[Sticks]

Prologue

When our universe was formed, it was one of the first membrane universes to do so, and as such pretty much had a free hand to develop as it did so.

(A short clip)

Youtube video

Much later as humanity developed, in the spaces between the undulating membrane universes another one formed, but this one was influenced in ways unfathomable, by our universe. Even time in that universe was accelerated and ran at a different rate to ours. Humanity in our universe by this time had a collective unconscious and as these membrane universes can be as close to each other as a few centimetres and somehow our collective unconscious influenced what beings would be there.

Some of these being who lived in that universe developed awareness of our existence, and the link through the thoughts of humanity allowed some to cross to and forth. But when the first crossings started, the mismatch between the rates that time flowed in each universe, were also synchronised by means unknown, and from then we and they moved in a lockstep. As time passed on our world and theirs, the clouds that formed their world, patterned on our thoughts, fantasies and fears dispersed, and soon this universe, dubbed by the inhabitants as the Mystical Realms became a universe, almost like ours, with beings on a planet, much like ours, orbiting a binary star system with four moons. As our world was governed by science and technology, so theirs was governed by myth and magic, with every fantasy creature man had devised in his dark imaginings given form.

It was only a matter of time, before the two worlds clashed, and sagas were told of those clashes. Eventually the forces of law and order, the trolls, big mean humanoid creatures, and those secret government forces in our world joined forces to help minimise interference in each other’s affairs, and for the most part they were successful.

However, the genie was out of the bottle, if you pardon the expression and various beings had been to and fro between their world and ours. Some of them appeared like normal humans with special powers but it was our collective unconsciousness that had given form to abstract values both malign and beneficent and had brought about their existence. The ancients revered these beings as deities, and some of them got drunk on this adulation and did nothing to dissuade their worshipers of the errors of their ways.

But then as mankind developed, he learned the ways of science and engineering and cast off the ancient gods they had worshiped, and these beings based on abstract values were defined as major spirits of vice and virtue. Most of them having seen mankind grow-up, had accepted that they had to take on new names. Only one refused to accept this and tried to hold on to the position of an ancient god, but he was eventually imprisoned by the trolls.

These major spirits then roamed between their world and ours, and when in ours, in human form had relations with unsuspecting people and from these relations children were born, mostly to the humans, although there was one case where twins were born to a major spirit of virtue. Either way, the children of these unions were half-breeds and were afforded the designation of minor spirits of vice or virtue, although the spirits of virtue were more successful in their breeding with humans, so minor spirits of vice were incredibly rare.

Most of the minor spirits lived here in our world with their human parents, if they were still around, sometimes with names that in an ancient tongue mean the virtue that they represent, and most had no idea that they were not fully human. They had empathic abilities related to their virtue, but they had no human soul. It is said, that if a spirit of virtue, or indeed a minor spirit of vice were offered the choice of being mortal and fully human, or remaining as a minor spirit, their human part will always win out. Minor Spirits have one common hearts desire, to be rid of their minor spirit status, to obtain their human soul and be fully human.

When the trolls discovered this, and to reduce interference with the world of mortals, they employed the elves, the workers of magic to fashion special talismans of permanence that would, if a minor spirit held one and indicated the desire to be human then it would remove their power and grant them their human soul, making them forever a normal human mortal, with the talisman being consumed by this process. With greater co-operation between the trolls and those from the secret government agencies in our world, they worked together to track down the minor spirits to assist them become human, and so removing them as a potential problem to all sides

One such minor spirit went by the human name of Rebecca Sands, her first name in the ancient tongue of Hebrew meant kindness, and so she was the Spirit of Kindness, the result of a mortal female and the major Spirit of Friendship. Alas her father was murdered by a major spirit of vice in the Mystical Realms. It was at the hands of a government agency that she took the opportunity offered her to become fully human.

Once the deed was done, and this spirit of virtue had become plain Rebecca Sands, because of certain tragic circumstances in her short life, she had just turned eleven and her mother had recently died, she was sent to start a new life with her uncle and his family, who were very decent and loving and eager to give Rebecca a new home. To some who would have followed the human side of her existence it would seem like a “happy ever after” resolution, but as every one knows, “Happy ever after” needs work and sometimes it can be a long and fraught journey.

And so, this former minor spirit of virtue was about to embark on a long journey, and not just the one on a transatlantic flight from her native home in England to the United States of America, but hopefully a journey to love, happiness and acceptance leaving behind a life of, fear and sadness, with a touch of guilt. However, things were not going to be as simple as Rebecca would have hoped…

[Sticks]

Episode I – Unfortunate Beginnings

It had been a strange day for Rebecca and a disconcerting one, but now she was getting tired as the plane on which she was flying on levelled off at its cruising altitude, and she could hardly keep her eyes open.

Beside her sat a woman in her late twenties or early thirties, the others on the plane referred to her as corporal McCaskey, although she had told Rebecca her first name was Tania and had told her it was ok for her to call her that, but Rebecca had been brought up not to use the first names of adults, so always referred to her with the prefix Miss or corporal. Tania let it slide as clearly that was what the child was most comfortable with and part of her job was to keep Rebecca as happy as possible, and to accompany her until she could deliver her to her Uncle and his family.

Rebecca looked out at the top of the clouds, then around at the rest of the cabin. There was the odd man here or there, but apart from her, Tania and the flight attendants, they were the only females on the flight.

Rebecca was very much in awe of what was going on around her.

All this empty space on the aircraft?

Just for her?

Just to take her to live with her uncle Matthew, his wife Susan and their son Frank in New Hampshire?

It was so incredible how her fortunes seemed to have turned around.

“This must be your first flight in an aeroplane” Corporal McCaskey told her
“Yes Miss McCaskey” Rebecca nodded, and then tried to stifle a yawn
“I’ve flown loads of times Rebecca, but never in such a nice plane as this one”
“Yes Miss McCaskey” Rebecca replied, then yawned again; fatigue was setting in, “Sorry Miss McCaskey” she apologised
“That’s ok Rebecca” the corporal told her, “it was quite late when we brought you in to the Facility and I understand the helicopter woke you up”
Rebecca just nodded, these Americans were being nice to her, so she did not want to come across as being ungrateful, and continued to try and stay awake, watching the clouds pass underneath, looking around the cabin, anything, but it was getting harder,

The corporal could see that Rebecca was fighting a loosing battle, so she suggested to Rebecca that it would be alright if she wanted to catch up on sleep and then called over the flight attendant and asked for a blanket for Rebecca. Once the blanket was duly delivered she then helped adjust Rebecca’s seat, so she could be in a better position for sleeping and then placed the blanket over her and wished her sweet dreams.

Rebecca then drifted off to sleep, still not believing how her luck had changed in the space of two days from the rock bottom she felt she had crashed to….

…..oo0Ooo….

Rebecca had lived what seemed a standard normal life until she was four, when her father left, never to be seen again. She could hardly remember him and secretly she had felt she must have been so naughty that he had walked out on her and her mother. Since then, she always afraid of not doing as she was told, because she did not want her mother walking out on her as well.

Also she had never known her grandparents on either her father’s side or her mother’s side. When she once asked when she was eight why she never saw them, her mother just told her that she had once had an argument with them, but she did not say over what, and that was the reason Rebecca never heard from them. From then on, Rebecca was afraid to argue with anyone, and usually caved in first or removed herself from the field of conflict.

The only person she heard from was her uncle Matthew in America, and he even wrote letters to her personally and she would write back, until her mother’s boyfriend, Jim put a stop to it.

Rebecca did not like Jim, as he made her feel uncomfortable, but they had been forced to live with him for quite a long time. One day Rebecca and her mother were living in their own council flat in Slough and someone came round and took their furniture away and also her toys, her mother just told her it was because she owed someone a lot of money, again Rebecca kept thinking it was all her fault, and cried herself to sleep on the one mattress they were left with. Then her mother told her that they were being evicted and after that, they moved in with Jim.

Jim was always telling her mother what to do, and would demand that she go and visit some of his friends. Her mother never told her what it was for. Sometimes Jim would hit her mother, and also threaten to hit her as well, if she did not do as she was told or did not bring Jim enough money, again where her mother was getting it, she never said. Her mother would never leave him. When Rebecca was nine, she asked why they could not get away from Jim, but her mother in her sad voice just asked Rebecca, “Where else could we go? We don’t have anything” and then begged Rebecca never to raise that idea, especially in Jim’s presence.

Rebecca had once noticed that Jim did have a computer and lots of camera equipment. Often she would see other men come in to the house, sometimes with other children, but then her mother would drag her away into a bedroom and just hold her crying. Rebecca hated to see her mother cry and could not understand why; she usually ended up telling her mother that what ever she did, she was sorry, but her mother would tell her that it was not her. Rebecca was very confused and like her mother afraid of Jim, but what could they do. Jim owned them.

When Rebecca had turned ten, Jim turned his attention to her. He would put his hand on her shoulder and tell her, that she would turn a number of his “friends” heads. He even suggested one evening when her mother was out working, what at, again she never said, he suggested playing something called strip poker. When he explained the rules, Rebecca hated the idea, but was frightened to say anything. She was only saved from having to comply with Jim’s sick fantasy when a pair of Jehovah’s witnesses knocked on the door. While he was distracted by them, Rebecca ran to her room and sat against the door and wept. When her mother came home she wanted to tell him, but her mother had been beaten up again so Rebecca said nothing.

Often Jim would take pictures of her, and would ask her to blow kisses at them. Again when her mother was working, he demanded that she change into her swimming costume. Rebecca had a proper decent one piece swimming costume, so she had changed into that in her room, crying as she did so. It did not feel right. But Jim was not happy and presented her with a bikini. Rebecca was about to go to her room to change, when Jim told her to just change in front of him while he tried out a new camera. Rebecca knew that was not right, because all men and all women were separated when they changed at the swimming baths, but Jim was prone to violence. Rebecca had hesitated and Jim then offered to help, just then some Mormons came round.

It seemed miraculous, just when Jim was about to make her do something unpleasant, random strangers would call, and Rebecca could make her escape. This time she did tell her mother, and her mother said she would speak to Jim, and asked her not to anger him. After that, Jim was not that blatant about his actions towards Rebecca, but made plenty of innuendos and from time to time would touch her shoulder or her leg. Rebecca would just try and hide in her room. She even wanted to stay with friends, just to get away from Jim, but her friend’s parents would tell their children to have nothing to do with Rebecca, because of what her mother did for a living, what ever that was. So Rebecca was trapped.

Just when she thought it could not get any worse, her mother was assaulted by one of Jim’s so called friends and had to go into hospital. Rebecca went to the hospital straight after school, but the nurse would not let her see her mother as she had to have an adult with her, and the thought of being on her own in Jim’s car terrified her. Then she heard news she had not even contemplated, her mother had fallen ill with something called MRSA, and even though she prayed, her mother got sicker and died. Rebecca wanted to tell her uncle, but again Jim vetoed it.

