Her Mother’s Grave

Chapter Fourteen

JOSIE – SIX YEARS OLD

Josie’s mother paced the cramped curtained area. One hand pressed against her heart while the other clutched a tissue, dabbing at the tears that fell freely from worried eyes. Josie stared at her, shocked and confused to see her mother cry for the very first time.

“I was sleeping,” she explained. “I woke up to go to the bathroom and went in to check on JoJo. She wasn’t in her bed, so I searched the trailer. Didn’t find her. The back door was unlocked, so I got a flashlight and went looking for her. I found her lying on the ground in the woods, covered in blood.” A wail tore from her throat. “My baby. My little baby. She was just co-co-covered in it.”

Josie glanced at the two nurses watching her mother cry, their faces unreadable.

“She must have fallen,” Josie’s mother went on. “I mean, it was dark and those woods are filled with trash and glass, all kinds of things children can hurt themselves on.”

“Did you ask her what happened?” one of the nurses asked in the same kind of voice Josie’s kindergarten teacher used when the students didn’t put all their stuff into their cubbyholes.

“Of-of course I did,” Josie’s mother said. “She told me she fell. That’s how I know she fell.”

The two nurses exchanged a skeptical look. Then one of them said, “The doctor will be in soon.”

They left, one of them tossing a concerned look over her shoulder at Josie before disappearing through the curtain.

Seconds later, Josie’s chin was gripped tightly in her mother’s hand, fingers squeezing against the bone and pulling at the skin around her wound. Her eyes watered with the pain. “Mo-mommy,” she gasped.

Her mother’s blue eyes were almost black with fury. When she spoke in an angry whisper, spittle sprayed across Josie’s nose. “You don’t say one fucking word, you got that?”

“You told lies.” Josie squeaked through the part of her mouth that was still mobile.

Her mother’s fingers tightened, making Josie feel like her face would tear apart.

“I told you to shut up. Not one word. What I say is what happened, you got that? If you tell one person—just one person—what happened, you’re going into the closet. Forever. And Daddy and Gram won’t be able to save you. You understand that?”

Fear set her entire body into a quiver, and she felt a hot wetness spread down her legs and through her nightdress. She whispered, “I promise.” At last, her mother let go, moving to the other side of the room to peek through the curtain. Hugging herself, Josie wished she had thought to bring Wolfie. Then she remembered—the last time she saw him he had been lying just out of reach in a puddle of her blood on the kitchen floor.