Sally spent Monday morning thinking about the previous evening.
When her daughters had arrived home from their father’s apartment Sunday night, Sally had seen the oldest rush silently from the cold gleaming black car parked out front clearly in distress. Quickly she had learned that her sweet girl had been in search of Mommy’s loving touch. With the other two girls left behind and Ted looking flabbergasted, embarrassed, and confused on the front sidewalk, Sally had heard the twelve year old tear through the house on her search, leaving the front door wide open.
Oh no, what happened? Sally had thought, they must’ve been at each other’s throats all weekend!!
She had been in Jordan’s (and now Mindi’s) room straightening up when the girl had burst through the door and literally jumped into her arms, legs straddled around either side of her waist, and long arms wrapped around her back. Sally had quickly lost her balance and fallen back on the bed under her adult-sized pre-teen daughter’s mass. Jordan had completely collapsed her full body weight into her Mom’s care. It had been a maneuver Sally might’ve expected from the 2 ½ year old (and more easily manageable) but from her 145lb twelve year old, it was a shock not only physically, but because of the emotional turmoil it clearly represented.
Turning to the side on the bed, Sally had stroked her girl’s hair and rocked her back and forth tenderly. Jordan had clung tightly to her mom in the same position, shaking slightly. Not wanting Ted to see Jordan in that state, Sally had whispered softly to Jordan that she had to momentarily take care of her sisters…that she promised she’d be right back. The regressed-girl had resisted and Sally had become slightly firmer with the instruction before prying her way from Jordan’s death-grip.
Once Sally had returned to the bedroom (after having received a passing report from her estranged husband and setting up the two other girls in the living room with toys and a video), Jordan appeared to be in the fetal position in bed mumbling and rocking herself. Once sally had sat back down and begun rubbing her daughter’s back once more, she had heard the substance of the mumble.
“I’ll never go back…I’ll never go back…I’ll never go back…I’ll never go back…I’ll never go back…” Jordan had repeated over and over again without hardly taking a breath. Eyes wide open, glazed, and looking straight ahead.
What in the…? What did they do to her? This is ridiculous. Sally had thought to herself. Right now clearly isn’t the time to interrogate, but I AM gonna get to the bottom of this.
For twenty minutes or a half hour, Sally had massaged her daughter’s back, stroked her hair, and patted her hip as she lay silently and rocked. Even though it had only been 6 in the evening, the sun had long been down in the Seattle winter and so Sally chose to slowly begin moving – motherly and tenderly (but cautiously) getting her daughter ready for bed.
Because she hadn’t known what had happened, Sally didn’t know how Jordan would react to the kind of help that she had been giving in the weeks prior – but in her current state of apparent stress and shock, Sally figured she’d be fine to proceed. After Sally had carefully closed the bedroom door for privacy, her girl hadn’t resisted or moved a muscle to help in the process of disrobing from shoes to parka…or from diapering. The only reaction Sally had noticed before she tucked the hapless girl in under the fluffy white bedspread was a single tear running down her cheek as Sally had gently taped up her soft diaper.
Almost instantly as Sally had quietly closed the bedroom door, her affect shifted to rage.
That man – ooooohhh!!! – THAT MAN!!! She had steamed and shaken her head as she walked back down the hall.