Rebecca hid herself in her room crying; mercifully Jim did not bother her that week, besides he had quite a number of friends who chose to visit him in the run up to the funeral.

Rebecca then wanted to tell her school teacher about Jim, but her normal teacher was down with the flu and the substitute was irritable and of the old school of “Children should be seen and not heard”, so Rebecca felt even more isolated and desperate. Again her requests to let her uncle know about his sister’s death before the funeral so that he could come across were angrily refused; possibly because her uncle would have taken her back with him. Jim now had Rebecca where he wanted her it seemed, in his clutches to be made to do the things he wanted her to do, with his friends or on camera

Then it was the day of the funeral.

The service was held at a local crematorium which Rebecca attended alongside Jim and some of his Friends. It was moving and Rebecca was crying through out the service. Then they were to go to the wake, and while they were waiting to get there, Jim sidled up to Rebecca and told her, that if she was under his roof, she had to start doing some of the things he wanted her to do or else. Rebecca was terrified, and to think, he had said this to her, just after her mother’s funeral.

As she rode to the wake, Rebecca sat in stunned silence, not believing how things had gone so terribly wrong for her, everyone else thought she was just grieving her dead mother and were telling her that Jim had promised to “look after her” now and not to worry. Then they came to the venue, a pub near to a railway station. Rebecca had been there once before, and as far as she remembered there was no ticket barrier, so she waited for Jim to be distracted, and quietly slipped around the corner of the pub.

Then she made a dash for it, and got to the entrance to the station entrance, and looked back. Jim was still surrounded by his friends commiserating with him. They had not noticed that she had gone.

Rebecca heard an announcement on the station public address system about the arrival of a train bound for London Paddington, so quickly, she jumped aboard.

The train was busy, so Rebecca managed to hide in the toilets, to keep away from the guard. It was one of the most terrifying rides of her life, she half expected to be arrested by the police, but she never was. Finally she reached London Paddington and got off the train and wandered to the exit, but for some reason, she was allowed through. No one questioned her.

It was now mid afternoon, and Rebecca was hungry, and she had no money and no place to stay. She was just one of the hundreds of children who run away each year to London. So Rebecca just walked and walked, deeper in to London, still feeling hungry, looking nervously at any police officer or police car, just in case they picked her up and sent her straight back to Jim.

Eventually, Rebecca found a place behind a fast food restaurant, perhaps she could sleep there for the night. She sneaked in to use the toilet, and on her way out, an elderly woman suddenly told her that she looked like she was starving, and insisted on buying her a meal. Rebecca thanked her and ate it, but then she saw a police officer come in to the store, panicked and went and hid in the lavatory, until he had gone. When she came out, the lady who had been nice to her had also gone, and so Rebecca left and went walking until she found another spot to doss down for the night.

As Rebecca started to live on the streets of London, she felt really awful. She only had the clothes she was wearing from the funeral, and they were not warm and were grubby, but what could she do. She had found a pen in the street and on a piece of card she had found, she wrote “Hungry and Homeless” and sat down.

To her surprise, people actually gave her money, all be it loose change, or would buy her food, but she was always on the lookout, lest the police catch her and return her to Jim. She was a runaway after all, and nobody would believe her if she said what Jim was doing. In fact Jim had told her that they would think she was lying and making things up, as that is what children did. The best strategy Rebecca could think of was to keep on the move. If someone helped her, she would politely thank them, and move away sharpish.

Rebecca spent a week and a half living rough in the Streets of London

Then something happened to make her think that her running away had all been for naught.
One evening as she was looking for a place to stay in an alleyway, a man in a long coat approached her and called her out by name, in an American accent.

Jim had sent one of his friends to find her and bring her back, Rebecca thought.

Rebecca turned around, to find a woman in her late twenties or early thirties who also knew her name and was also American.

Rebecca was trapped between the two of them and dropped to her knees in despair, crying, “please no”, but the woman came and gently knelt down and hugged her, and told her that they were not going to hurt her and then lifted her to her feet,

The man then told her she had to come with them. Rebecca had asked if they were taking her back to Slough, and the man said no, they were to take her to a place in North London, called The Facility. The woman then told Rebecca that they were there to help her and promised to give her food, a shower, clean clothes and a safe place to stay. As Rebecca was tired, hungry and desperate for clean clothes, she quietly gave the lady, her hand and meekly went with the couple to a big black car. They even had a child seat fitted to her side. Rebecca sat in it and let the woman strap her in. The man got in the driver’s seat, while the woman sat next to her and held her hand saying what a good girl she was being.

As they drove along, the man introduced himself as Commander Mark Johnston of the US Marine Corps. The woman turned out to be Corporal Tania McCaskey of the US Army. They were both on special assignment, and Rebecca for some reason was part of that assignment. They made no reference to Slough or Jim, but did say that they had been trying to find her for over a week.

The couple were true to their word, and when they got in, Corporal McCaskey took her through a maze of corridors to a place where Rebecca could have a nice hot shower all by herself. She was then given a hospital style gown which was open at the back, and was given a medical exam by another American, who happened to be a lady doctor. Rebecca was then given some clean underwear and a pair of pyjamas and a jumper which she put on. The corporal then brought in a large pizza with two 500ml bottles of diet coke, which they consumed together, although the corporal made sure Rebecca ate most of the pizza, given Rebecca’s hunger a none to difficult job. After Rebecca had finished them up, she was shown a nice warm bed, which after a visit to the bathroom; she climbed into and settled down for the night.

Sleeping in a proper bed after the time she had spent sleeping rough was like heaven, and best of all, No Jim.

During the night, her sleep was disturbed by the sound of a helicopter landing, and some shouting by some men. It lasted an hour, and the rest of the night was quiet, as Rebecca tried to get back to sleep.

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In the morning, Rebecca was woken up and instructed by the corporal to have another shower, which Rebecca did. After which Rebecca found new clothes, as had been promised, they even had given her a nice warm grey hooded top.

The corporal then took her to a mess hall where they had breakfast together, and then the corporal explained that she had to appear before the acting director of the Facility, one Colonel Samuel Peters. This made Rebecca worried; why “appear before the acting director”, did this mean she had done something wrong? Was she in trouble?

Before they left the mess hall, Commander Mark arrived and joined them. He seemed much nicer and was a lot kinder than Jim.

All of a sudden another man entered with what appeared to be two security guards. This man identified himself as Mr Carvel and told the corporal and the commander that Rebecca had to put on manacles and a blindfold in accordance with some procedure. This man seemed a lot like Jim.

“Oh no” Rebecca uttered
“Oh no your not” The corporal told Carvel and put a protective arm around Rebecca.
“It is policy” Insisted Carvel
“It’s not US policy Carvel” The commander insisted, “and guess who is running the show at the moment”
“You are, of course” Carvel admitted
“Now take those things away and get lost” the Commander told him
“As you wish” Carvel replied and then left

Commander Mark then informed the corporal that the colonel was busy with another interrogation, and asked, as McCaskey had been a family liaison officer and had looked after army cadets, could she keep Rebecca occupied for a while. Corporal was only too happy to agree, and then the commander left them.

For the next hour or so, the two talked about their respective upbringings, and for much of the time, the corporal held her arm around Rebecca as Rebecca tearfully recounted her life story. The last part was a justification about running away and how Jim had made her feel uncomfortable and how she did not want to go back to him because she was frightened of him.

Then it was time for the colonel to speak to Rebecca and Corporal McCaskey lead Rebecca to the lift, then up in the lift to a series of rooms, and then to a brightly lit interview room.

There was a table with three chairs by a big mirror. The single chair had its back to the mirror; the other two chairs faced the mirror across the table. Corporal McCaskey sat down on the chair on the right and Rebecca sat on the other one, nervously swinging her legs forward and back.

Just then the door to the interview room opened and a fifty or so year old man with a close cut haircut entered the room. This had to be Colonel Samuel Peters. Corporal McCaskey stood to attention and saluted; Rebecca nervously looked at her and stood up as well.
“At ease McCaskey and you Rebecca” the Colonel said
Colonel Peters sat down, but the corporal and Rebecca stayed standing, Rebecca thought it was best to follow McCaskey’s lead as she thought she was in enough trouble already.
The colonel looked up at them “Sorry, you can sit down as well”
McCaskey then sat down, closely followed by Rebecca
“Am I in trouble sir?” Asked Rebecca, her voice touched with fear of this very important man
“Why do you think that Rebecca?” asked the Colonel. He seemed to be trying to be as kind as possible
“Because the lady here and the man said I had to come with them” Rebecca replied, “and because I had run away from my mum’s boyfriend”
“Why did you run away Rebecca?”
“My mum got sick and died and he wanted me to do things that didn’t feel right. He tried to get me to do those things before my mum got sick, but I did not want to say anything because he was the only man she had since my dad deserted us, and we had nowhere else to stay” Then Rebecca got scared that perhaps they were going to send her back to Jim after all, after all Jim in the run up to the funeral had told the neighbours that he would “Look after Rebecca”
Rebecca thought that this was the only chance she had to plead her case, that she did not want to go back to the man that had so frightened her and had hurt her mother on a number of times. So wound up did she become that she broke down as she pleaded “Please don’t make me go back to him, please”

Rebecca then felt the corporal’s arm, lovingly put around her and she allowed the corporal to hug her. Somehow she felt safe with her.
“It’s ok Rebecca” the corporal reassured her, “you are not going to be sent back to that man, with what we know, we won’t allow it”, she then handed a tissue to Rebecca to wipe her eyes.

When Rebecca had recovered Colonel Peters continued “Rebecca, that man will never hurt you again” the colonel reassured her, “In fact he is going to go to jail for a very long time with what we got on him”
“Thank you sir” Rebecca responded. “What is going to happen to me now sir?”
“That depends on the answers you give me” Colonel Peters answered
“Sir?” Rebecca replied, still terrified that she might still be in trouble
“Why did you not go to the police, if you were having to sleep rough?”
“I thought because I had run away, they might make me go back to my mum’s boyfriend sir”
“When you were on the streets, how did you find food to eat”
“I just sat on the pavement with a sign saying hungry and homeless and people just gave me money or they brought me food”
“Really Rebecca, was anyone ever mean to you, told you to get lost or accused you of being a thief”
“No sir?”
“So Rebecca everyone was naturally kind to you?”
“Yes sir”
“Does that not seem odd to you Rebecca, after all not everyone is kind”
“But sir they were. I never had any trouble sir” Rebecca insisted
“Rebecca, have you ever seen one of these before” Colonel Peters asked and produced what looked like a small silver hand held mirror with some kind of gothic design.
“No sir” she answered
“It is what we call a mirror of detection” Colonel Peters explained and handed it to Rebecca, and as she took it, the mirror suddenly glowed with an orange light, “Now hand it to the corporal” the colonel instructed her.
As the corporal took the mirror and Rebecca let go of it, the mirror returned to being silver. The corporal then handed it to Colonel Peters who put it down on the table in front of him.
“Rebecca, it was only when you touched it, that it reacted, do you know what that means”
“No sir, is it magic?” Rebecca asked
“That’s one way of putting it Rebecca” Colonel Peters explained, “This device reacts if the person handling it is not really human”
“I don’t understand, I’m just a girl” Rebecca replied, now confused
“Pick it up and examine the mirror, see if you can find any wires, hidden batteries or chemicals or anything else that will make it glow”

Rebecca felt very upset, what was going on?

