuts. Her heavy eyeliner was smeared across her face, and her black clothes were soaked in her own blood, turning them a shade darker. Her father shouted for any person to come help her, for one of the doctors to save his little girl. She was a delicate flower, and her father saw past her eyeliner and piercings. Her teenage rebellion, related to her depression and anxiety, had been too much for her, but not for him. He still loved her unconditionally. Adam realized all of this at once, and he rushed to pick up the girl. Through his tears, he brought her to a hospital room. Her father followed promptly, unable to control his sobs. Many nurses chased after Adam, for they had not realized that he was the doctor that they worked with every day. He was simply a man there that had been crying, and they paid him no attention until now.

“Doctor…?” a woman asked him, but she got no reply. Adam was too busy bandaging the teen’s arms. He completely ignored his coworker, and he focused on the process of wrapping. Over, under. Over, under. Pressure. Adam thought out every step, not wanting to interact with anyone. He kept the father’s screaming in his head, and soon heard a woman yelling for her daughter, for her husband. The man sat on the floor with his hands over his head, shouting at God, who could most likely hear his screaming prayers.

Adam continued to keep the voices distant and only focused on keeping this precious girl alive. He yelled orders to nurses, without processing what he said. It was nothing new, but the feeling he was having was something he hadn’t felt in a long time. Adam felt calm. Not because he knew what he was doing, or because he knew the girl would live. She had lost a lot of blood, and he wasn’t sure if she would make it. However, he felt as calm as he had ever felt. He wasn’t thinking, he was just doing what he knew he had to. He understood the pain that these parents felt now, for Marah was his little girl, and he knew that he would die if she was gone.

This teenager was as dainty as a tulip, as a rose. Perhaps she was abused by her boyfriend, or even by the man that sobbed for her now. Her cuts were lined up like a ladder, and there was a large one going down the middle of them all. Adam had her hooked up to everything, and her arms had stopped emitting blood. Her heart rate was low, but he knew that she would live. His feet guided him to the station where he always washed at in these scenarios, and his hands knew to change him into different scrubs and wash themselves. Adam stared blankly ahead in the mirror before him, and he sobbed. He sobbed for the girl he had just saved, for his fiancé and his niece. He sobbed for the parents that had to witness their daughter go through so much pain, and for all those who cried at this hospital. Somebody had to cry for them.

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