Page 171 of Broken
“Well, in order to make sure you’re safe, I need to know what he looks like. Do you remember?”
Ethan went back to coloring, and a heavy silence fell over them.
“Did he have light hair or dark hair?” Prescott asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you remember if he was tall?” Prescott pushed.
More silence.
“He made scary faces and I told him no, but he just laughed at me.” Ethan’s tone had become indignant. “Mommy said the faces were funny, but I didn’t like them.”
The silence continued for a few more minutes.
“Ethan,” Prescott said. “I’m sorry that he scared you. If you ever see him, you tell me right away and I will make sure he doesn’t come near you, okay?”
“Okay.”
Prescott’s gaze slid to hers. She offered an encouraging smile.
Tossing a nod toward her picture, he asked, “Is that us?”
“Sure is,” she replied. “That’s Uncle Prescott and that’s Ethan. That’s me and this is Loki.”
After studying her drawing, Ethan giggled. “Uncle Prescott is soooo big and Loki, he’s tiny.”
“That’s how I see us,” she said with a smile.
“We look like a happy family to me,” Prescott said. “What do you think, Ethan?”
“My friends have a mommy and a daddy. A girl in my room hastwomommies. I don’t have a mommyora daddy.”
“Ohmygod,” Jacqueline whispered.
“You do have a family,” Prescott said. “You have me. You have Nana and Papa. You have Uncle Nicky and Aunt Addison, and Aunt Kerri and Uncle Lamar.”
A tear streaked down Jacqueline’s cheek. She had to do something to brighten the somber moment, so she extracted a large box from the coat closet, walked past them, and placed it on the throw rug in the family room.
“Hey, guys,” she said. “Come check this out.”
Loki zoomed over. She rubbed his ears, then told him to sit. Prescott eased onto the sofa, but Ethan stood beside her. After opening the shipping box, she smiled at him.
Ethan squealed with delight. “There is so many things!”
Even with Loki’s face buried in the box, Ethan extracted three picture books, a backyard obstacle course designed for toddlers, and two doggie toys.
Ethan offered Loki the pull toy. He collected it in his mouth and trotted over to Prescott.
“Well, we know who Loki loves,” Jacqueline said.
Jacqueline knew that “things” would never make up for the loss Ethan had endured, and that love would help him heal. But she wanted to move him past a scary memory. If anyone knew how paralyzing those were, it was her.
Ethan had pulled out the large obstacle course, still in its clear plastic packaging. “What’s this?”
As Prescott explained it, Ethan started jumping up and down. Then, he ran over to Jacqueline and hugged her. “Fank you. Let’s go outside and play!”
“I’m so happy you like it,” she replied.