Rebecca prodded the small mirror and as soon as she touched it, it instantly glowed with an orange light again. “What am I, I thought I was just a girl” she whined
“Rebecca, do you remember your father?” Colonel Peters asked
“Only vaguely sir, he deserted us when I was four. I always kept wondering if it was my fault”
“Rebecca it was not your fault, your father was not really human either, he was what we call a major spirit of virtue, he just appeared in human form when he met and fell in love with your mother and when she had you. Your father was made to return to where he originally came from and later was murdered. He did not desert you; he left because he had no choice”

Rebecca shook her head in bewilderment and then put her head in her hands and started to sob again. Corporal McCaskey again put her arm around her and Rebecca leaned against her. “I kept hoping I would find him again some day that was the other reason I ran away” Rebecca sobbed.

After about a minute Colonel Peters spoke to Rebecca again as she was still leaning against the corporal “Rebecca, you asked what you were, if not a girl”
“Yes” Rebecca tearfully replied
“Well as your farther was this major spirit of virtue and your mother was just a normal human woman like the corporal here, so you are what is called a minor spirit of virtue. The reason people were kind to you because you are the Spirit of Kindness, or to put it another way, the embodiment of kindness in human form. You were putting out a field that made people show kindness to you whether they wanted to or not. Do you think it’s right to control people’s minds like that Rebecca?”
“No sir, Sorry sir, I never meant to hurt anyone, I just want to be human I just want to be a normal girl” Rebecca tearfully replied.

Rebecca now felt really guilty, she never meant to harm anyone and now this man was telling her that she was some kind of strange spirit being that controlled people’s mind. She wanted no part of it, it was wrong. What were they going to do with her? Were they going to punish her some how for what she did, just to survive. She had been right all along, she was in trouble.

The Colonel fished in his pocket for some item, it looked like a small disc of obsidian with markings



“Rebecca if you want to be human and just a normal girl, maybe we can help you with that, assuming, you really want that” Colonel Peters told Rebecca, as he handed her the obsidian disc.

Rebecca sat up straight and leaned forward and automatically took the talisman without thinking about it, in her left hand from the colonel, then she whined “But I do sir, I don’t want to be some kind of spirit thing, I don’t want to hurt anyone, I just want to be human, I just want to be a girl”

At that plea ball of yellow light erupt from the talisman in Rebecca’s hand. As the ball of yellow light expanded to engulf the chid at the table, the corporal jumped off of her chair to keep clear, but Colonel Peters just sat there

“What’s happening” Rebecca cried out in alarm
“It’s ok Rebecca, it’s perfectly safe” the colonel told her.

Rebecca froze in terror as this yellow light engulfed her, and she felt a tingling through her whole body. Then the ball of light turned into a ring of yellow light and started to rise to the ceiling as Rebecca gazed up at it.

Suddenly the ring shattered, and Rebecca spotted a ball of white light floating down towards her. Rebecca then noticed the door open and another young women in the now open doorway with the commander behind her, but then the ball of whit light hit her and every thing went black.

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Rebecca started to come round and she felt woozy, there was also some feeling of completeness that she had never felt before.
“What happened?” Rebecca whimpered, and then noticed that the other young women was holding her and had obviously prevented her from falling out of the chair. As Rebecca sat up the woman came around behind her and then sat next to her, as the corporal was now standing up, and then the woman put a comforting arm across her shoulders. Instinctively Rebecca sensed that she was a nice lady, and they smiled at each other.

The colonel interrupted, “Rebecca, sorry I did not get a chance to warn you that would happen”, then he explained, “that talisman I passed you helped you become human and just a normal girl like you wanted, because it sensed that it was what you truly desired”
Rebecca looked at her left hand, there was just ash, then at Colonel Peters, and in a terrified panic told Colonel Peters “Sorry sir, I did not mean to break it” Rebecca was on the brink of tears, fearing once again she was in trouble for breaking it.
“Rebecca, that ok, it’s meant to do that when it’s done its job, and you didn’t break it” Colonel Peters reassured her

Rebecca looked back at the woman sitting next to her
The woman introduced her self, “hi Rebecca, my name is Jenny Green”, the woman said in a clear Geordie accent
“Hello Miss Green” Rebecca replied nervously,
Jenny told Rebecca “Please call me Jenny” Then Jenny turned to the Colonel, I know a few people who could take Rebecca in, please let me take her home back north.

Rebecca liked this woman, and after all she had nothing left in Slough, so a new life in the north did not seem so bad, but then Colonel Peters looked at Rebecca and then at Jenny, “That’s very kind of you Jenny, but we have something slightly better in mind for Rebecca” Then he turned to Rebecca, “Rebecca, did you know you had an uncle”
Rebecca nodded, “Mum told me about him, but my uncle lives with his wife and son in New Hampshire, when Mum was sick her boyfriend would not allow me to contact him, and he would not allow me to speak to him until after the funeral so my uncle never came across. I don’t know if he sent for me because I ran away to get away from mum’s boy friend as soon as I could after the funeral. I would liked to have gone and stayed with my uncle but there is no way I could get there now”

Rebecca looked at the table wistfully, living with her uncle, was just the impossible dream, the North East of England would have to suffice.

Colonel Peters leaned back in his chair, “I would not be too sure about that Rebecca, Mark have you got the other item”
“Sure Sam” Commander Mark replied and pulled from his jacket, a small book and handed it to Rebecca. Rebecca was amazed, it was a US passport, with all her details and a photo of her they had got from somewhere.
The colonel then went on “Because your mother had dual British and US citizenship, and uncle has now applied to be your legal guardian, we managed to persuade certain branches of the US government to grant you full US citizenship as well”
“Thank you sir” Rebecca replied, “but I don’t have the money to get over there”
“Rebecca, Corporal McCaskey will be escorting you on a special US Air Force flight to the US today leaving from Luton airport” Colonel Peters told her, smiling as he did so, “Us marines do not leave our own behind”
“Thank you Colonel Sir” Rebecca said to Colonel Peters, and then Rebecca turned to Jenny, “Thank you for thinking of me Miss Jenny”

The Corporal came round to Rebecca’s left and held out her hand, Rebecca took it and stood up to go with the corporal.
“Mark, could you drive McCaskey and Rebecca to the airport please I have other matters to attend to with Captain Strang” Colonel Peters asked, then added, “and take Jenny with you, maybe you can have that dinner you spoke of after you have made sure McCaskey and Rebecca have got away safely”
“It would be a pleasure Sam, but first of all I have something else for Jenny” Then the Commander handed Jenny a visitors badge, “just to annoy that Mr Carvel”
Jenny took it, thanked the commander and attached it to the top left pocket on the suit jacket she was wearing.

Commander Mark lead Corporal McCaskey, Rebecca and Jenny out of the room, down one corridor and then another until they reached a lift. Then after calling it, they got in and went down five levels and exited into the car park.

There to meet them was Mr Carvel, “I still think we should be treating these two” he opened with, pointing at Jenny and Rebecca, “as class A prisoners”
“I still think you are a jerk” Commander Mark responded, “Now give me the keys to the Galaxy, and there better not be any nasty surprises.
“Don’t worry Johnston” Mr Carvel sneered, “We know better than wreck one of our own vehicles, it messes up the budget” then Mr Carvel handed Commander Mark the car keys, “or upset our American overlords”. he added in a sarcastic tone.



The Ford Galaxy was black and non-descript, just like the one they had collected Rebecca in the previous day. The corporal and Rebecca got in the back and Jenny got to ride up front with Commander Mark.

They then drove out of the car park and drove to Luton Airport. Rebecca just could not believe this was happening, was she really going to see her Uncle? Was Jim really going to get his just deserts?

As Rebecca only had the clothes she stood up in, and so did the corporal, checking in was pretty swift, and as it was a special US Air Force flight, Jenny and the Commander were allowed to accompany them to Air-side. Rebecca was a mixture of excited at going to start a new life in America with her uncle’s family but apprehensive about flying and whether she would fit in over there. The corporal reassured her that her uncle and his American wife and son were eager to meet her and take her in and they were so glad she had got away from her late mother’s boyfriend.

They waited for about three quarters of an hour before the corporal and Rebecca boarded the plane, just before that Jenny and Rebecca hugged each other and Jenny told her to take care of her self and that even though they had not known each other for that long Jenny would always have a special place in her heart for the ex Spirit of Kindness. Rebecca promised she would send her a post card as soon as she got to her uncle’s home and Jenny wrote her address on a piece of paper which Rebecca put in her pocket

The Commander and the corporal saluted one another and the commander told the corporal how much he would miss working with her, then those two embraced and so Rebecca and the corporal boarded the plane.

And so here she was, sleeping next to Corporal Tania McCaskey on a US Airforce aeroplane flying to Portsmouth international Airport in New Hampshire.

…..oo0Ooo….

Rebecca started to wake up from her sleep, and felt the warm blanket over the top of her.
The corporal noticed her stirring, “Did you have a nice sleep Rebecca?” she asked smiling at her.
“Yes Miss Tania” Rebecca replied, then on feeling a certain urge asked, “May I go to the toilet please”
“Of course you can” Corporal McCaskey told her and took her to show her where the VIP facilities were.

After they had finished, they came back to their seats, luckily, Rebecca thought, they had not taken the blanket away, so she wrapped it over herself, as she was feeling cold. Outside the sun was still over the top of the clouds as they chased it on their westward flight over the Atlantic.

“Are you cold?” Corporal McCaskey asked Rebecca
Rebecca nodded and answered “A little bit”
The corporal called over one of the flight attendants and ordered a hot chocolate for Rebecca and a coffee for herself. The flight attendants also took the opportunity to serve the in-flight meal, which Rebecca found absolutely delicious. The US Air Force certainly knew how to cook.

About an hour later, a flight attendant came and spoke to the corporal, “Bad news I’m afraid” he told her
“What?” Corporal McCaskey asked, with concern in her voice.

Rebecca started to grow worried, what was going wrong with the wonderful new and better life she had been promised.

“The airport at Portsmouth is closed due to a severe weather system, so we are going to have to land at JFK in New York. The pilot says we have the fuel to make it”
“Right” McCaskey told him, “Can you contact Mr Matthew Sands and let him know”
“OK” replied the flight attendant and left to make the appropriate call.

Rebecca was still worried and the Corporal could sense it, so she put her arm around Rebecca’s shoulders, as best she could in the aeroplane seating to reassure her, “Don’t worry Rebecca, all this means is that we either stay in a hotel to wait the storm out or we take the bus or train”
“OK Miss Tania” Rebecca replied, then thought for a moment and then asked, “Does my uncle know that I was this Spirit of Kindness thing”
“Yes Rebecca, the colonel believes in full disclosure, and we also got word to him that you were a good girl and gave it up of your own free will and you became fully human with a human soul”
“And the still want me?”
“Absolutely, as I told you at the airport, your uncle is absolutely thrilled to bits, along with his wife and son that you are coming to live with them”

Rebecca took this news in silence, it was quite a relief to know that people close to her knew this as she did not want to lie or keep secrets from them, but still her past as some kind of spirit bothered her, and the guilt kept welling up inside of her
“I didn’t mean to hurt those people like the colonel said I did, Miss Tania” then Rebecca burst into tears, “I’m sorry I did not mean to hurt them”

Corporal McCaskey gave Rebecca a hug with her arm, “Rebecca, we know you would never harm anyone and the fact is you didn’t hurt any of them, you just got them to be kind to you. You did what you had to, to survive and I’m sure that if they were told about you they would be upset that they could not have helped you more than they did”
“But the colonel” Rebecca interrupted
“Rebecca the colonel was testing you, he had to, and you passed with flying colours. He and his deputy Commander Mark Johnston are two of the kindest people I have ever had the privilege to serve under”

The corporal looked at the time and then told Rebecca that it was ok if she wanted to sleep some more, which Rebecca tried to do with the comforting arm of the corporal around her.

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Rebecca was woken up again. The flight attendant needed to collect the blanket and they needed to make sure their seatbelts were done up, as they were on the landing approach to JFK airport. The aircraft was also going through turbulence as the weather front was affecting the whole of the North Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Rebecca felt frightened and clung on to Corporal McCaskey’s hand tightly.

Soon the aircraft was down and taxiing to an especially reserved terminal. The two of them were instructed to deplane for the moment and then they would call the corporal to see if they would wait and fly up to Portsmouth in New Hampshire, get the Uncle to come down to collect Rebecca or have the corporal accompany Rebecca up north. The corporal told them in that case she would have to take Rebecca shopping, as she only had the clothes she was standing up in and would need a change of clothing. McCaskey was told that would be fine, but to keep the receipts if she wanted to claim back expenses.

Corporal McCaskey took out her passport, as did Rebecca and they proceeded to immigration.

The corporal presented both passports and explained that she was accompanying Rebecca to her uncle, but the official seemed more interested in McCaskey’s passport and something on her terminal. Then the official waved at a police officer who came over and spoke with the official. Rebecca could not make out what was being said. Then the police officer took out some handcuffs and grabbed the corporal’s arm and cuffed her hands behind her back

“Tania McCaskey” he intoned, “I’m arresting you on suspicion of cheque fraud”
“What?” McCaskey said, “I’ve been in England for the eight months”
“Sorry Mam you are wanted for a cheque fraud in Miami last month on an extradition warrant from Florida” replied the police officer, who then signalled other colleagues to assist.
“This is crazy, I have been in England for the last” McCaskey insisted, but another police officer produced a stun gun
“Don’t make me use this” he told her
Corporal McCaskey looked at it, there was no use arguing and she was lead away.

Rebecca felt another hand on her shoulder, it was another police officer and he looked big and mean, and Rebecca was afraid of him.
“You missy are coming with me”, the police officer told her before cuffing her hands behind her back too.

The policeman was oblivious to her tears as he force marched the eleven year old girl through the airport, with everyone staring at her. She was then shoved into the back of a police squad car and driven to a down town police station and held in a hallway where other people were being processed.

They then interviewed her, still with the handcuffs on in a cold interrogation room about how long she had known Tania McCaskey, had she been with her to Florida, had she been helping her in cheque fraud, (whatever that was)

Rebecca tried to tell the truth, as much of it as she could, but it seemed like that they did not believe her. They then accused her of being part of some passport scam as she was carrying a US passport and clearly had a British accent, and again they refused to believe her.

Come hell or high water they were going to get her to confess to every unsolved crime on the books, so it seemed.

Then the interview was terminated as yet another official, a black woman, came in, angry at the police officer and ordered them to remove the handcuffs. She muttered something about the legalities of interviewing minors and that they had no evidence to charge her.

The police officer grudgingly released Rebecca and turned her over to the black woman, who introduced herself as Mrs Tomlinson from the New York Administration of Children’s Services, who then took Rebecca roughly by the hand and walked out of the police station to another awaiting car dragging her along.

Rebecca was then driven to a large imposing building, which she was told was a group home and ushered inside. To Rebecca, Mrs Tomlinson was more interested in a turf war with the New York Police department than her welfare, Rebecca thought it was best to keep quiet as she was frightened and confused and fearful now that she would never see her uncle after all.

Inside Rebecca was frisked by a security guard, but Rebecca only had the clothes she was wearing,

Rebecca was then asked a number of questions by members of staff

“Have you ever had any homicidal tendencies?”

“Are you a member of any street gang?”

“What drugs are you on?”

Rebecca did not have a clue what they were talking about and just kept saying “no” in a quiet and worried voice, just on the brink of crying.

Then they came to the question, “Have you ever been raped”

Rebecca was confused and asked “What’s rape”, to which they gave a full and frank explanation. Rebecca shook her head then thought for a moment and said, “That’s what my mum’s boyfriend wanted to do to me and wanted his friends to do to me as well”, and then she burst into tears, but nobody comforted her.
“So is that a yes or a no?” the worker just asked, immune to her tears and distress
With eyes streaming with tears, Rebecca just shook her head and mouthed “no”
“I can’t hear you, YES OR NO?” insisted the unsympathetic worker.
“No Miss” Rebecca replied

Rebecca was then ordered to remove all her clothes, including underwear and was given a plain white T-Shirt and set of elasticated jeans to put on instead.

Next they took Rebecca to have criminal mug shots taken, and then a medic of some description did a medical examination of her, then she was given a wash pack and ordered to shower in front of members of staff. After which Rebecca was frog marched to a dormitory with glass walls, with members of staff constantly watching her.

Rebecca sat on a bed and looked at the other girls, they were bigger than her, as Rebecca was a bit small for eleven, and the room she was in was for twelve to fifteen year olds

Rebecca felt alone and frightened as she sat on the mattress and clasped her knees with her hands, started rocking back and forth, and just wept uncontrollably.

Her new life with her uncle had been cut short and now it seemed like she would never get to see him, and worse, they seemed to consider her some kind of criminal guilty of some crime she knew not what. Maybe she thought, this was punishment for not doing what Jim wanted her to do…

To be continued

[Sticks]

Episode II – Thoughts of Darkness

It is certainly true that sometimes things do not work out as you expect them to. Sometimes it is for the better, but sometimes not. There is that famous quote, “All the plans of mice and man are oft to gang a glee”. There is always that one factor we over look, because we have been lazy or because it is a chance in a billion occurrence, which can wipe our plans out, just like a minor defect crippled the Apollo 13 mission in 1970.

This seems to have been the fate to have befallen the former Spirit of Kindness, a minor spirit of virtue, raised as a human child by the name of Rebecca Sands, who of her own free will gave up minor spirit-hood to become purely human. Because her parents are dead, one a major spirit of virtue, her father and one human, her mother and the only other adult in her life, her mother’s “boyfriend” who has turned out to be a child molester come pornographer, she was put on a plane to the US to live with her uncle and his family, however the plane they were on was diverted from New Hampshire to New York, due to weather, the corporal accompanying her has been arrested on a Florida extradition warrant for a cheque fraud that occurred there while she was in the UK.

Rebecca, meanwhile was also detained by the NYPD until grabbed by the New York Administration of Children’s Services , where she has been strip searched, questioned, given a “uniform” and place in a prison style dormitory

It certainly looks like Rebecca’s plan for a new and better life have not gone the way they should, and have run into the sand

It had been about one and a half hours since Rebecca had been processed, and she was still crying, although not as much as she had had first, but still she was whimpering.

“Hey kid, quit that racket, or I’ll give you something to really to cry about” A fifteen year old girl shouted at Rebecca. The girl looked tall and mean, and had tattoos on both her arms. Her hair was almost shorn off, Marines style.

Rebecca looked up at her in fright, “Sorry” she uttered in her weak and teary voice
“Sorry what” insisted the girl
“Sorry Miss” Rebecca ventured
“Miss?” the girl said incredulously, then grabbed Rebecca’s hair, and pulled her head back, then put her face next to Rebecca and said, “it’s Sorry Mam”
“Sorry Mam” Rebecca uttered, afraid of this young teenage bully who as a lot bigger than her.
“Now you are going to quit that racket, get off that bed, and drop and give me twenty” the teenager told Rebecca, then shouted at her “Do you hear me you little maggot”
“Yes Mam” Rebecca replied
The teenager released Rebecca’s hair and then meekly got off of the bed and started doing the press-ups that had been demanded of her between the beds. After the first one however, the teenager put her foot on Rebecca’s shoulders and violently pushed her down and held her.
“Why aren’t you giving me my twenty”, she sneered, then added, “no, it’s thirty now”
Rebecca tried to push up, but the teenager was too strong for her.
“You are pathetic” the teenager shouted at her, suddenly she took her foot off of Rebecca’s shoulders, but then with her bare foot, kicked Rebecca hard in the side of the head and then pushed her head against the floor, causing Rebecca’s nose to bleed.

Rebecca was stunned by the attack and rolled over onto her side against the bed, the teenager then bent down, put her right hand against Rebecca’s throat, “You are going to do what ever I tell you, and don’t even think of telling the staff, not that they care anyway” The teenager told her

“JENNA THAT’S ENOUGH” came another teenager’s voice

The first teenager stood up and turned round to face someone Rebecca could not see
“Get Lost Mazy” the first teenager yelled, “I saw her first”
“I said leave her alone Jenna” the teenager identified as Mazy repeated.
“I told you she is mine” Jenna the first teenager replied, then lunged out of sight, Rebecca could only presume at this Mazy who had tried to intervene on her behalf.

Suddenly there was a thump as Jenna hit the floor. Rebecca was too afraid to get up and was in pain from the attack, and was trying to wipe the blood from her face with her hands. It was already staining the T-Shirt, and she was frightened now that she would get into more trouble with the authorities for messing up the T-shirt.

She kept thinking that she should have given Jim what he wanted, and this was punishment for running away from him. Maybe it was punishment for using her powers without knowing it to get people to give her food or money for food, when she was living on the streets of London, unaware that she was a minor Spirit of virtues, the Spirit of Kindness

Rebecca could hear the clump of feet as staff members finally came in to intervene, but she just stayed there lying on the floor, wanting to cry but now too frightened, as it was obviously not acceptable to the other residents.

“OK, Jenna, that’s it” came an adult male voice, “And you too Mazy” he added
“Jenna attacked me, and the new girl, I was just defending myself” came Mazy’s voice
“That cry-baby was annoying me, and Mazy should have minded her own business” Jenna spat back

“I don’t care who started it you’re both going into solitary” the male adult told them. Rebecca just wondered what punishment was going to be dished out to her, as they might consider that she started it by crying about never getting to see her uncle.

“John” came a female adult voice, “I just caught what happened, and Mazy is telling the truth, Jenna took a swing at Mazy and Mazy just used some martial art or something to put her on the floor”
“It was Judo Mam” Mazy’s voice interjected
“Ok Harriet, but you know the rule about fighting” John replied, “both need to be locked up in solitary”
“But on this occasion John, I think we can make an exception for Mazy, she was not the aggressor, Jenna was, as usual” Rebecca heard Harriet say, then Harriet, obviously speaking to Mazy, “You have got to teach me that move honey”
“Only too glad to Mam” Mazy replied.

Rebecca then saw from her position on the floor, the male staff member frog marching, Jenna away to who knows where. Harriet then came round to where Rebecca was lying on the floor, in pain and too frightened to get up. Harriet was a tall black woman, and obviously the most senior staff member of the two who had intervened.

“I’m sorry mam” Rebecca sobbed, “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble”

Harriet squatted down and took Rebecca by the hands, “Honey, you weren’t causing any trouble it was Jenna, she is always trying to do this” Harriet reassured Rebecca, then added, “she thinks it makes her look tough, but it actually makes her look more like a bully and a coward”. Harriet, then holding both hands, helped Rebecca get up, and then sat her on the bed. Harriet then got Rebecca to pinch the soft part of her nose and lean forward and breath through her mouth, to deal with the nose bleead

Mazy came and sat down beside Rebecca and put her right arm around her, “No one’s going to hurt you with me around kid”
Rebecca just looked down at the floor, pinching her nose as instructed, “Thank you Mam” she uttered weakly
“Hey kid, you don’t have to call me mam like that Jenna insisted, I’m just Mazy, what’s your name”
“Rebecca”, Rebecca replied, “Rebecca Sands”

Harriet then spoke to Mazy, “Can I leave her with you, while I get the doc to come and look at that place on the side of her face, and get her a clean t-shirt.”
“Yes Mam” Mazy responded, “You can count on me”
“How old are you Rebecca?” Mazy asked Rebecca
“I turned Eleven last month, Mam, I mean Mazy” Rebecca responded, still instinctively using the formal address with anyone older than herself

Mazy looked up at Harriet, “Mam, isn’t she a bit too young for this section”
“Sorry Mazy, we don’t have any places in the other section, now I have to go and get the doc” and with that Harriet left

“Rebecca?” Mazy asked, “Are you from England?”
Rebecca nodded, still trying to hold her nose to stop the bleeding
“Are you related to those two other girls from England who came here a while back
“No” Rebecca replied, “I don’t have anyone back in England now”
“Are your parents over here then?” Mazy enquired
Rebecca closed her eyes and tearfully replied, “They’re dead”, then added, “my mum died about three weeks ago,
Mazy hugged Rebecca with her right arm, “That’s a tough break Rebecca” then added, “you must be the only genuine orphan in this so called orphanage
“Do you have your parents still?” Rebecca asked
“Yeah kind of, they’re going through a divorce, I’m here because I ran away from my mom, because she drinks and I want to be with my stepdad, but she went and told the ACS that he was beating me and molesting me which is BS” explained Mazy, “Jenna is here because she has been in trouble with the courts and her mom says she is out of control”

Then Rebecca said quietly, “I ran away too” then added, “From my mum’s boyfriend”
“Why?”
“He wanted me to do things” Rebecca started
Mazy, being more worldly wise could guess where this was going, especially from the way Rebecca had said it, “Say no more” Mazy interrupted, so where did this happen” she then asked, expecting Rebecca to mention a part of New York City.
“Back in England Mazy” Rebecca replied, “In my home town of Slough”
“Then why are you in New York?”
“I have an uncle in New Hampshire, so they put me on a plane to go there, but we got diverted and the lady taking me there was arrested for something called cheque fraud, and the police think I was doing that as well so I won’t get to see him now” at this Rebecca broke down in tears.

At this point the doctor who had performed the medical examination arrived with Harriet and had a cursory look at her. He told her that she would most likely have some serious bruising, but he could not see anything more serious. Mazy asked why they did not perform an x-ray but Harriet just asked her who she thought would pay for that. Again other concerns it seemed outweighed Rebecca’s welfare.

Rebecca was sent to the bathroom to clean her face up from the blood, with Mazy offering to go with her to make sure she was alright, but Harriet insisted that it had to be a member of staff, and so she went instead. She also insisted that Rebecca change into the clean T-shirt there as well. Well at least it was not in the dormitory with everyone watching, as she had feared

When they returned, Mazy tried to speak to Harriet on Rebecca’s behalf about her uncle, but she was told that was not her department and there was nothing she could do about it. Mazy told Rebecca that at least she had tried.

For the rest of the evening they chatted about the differences between England and the US. The other residents in the dormitory seemed more interested in other things, so it was just Mazy and Rebecca talking to each other

Rebecca had missed the last meal of the day, with the time that she had come in, but at least she had eaten on the plane although that had been some time ago. It was approaching lights out, so they all settled down for the night, and Rebecca silently cried her self to sleep, thinking of her mother who had died, and how she never got to see her in hospital where she caught the infection that would kill her, how she had made people be kind to her because of some power she had, which she had given up because that was the right thing to do, and of her Uncle Matthew, Aunty Susan and cousin Frank, whom she thought would never see, because she had been accused along side Corporal Tania McCaskey of a crime, it looked like neither had committed.

Slowly though, Rebecca drifted off to sleep.

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Rebecca suddenly seemed to be in a large dark space. She was frightened.

Then coming towards her, lit by some unknown light source, was the man she hated and feared most, her mother’s boyfriend, Jim.

“Thought you could run away did you” Jim said as he approached
Rebecca tried to run, but somehow found she could not, “I thought they said you had gone to prison” she told him

Jim just came up to her, grabbed one shoulder with one hand and slapped her across the face with his other hand, “I got out, they can’t hold me, you naughty girl” then he gave one of his characteristically evil grins, “You are going to have to be punished”
“Sorry Jim” Rebecca tried to bleat, but Jim was having none of it
“I am going to have to give you a good spanking, film it and send it to my friends”
Rebecca was still paralysed with fear as she thought she felt his free hand fall on her other shoulder, so he could forcibly turn her around.

Suddenly out of nowhere came a blast of lightning which hit Jim in the side and knocked him away from Rebecca. Rebecca turned her head to where the lightning had come from, and saw what looked like a very small man, possibly a dwarf.

[img=200x300]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Leprechaun_ill_artlibre_jnl.png[/img]

“Hello former Spirit of Kindness” the little man told her in an Irish accent, “Or is it just Rebecca Sands now, no matter”
“Hello?” Rebecca could just about utter
“Greetings My fair Rebecca, My name is Hogan O’Brian, I was also accompanying you to your Uncle, but I kind of kept out of sight”

Then Rebecca noticed Jim out of the corner of her eye getting up, and then she noticed he had got his hunting knife. “I thought you were a coward Rebecca, always running to someone instead of doing as you are told” Jim shouted.

Suddenly Jim threw the knife at Rebecca.

The knife stopped in mid air a foot from Rebecca’s chest and vanished.
“Just Go” Hogan yelled at Jim, and suddenly another lightning bolt hit him and Jim was no more.

Rebecca turned and looked Hogan, “Please sir, where am I” she whimpered
Hogan looked up at her, “Rebecca my dear, you are still in bed, in that orphanage in New York”
Rebecca looked puzzled, she was clearly on some dark plane well away from that place.

“Rebecca, my dear, you are dreaming” explained Hogan, “Like most of us Leprechauns, I mearly have the ability to enter into the dreams of mortals like yourself now to communicate with them”
“Is that what my Mother’s boyfriend just did” Rebecca nervously asked.
“No Rebecca, that worthless piece of unmentionable stuff is rotting in a prison cell and he has no powers like mine, what you saw was a manifestation of your guilt”
“What?”
“Yes Rebecca, you thought that what happened in New York was some how your fault for running away from that evil man. You also feel guilty for how your former powers made those people be kind to you, and this guilt has manifested into this man. You are starting to think you must be punished for some imaginary offence”
“I never meant to hurt them” Rebecca told Hogan, her voice cracking with emotion.

Hogan went up to Rebecca, “even if I am only in your dreams, I can still give you a hug”, and then Hogan gave Rebecca a quick comforting hug then told her, “Rebecca, your soul really is the epitome of kindness, all you could do was bring out what was there in those people. Rebecca you helped them to do what had to be done, so stop beating yourself up about it”

“But I ran away” Rebecca objected, “good girls don’t run away”
“And if you had stayed, and allowed that pathetic excuse for a man to violate you, you most likely would have ended up dead like your mother. No Rebecca, you definitely should not allow that man to make you feel guilty for escaping from him. It was just a pity that there was no one to help you once you got off the train at Paddington. Even your Uncle Matthew and his family believe you were right to run away”

“But I won’t get to see them now” Rebecca said wistfully, “they think I am guilty of something called cheque fraud along with Miss McCaskey”

Hogan shook his head, “I know, I was there, but I was invisible, Corporal Tania McCaskey is innocent, but those NYPD dolts have put her in jail and have called up their colleagues in Miami to come and collect her, probably today or tomorrow. I have spoken to her CEO and he is going to try and make some kind of representation, but I’m not holding my breath”

“But what about me they took me to the police station too and then they took me to this place” Rebecca
“And who do you think notified the ACS? It was the only way I could get you out of that police station. The NYPD moved too fast for the air Marshalls on the plane to get you.”
“But they said they won’t send me to my uncle”
“Rebecca, that’s not what they said, just that it was not their job in the centre to go gallivanting around the country looking for relatives of those children in their care. But Rebecca, you are relatively safe, just keep with Mazy and avoid Jenna seeing as she hit you, although I think they are moving her to another holding facility. The other children there won’t be a problem, especially Mazy”
“Why especially Mazy?” Rebecca asked
“Because she used to be the minor Spirit of Caring, we helped her out last year”
“Can you do anything for her?” Rebecca asked
“Working on it, but you humans are so fickle, you are worse than us Leprechauns”
“I suppose so Mr Hogan, I just wish I could have seen my Uncle”
“And so you shall. He was contacted just before you went to bed. He rang the ACS centre where you are and was told he had to come and collect you in person and bring loads of ID” Hogan replied, then with a twinkle in his eye added “he even offered to give a DNA sample to prove you were his niece”
“When is he coming?” Rebecca asked

“Well my Rebecca, there is a delay, first the weather is still bad so nothing can fly from their local airport, and two your Uncle Matthew is a very busy high level lawyer and needs to get his affairs in order so he can come down, like getting someone to cover for him, so we are talking of about from three days to a week, before he can even think about coming down here, well so I would have thought, know how these lawyers work and all that.”
“A week?” Rebecca questioned It seemed to Rebecca at that point, even among her family, she came second to everything else
“But Rebecca my dear, you will be perfectly safe here” Hogan insisted, “a lot better that sleeping rough with a hungry and homeless sign”

Suddenly, Hogan let loose another lightning into the distance at another manifestation of Jim. “Self pity, Rebecca is just as bad as irrational guilt, don’t give into it” Hogan told her, then added, “I think it’s time to get up now, if you want to be first into the showers”

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Rebecca woke up

This Hogan in her dream was right, she had still been in her bed at the New York group home. Some of the other children were still sleeping. Rebecca looked up and noticed she was being looked at by staff, so she grabbed her wash pack and headed for the shower.

A member of staff stopped her and told her it was half an hour too early, but another member of staff on duty asked what harm it would do, so Rebecca was allowed to go and shower.

After the shower, Rebecca made her way back to her bed and sat down and began wondering, was her strange dream about Jim, a leprechaun, her guilt complex and her uncle real or just a dream.

“Morning Rebecca” came a familiar but welcome voice, it was Mazy with her wash pack heading for the shower. But no, Mazy came and sat next to Rebecca on the bed.
Rebecca was suddenly worried, Mazy seemed slightly different from the night before, “Morning Mazy” Rebecca meekly said.
There was a sudden awkward silence between the two of them, and Rebecca just looked at the floor, again she felt small, and not just the physical smallness.

Rebecca felt Mazy’s right arm gently put around her shoulder, and Mazy pulled her so their heads were touching.
“So you were the Spirit of Kindness then” Mazy whispered
Rebecca opened her mouth, but was unable to speak, so this dream of a leprechaun by the name of Hogan O’Brian was real.
“Hogan spoke to me last night too” Mazy went on, “My biological father was the Spirit of Compassion, my mom had been depressed because she had been made to have an abortion by a former boyfriend when she didn’t want to, so he kind of went with my mom and she had me”
“Oh” was all that Rebecca could muster.
Mazy could see that Rebecca was stunned at this revelation and so asked, “so who was your real dad”
Rebecca turned to look at Mazy, who was smiling at her, “The Spirit of Friendship Mazy”, and then Rebecca looked at the floor again, “But he’s dead, he was murdered”
“According to Hogan, my father was killed fighting in some civil war in some place called the Mystical Realms” Mazy sighed
“Sorry” Rebecca replied.
Mazy then realised they needed to lighten the mood so took hold of Rebecca’s left hand with her left hand and told her “We ex minor spirits of virtue need to stick together, don’t we”
Rebecca nodded.

Mazy then went off to have her shower, while Rebecca sat on the bed, looking at the floor and remembering her mother and wishing her uncle would arrive as soon as possible. Hogan had a point, if the weather was as bad as they said, he would not be able to fly down, plus he had a family, a job and other responsibilities that came well before her. Rebecca was only a niece and so would just have to take a number and get in line.

Mazy returned from her shower and instructed Rebecca on how they wanted their beds made, as they would be inspected before breakfast. Rebecca then helped Mazy do her bed, and then the two of them went to stand by their beds as the other children, woke up, showered and made their bed.

The man that came to inspect their beds walked by and looked intently at Rebecca’s bed before moving on. He passed the beds right up to Mazy with no problem, then passed Mazy’s bed he paused at a thirteen year old’s bed, then leaned over and dragged the blankets off and the sheets, and then shouted at the teenager that she would be missing breakfast while she remade her bed properly, then he told everyone else to strip their beds so this thirteen year old could have plenty of practice.

The children except the thirteen year old were marched out of the dormitory in silence to a dining hall, where they were instructed to remain in silence. Rebecca was absolutely terrified of this man, and it seemed everyone else was too, and the sound of a pin dropping would probably be the most deafening sound that would have been in that room.

The breakfast was some kind of oatmeal concoction which did not taste good, but that was all there was, and the only thing to drink was water, which had a metallic taste as well.

Rebecca kept thinking of that girl who had been punished for not making her bed properly, and was petrified she might be the next victim. She so wanted to ask what it was she had done wrong, but nobody dared speak, the group home or orphanage she was in was more like some kind of detention centre.

They finished what passed off as breakfast and were ushered into some kind of enclosed outside courtyard, where they were expected to “exercise” for a time, again in strict silence. They were also joined by the thirteen year old who had been made to miss breakfast while she re-made all the beds in the dormitory. This exercise consisted of marching in stone cold silence, in the cold air.

Rebecca’s bare feet stung on the cold concrete as she trudged around the courtyard, shivering in the cold. The same staff member who had inspected the beds was there, with some kind of baton in his hand and a thick coat on. All the girls were allowed to wear were the white t-shirts and elasticated jeans and nothing else, not even underwear.

Rebecca noticed a girl in front, a fourteen year old this time bring her arms up to try and keep warm. Immediately the man pointed the baton at her and ordered her to do twenty press-ups for insubordination, while they all had to stand to attention and watch, again in strict silence. The girl was then informed that she would not be having any further meals that day as part of her punishment. She was then frog marched off to some detention cell elsewhere. So this was how they achieved behaviour control Rebecca realised, through starvation and intimidation, and like Jim had told her, they would not be believed, even if this were to somehow turnout not to be ACS policy.

Rebecca was desperately trying not to let her teeth chatter, lest she be punished for that, when they were finally allowed inside, and back to the dormitory. Rebecca found a radiator, but it was cold, so she just sat on the floor next to it, hugging herself trying to warm up.

Mazy came and sat down beside her, “I don’t think that girl has ever had breakfast here” she remarked, “that guy is always finding something wrong” she added
“Why” Rebecca asked
“Because she’s a Latino, I suspect”

Rebecca then remembered that the girl in the courtyard was of mixed race, and it was horrendous that someone like that had managed to get into a position of authority, but that was how it was, and as Mazy pointed out, most of the children who came here had some brush with the law for some reason, and so some might feel that they deserved to be so treated.

About an hour later, a woman came and called for Rebecca to come with her. It was too early for her Uncle to have made it down so she wondered what it could be and was very nervous given what had happened to her. Rebecca was shown into an interview room with another lady sitting at a table and a male police officer on a chair by the window.

It was the woman at the table who spoke first, “Rebecca, do you know why you are here?”
“No Mam” Rebecca nervously answered
“Well yesterday you were arrested at the airport because you were with someone who is being extradited to Miami on charges of cheque fraud”
Rebecca maintained a stunned silence; it looked like she was still being accused of a crime she had never heard of before in a place she had never been to before.
“Well yesterday, the police officer’s were interviewing you, when the New York Administration of Child Services had not been informed and so the interview was stopped because it was not in accordance with NYPD policy” the woman continued.

Again Rebecca could only sit in stunned silence.

“Well the police have applied to the court to have you turned back over to them to be placed into detention pending extradition to Miami on suspicion of conspiracy to commit cheque fraud”
“But miss” Rebecca objected, “I have never been to”

The woman interrupted, “Zip it. I don’t want to hear it”

“Can I take her now?” the police officer asked, taking out a pair of handcuffs
“Yes officer, she is all yours”

The police officer came over and pulled Rebecca to her feet, and handcuffed her hands behind her back, and then frogmarched her to the door and into the street, where she was placed into the back of a squad car for the second time in twenty four hours. The police officer’s partner was waiting in the driver’s seat.

The leprechaun was wrong; she was never going to see her uncle, not now. She even thought she might get the electric chair; she should have given in to Jim. If she had complied with his wishes, this would not be happening to her.

The squad car drove through the New York streets until they were back at the police station where she had been taken to the previous day. The police officer who had collected her from the group home opened the car door and pulled Rebecca out, as far as he was concerned, she was nothing but low life scum and lower than the kind of stuff that sticks to the underside of a shoe. She was obviously guilty, why would they be arresting her if she weren’t

Again she was taken to the main booking hall, and then to holding cells with various criminals where her handcuffs were removed. She was then ordered to immediately remove the ACS clothing, as it had to go back, and handed an orange jump suit to put on instead. In stunned shock, Rebecca turned her back to the custody officer and sobbed as she slowly complied, to a chorus of wolf whistles from some prisoners and cries of shame of others. She had never been so humiliated, apart from the previous day when she was frogmarched in cuffs through the airport terminal. The custody sergeant then yelled at the prisoners to be quiet. The orange jump suit was too big, and she was cold, she handed the ACS clothes to the officer, who then took them away.

Rebecca sat down on the prison bed and put her head in her hands and wept.

“What are you in for?” asked one prisoner
“I haven’t done anything” Rebecca protested.
“Yeah, that’s what they all say, come on what did you really do?”

Rebecca looked up at the window, and the bars, then in a dark moment, wondered if she could make the bed sheet into a rope and get it to reach the bars with the other end around her neck. Then everything could be over. Maybe she could find a sharp point on the bed, something that would open a vein or an artery.

No one believed she was innocent

Would anyone really care if she was no longer around?

She even supposed that not even her uncle and his family would want her now

Wouldn’t the world be better off without her?

Tears streamed from Rebecca’s eyes as she contemplated these dark thoughts, if only she had given in to what sordid desires Jim had wanted her to perform; now it seemed she would be better off dead.

Rebecca looked down at the bed sheet, stood up, turned around and slowly lifted it off of the bed and then sat down on the mattress and began to start rolling it up, tears streaming down her face as she did so. Nobody seemed to notice what she was doing, or they did not care.

She had just about fashioned a rope from the bed sheet when a red headed female detective coming back from speaking to another prisoner noticed what she was doing and somehow twigged what Rebecca’s intentions might be.
“You don’t want to do that honey” she gently told her through the bars, “it’s not the answer”.
Rebecca looked up at her and then down at the improvised rope and then burst into uncontrollable sobbing. She didn’t really want to kill herself, but everything just looked so hopeless as nobody would believe she was innocent and she felt so worthless

The detective called for the guard to open the cell up and went in and sat down beside Rebecca and gently took the improvised rope away from her and handed it to the custody sergeant and asked for him to bring the chief down. She then put an arm around Rebecca, while Rebecca sobbed her heart out.

While they were waiting for the chief, the female detective, to make conversation with the child, asked why she had been brought in, and then Rebecca, barely coherent told her about the chain of events that that lead her to this point, the arrest at the airport, the first lot of questioning and the removal from the ACS group home and finally how she was humiliated when she had to change right there in the cell out of what little clothes she had from the ACS in to the jump suit in full view of everyone. On hearing this, the female detective was horrified.
“If what you’re saying is right, then someone has screwed up big time”
Rebecca just heard the word “if” and insisted she was telling the truth and why would nobody believe her.

The female detective then realised that Rebecca had a British accent and that seemed to tie in with her story.

The chief came down the detective asked why she was being held, the chief explained that she was apprehended with a suspect in a cheque fraud, and was therefore suspected of being an accomplice, and was to be handed over to the Miami detectives as soon as they arrived to collect the main suspect, and besides the juvenile halls were full. The detective pointed to Rebecca’s British accent and asked might that not show she was telling the truth, that even if this other women was guilty, there was no way that Rebecca was involved. The chief just told her that would be for the Miami PD to decide once she was down there, and they were due to arrive in about five hours. The chief then ordered that Rebecca be moved to another cell and put on suicide watch.

The female detective said that this seemed ridiculous, but the chief thought otherwise and thanked her for preventing Rebecca from harming herself and then reminded her that it was not her case and that she had others that needed her attention. The female detective gave Rebecca one last hug and told her at least she believed her and she was sorry she could not do any more and then left.

Rebecca then found herself moved to another cell, where it was not possible to harm herself and that guards would be watching her at very frequent intervals to make sure she was not doing anything that could be considered self harm.

Rebecca was in the special cell for what seemed like two hours when a male police detective, who had originally been one of those who interrogated her the previous day, came and had the custody sergeant open the door
“Your lawyer is here” he told Rebecca
“But I don’t have a lawyer” Rebecca said weakly
“Well someone has hired one of New York’s most prestigious law firms to represent you, so you do now” the detective replied, then he added, “Which seems mighty suspicious to me, are you sure you don’t have anything to tell us”
At that a tall man in a grey suit came in and told the detective, “Detective that question is way out of line and you know it. You have no reason now to hold my client” then the male lawyer turned to Rebecca and told her, “Miss Sands, we are leaving now”
Rebecca looked at the detective, confused
“You’re free to go, apparently Miami has suddenly decided it has no interest in you”
Rebecca nervously stood up and the lawyer held out his hand, which Rebecca took, and slowly at first the lawyer led her out of the cell and through the holding area. All the while the lawyer was saying how they would be filing a false arrest and false imprisonment law suit on behalf of his client, and how they would be filing a suit against the city as the NYPD had not protected her rights as a minor.

Rebecca just wondered who this lawyer was and who had hired him, as she had no money, but she was glad that someone thought she was worth rescuing.

Then they reached the booking hall, where a police officer told them if they were taking Rebecca away, then they would need the orange jumpsuit back. Rebecca told her lawyer that this was all she had to wear, as the ACS had confiscated all her clothes she had been given in England and that the ACS supplied clothed were removed from her in the police cell. When Rebecca told the lawyer how she was made to change in the cell in front of everyone, the lawyer was even angrier at how she had been treated and said he would be adding that to the list as well.

The police officer just listened to the lawyer’s rant and said that Rebecca’s lack of other clothes could not be helped and was not his problem, the jump suit was county property and if she wanted to keep it on, she would have to stay in lock up.

Rebecca started to panic, it seemed the NYPD wanted to use what ever trick they could use to keep her here, they seemed determined that she would be sent to jail for anything, even if the Miami PD didn’t want to know her, Rebecca knew when she was beaten and mumbled that they seemed to have won, but the lawyer was having none of it. The lawyer asked if they could wait in an interview room to confer and possibly contact someone about replacement clothes for Rebecca,

Just then, the female detective that had intervened when Rebecca was fabricating a rope from the bed sheet came in with a bag and expressed relief that someone had posted her bail. When the lawyer told her actually she was being released with no charge, the female detective squatted down and told Rebecca how glad she was, and that she would see if there was any way that she could have how she was treated investigated. The detective then handed to Rebecca the bag she had brought in and told her “I went to the ACS home and told them if they continued to hold onto this lot it could be construed as theft”

Rebecca took the bag and looked inside it, they were the clothes she had been wearing when she was leaving England and gave the female detective a big hug and whispered “thank you”, and then the detective guided her to a ladies toilet so she could have some privacy while she changed into her clothes.

The female detective then reunited Rebecca with her lawyer and handed Rebecca her business card. Then the lawyer and Rebecca went to leave the police station. Before they left, the desk sergeant handed the lawyer a small book, which the lawyer handed to Rebecca, it was her US passport. They then walked out of the police precinct, which Rebecca was glad to get away from.

The lawyer then took Rebecca to a parked car where another woman in a dark blue suit and knee length skirt was waiting.
“Hello Miss Sands” the lady introduced herself, “My name is Jane Gardener, and I work an assistant to Mr Davies here at the same law firm”

Rebecca was very much shell shocked about this change in her fortunes and was strapped into the back seat of the car by Jane. Jane then got in the driver’s seat and the lawyer in the front passenger seat. Through the journey in the packed streets of New York, the car drove, where about in New York, Rebecca did not know, it was nothing like she had known in England, for one thing they drove on the “wrong” side of the road, and the traffic lights were different.

Rebecca wanted to ask, who had had hired them, but the lawyer and the assistant seemed to be engaged in discussing her case as if she were not there. Rebecca thought it would be rude to interrupt so kept quiet. Then they mentioned something about foster homes, as possible options for Rebecca to stay in. Rebecca just wanted to go and be with her uncle and his family, but was beginning to think now, this might not happen

Rebecca finally got courage to speak, and asked how they knew she was at the police station, the lawyer just replied that the person who had hired them had informed them of the situation, and they were duty bound to maintain confidentiality. Rebecca decided to let the matter drop, she was out and that was al that mattered. Then Rebecca thought of Corporal Tania McCaskey who had been kind to her when she found her living rough in London and when they were at the Facility and on the aeroplane, and Mazy, the former Spirit of Caring, who had stuck up for her at the care home and wished there was some way they could be helped, but sometimes life is not like that.

The car stopped outside a large office block and the lawyer got out. Rebecca also managed to get out of the car by herself and the lawyer held her hand as he lead her into the office block. Meanwhile, Jane, the assistant drove the car off somewhere, The lawyer explained that she was parking the car in the office’s underground parking lot.

As they entered into the offices, Rebecca was over awed by the massive foyer and she was ushered to a small café bar come waiting area, where the lawyer ordered for her a hot chocolate and a chocolate chip muffin.

Rebecca sat at a table and said “thank you” and started to eat the muffin, which was dreamy compared to the food served at the ACS group home. The lawyer then spoke to the servers at the café and then after instructing Rebecca to wait for Jane, he left.

Rebecca sat there in the foyer, eating the muffin and drinking the hot chocolate, looking outside the window, watching the world go by. She was an orphan and alone in New York City. Her only relative was hundreds of miles away and if this Leprechaun was right, considered her way down on his list of priorities, since he needed to sort work out before coming to collect her.

Rebecca took out her US passport, and looked at it, thinking of how she had got it. She thought of Commander Mark Johnston who had given it to her, she thought of the colonel who had promised she would be sent to a new and better life with her uncle and his family, which so far had not worked out. She even thought of that woman with the Geordie accent, called Jenny Green, who had offered to find her a new home in North East England.

Rebecca looked up and sniffed and wiped her eyes as she remembered her mum and tried to remember her father. As she gazed at the people walking by oblivious to her existence or even their fellow New Yorkers in the street with them, she realised just how alone she felt, and a tear ran down her left cheek. She then stared at the crumbs on the empty plate and her empty cup with her head in her right hand, her elbow on the table, and again dark thoughts of utter worthlessness crowded her mind.

Was she ever going to see her uncle and his family?

The corporal had said they were eager to see her, but that was before her arrest at JFK airport. Would they care that she now had an arrest record, she could remember that her Uncle Matthew was some kind of official in his local church. Perhaps they might be ashamed of her now because she had been arrested. She remembered how when she was growing up in slough the other children had been told by their parents, that because of what her mum did for a living, they were not to associate with her, maybe if they found out what she did, whatever it was, they might not want to have anything to do with her.

It seemed clear to Rebecca, fate would not allow her to have a new life, she obviously did not deserve one and everyone would be better off if she were not around. She had no idea who had hired the legal firm to rescue her from the police station, and she was grateful for it, but she could not see why anyone would want to have anything to do with her, a worthless and penniless orphan, who had used some mind control before she was able to ditch that ability and who had been arrested on suspicion of some crime.

No one would miss her

No one would want her

She had even been told that her uncle had other priorities in life before it came to her

As Rebecca concluded that everyone would be better off if she were not around, she slipped of the chair, and with tears streaming down her face she headed for the front door so she could slip away quietly and would no longer be a burden to anyone.

To be continued

[Sticks]

Episode III – So Close…

Self esteem is what we think of ourselves, our own self worth and according to Wikipedia is a very complex subject, with more than one technical definition. According to the article, we can have differing levels of this with regard to different subjects or skills.

Usually we meet this concept based on a totality of what we think we are like, and I am sure we have all encountered those who think they are God’s gift to women or men, or are super-duper at anything you can name, although we usually say they have an over inflated ego.

Then of course there are those at the other end of the spectrum, and some extremes can lead to self harm, depression or even suicide.

In the case of Rebecca Sands, the eleven year old former Spirit of Kindness, this seems to be the end she has fallen to, for understandable reasons. Her journey to her new life with her uncle went pear-shaped after the plane diverted to JFK in New York because of bad weather over New Hampshire; she was arrested, then taken to a group home, run like a detention centre then handed back to the police to be extradited with the corporal who was supposed to be accompanying her. Then, after she was removed from her normal cell because they discovered that in a moment of despair she had started fabricating a rope out of bed-sheets to hang herself, she was released and told even the Miami PD did not want to know her.

Even though someone unknown to her has hired a top legal team to get her released, Rebecca has, in her low self esteem concluded that not even her uncle and his family would want a creature like her, and so has decided to slip away from the offices of the legal firm, which since they have got her released must have finished with her. That way she has tearfully concluded is the only course of action to take, so she is no longer a burden to anyone

-

Rebecca reached the door of the office block and looked back at the large foyer and the small café where she had just been sitting, with tears streaming down her face. Rebecca just kept thinking she was now “damaged goods”, and perhaps she always had been.

The lawyer who had rescued her had asked her to wait for his assistant Jane Gardener, but she could not think what they would want with her now. She was out of custody like her benefactor had paid them to do, so they had done their job, surely they must be finished with her. Maybe that was Jane’s job, to give her the brush off. In the car over here they had mentioned foster homes, so perhaps Jane would just be giving her a list of them to try and then send her on her way. Lawyers were busy people after all.

She turned round and looked outside as the automatic doors opened and the cold air blew on her face, and then she walked out onto the busy New York street. The sidewalk was crowded and the traffic on the road was heavy, and nobody noticed this eleven year old girl in a grey hooded top, with her face red from crying and a large bruise on the side of her face, a bruise that had come from the teenager who had kicked her there, the previous day.

Rebecca got caught in the flow of people travelling down what according to a street sign she noticed, appeared to be called an avenue with a number attached to it.



Rebecca had no idea where she could go; she had no money and did not know anyone in New York. Mazy the former Spirit of Caring was somewhere in a group home run by the New York Administration of Child Services, but she did not know where, and besides that the home had wanted rid of her and had not contested the court order and her re-arrest by the NYPD. Rebecca really was on her own.

As Rebecca walked down the long avenue, she remembered that the only other person who had shown her kindness, without it being their job, was the red headed female detective, who had stepped in and stopped her half hearted suicide attempt. As Rebecca walked along, she took out the business card that she had given her and looked at it. Apparently the detective was called Fern Brown. For a brief moment as Rebecca was approaching a payphone, she wondered about calling her, but with out any money for the phone, there was no way she could. Even if she could, it would not really be right to ask if she could stay with her, she might have her own family or not be in a position to put her up. Also, even if she could stay with her, as the cops at that precinct seemed to think she was guilty, it might get Fern into trouble, and a remnant of being the Spirit of Kindness meant, she did not want to do that to her.

Rebecca noticed that the pay phone had been vandalised and was ot of action anyway, so even if she had money, she could not have called her anyway and so she put the business card away, and just continued walking amongst the New Yorkers down the avenue, maybe, she thought, if she walked around, she could find some loose change to buy food.

As for a place to sleep, there was always Central Park, wherever that was, but she had heard that it was not safe and that there were knife wielding muggers all over it who would kill without blinking an eye, but then, would anyone really miss her? She did not think they would, not her anyway.

After five minutes of walking, Rebecca came to a major intersection with a road called East, followed by another number. It seemed that roads running north and south were called avenues and roads running east west were streets

Rebecca saw a police officer standing at the corner who was arguing with someone, and remembering what had happened before, Rebecca got frightened of him; perhaps he might arrest her as well, as from how they went to the lengths of removing her from the group home, these New York cops seemed to have it in for her and they were like a dog with a bone, determined to lock her up and throw away the key. Nervously she turned around and headed back the way she came, glancing back to make sure he wasn’t chasing her. Was this going to be how it was, trying to eek out an existence in a foreign city, hiding from the police?

Rebecca needed a plan, she could not try the hungry and homeless sign again, as she had done in London. That only worked because she was the Spirit of Kindness then and people only helped her because she had somehow controlled their minds without meaning to. If she had known, she would have tried to stop it; she hated herself for what she had done to them, it seemed so wrong, in spite of what people like the corporal and the leprechaun Hogan O’Brian were telling her. The way the Colonel back in London had put it to her, ” Do you think it’s right to control people’s minds like that Rebecca” was clear enough, it was wrong, and it ate her up inside.

So it was clear that begging was not an option, for one thing, the way people pounded up and down the streets, she would not be noticed, except by possibly the police and Rebecca did not want that, given her first encounter with the NYPD. Rebecca had to think of something else, and fast, but as she was an eleven year old girl her options were somewhat limited. She had to get a job some how. Maybe if she cold find a McDonalds, or a Burger King or what ever equivalent they would have in this foreign land and try and apply for a job. She would be too short to serve but she could at least mop floors. Maybe she could find one of those American Diner’s she had seen on TV and apply for a job. A diner might be better as they might let her sleep in the store.


“REBECCA”

A voice broke through her thoughts as she noticed she was walking back passed the outside the office block belonging to the law firm that had got her out of the police cell and had now finished with her..

“REBECCA”

The voice was just behind her, it was female and familiar and she felt a hand on her shoulder

Rebecca turned around to see Jane Gardener the assistant, “Rebecca, thank G_d you’re safe. Where have you been? We have been going frantic” she told Rebecca with panic in her voice.

Rebecca came to a complete stop, and it seemed obvious, she was in trouble again, this time from the very law firm that had rescued her from the NYPD

Jane pulled out a mobile from her suit jacket, pressed a button and then spoke a name into it. The phone obviously had voice recognition because it then found the corresponding number and called it. Jane then spoke into the phone “It’s ok, I found her” Rebecca could tell she was speaking to someone as Jane then said, “Just outside the front door”

more inaudible talking Rebecca could not make out from the cell phone.

“Yes I will bring her up to the office. Do I need to call the others?”

Another lot of talking from the cell phone that Rebecca could not hear .

“Ok”

Rebecca just stood there on the sidewalk in front of Jane, looking at the ground and feeling very ashamed, she was in trouble for sure and after all they had done for her, but she had thought they had finished with her.

Jane then put the phone away, and Rebecca briefly whispered “Sorry Miss Gardener” still looking at the floor, but the assistant noticed by her demeanour, something was upsetting Rebecca and squatted down to just below her level and then noticed that her eyes were red from when she had been crying before she left the building and as she had walked down the avenue, and that Rebecca was still very much upset.

“What’s wrong honey, why don’t you come back in the warm and see if we can talk about it, over another hot chocolate” Jane told her, and then stood up, took the cell phone out again and informed the person at the other end that Rebecca was upset about something and that she was going to take her to the coffee bar for a while, if that was alright. Rebecca could not hear what the reply was, but it seemed that what Jane wanted to do had been Okayed.

Jane led Rebecca by the hand back into the building and back to the coffee. Rebecca was quiet and subdued; she had just about exhausted all her tears.

Rebecca obediently sat back down at the table, while Jane got one hot chocolate and one Mocha Late, and returned to the table.

“I’m sorry I ran away Miss Gardener” Rebecca opened with when Jane sat down, Rebecca’s voice cracking with emotion.
“Why did you Rebecca” Jane queried, “was there something we did wrong?”
Rebecca shook her head then still looking down at the table, she explained “I thought once you got me out, you had finished with me and I had to go”
Jane smiled at Rebecca and across the table put her right hand lightly on Rebecca’s shoulder to comfort her, “Honey, we haven’t finished with you; on the legal front we are pursuing the city for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment on your behalf”
“But I can’t pay you, I don’t have any money” Rebecca insisted, her voice betraying her panic at incurring some un-payable debt. ”If she did not have money for food and a safe place to stay, how could she afford to hire a top law firm

Jane shook her head, “You don’t have to worry about that Rebecca, that’s covered, and someone else is picking up the tab, so to speak on that one”
All Rebecca could say was “oh” very weakly and, “I” then she stopped. Rebecca could not think who her benefactor was, or why such a person as her deserved any consideration.

Jane had not finished speaking, “Also Rebecca, we have been asked arrange somewhere for you to stay until your uncle can get down to New York to collect you and take you home”
“I didn’t think he would want me anymore because I was arrested” Rebecca replied then looked up at Jane with of confusion in her eyes, then said “and I was told he had other things to do first before he would even come for me”
“Rebecca, who do you think hired us?” Jane asked her
Rebecca just shook her head; she still seemed clueless as to why anyone would spend money on such a miserable wretch like her

“Rebecca, don’t tell Mr Davies I told you this, but it was your uncle who called us, he used to be one of the top lawyers here fifteen years ago before he moved to head the Rochester office up in New Hampshire when our firm opened a branch out there”
“So does he still wants me, even after I was” Rebecca started, but Jane interrupted again
“Of course he does honey, and he is driving down to New York specially to collect you, and when he was informed what happened at the home, he said that you were the epitome of kindness in human form and there would be no way you would be involved in anything illegal so he asked us to get you out and clear your name.”
Rebecca was even more confused, and it seemed she was still in trouble with the NYPD, “Clear my name?” she queried
Jane could tell the child was distressed so explained, “It is just to make sure any future records show, you were innocent and should never have been arrested, should ever anyone does a background check on you when you are old enough to apply for jobs You uncle even managed to arrange to have copies of your birth certificate and your mothers death certificate sent to us to help prove your innocence”

Rebecca’s mouth dropped open, and for a moment she was speechless, but Jane somehow seemed to sense what she was thinking, smiling told her “Yes honey, he’s doing it all for you, because he loves you very much”. Jane then got up and sat next to Rebecca so she could hug her, as she could sense Rebecca was shocked and feeling guilty at leaving the offices and causing them all to panic.
“I’m sorry I ran away” Rebecca repeated, “I really thought you had finished with me”, and then Rebecca started to cry again, “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble” she sobbed
Jane Hugged Rebecca and softly told her “Don’t worry about it honey, it was all a big misunderstanding, it’s our fault, we should have told you, but Mr Davies is so hot on client confidentiality he thought we shouldn’t mention who had asked us to intervene on your behalf, even to you”

Jane handed Rebecca a paper handkerchief to wipe her eyes, and then the two of them finished their drinks.

Jane then called up on the cell phone that they were ready to come up, and explained to the person on the other end of the call that Rebecca had walked out of the building because she had misunderstood what was happening and had thought they had done with her and that she had to leave.

After visiting a restroom, Jane gently led Rebecca by the hand to the elevators, and called one to go up.

Rebecca was stunned to silence and in complete awe at her uncle, and how he still cared about her, even when others back home in England had considered her to be someone their children should not associate with.

They entered the elevator as it arrived and it seemed to go on forever as it climbed more floors than Rebecca had ever seen in her life, even at that secret base known as the Facility. Along the way a number of people got in and out, and some said hello to Jane and some even said hello to Rebecca. Rebecca tried her best to remember her manners and be polite and quite a number of people commented about her British accent and asked her if she was English. Jane would explain that Rebecca had dual nationality and was considered an American born abroad.

Although Rebecca was nervous about these people, as they seemed quite high powered people, especially if they could rescue her from the clutches of the NYPD, she found she liked these people, as they were not mean but were very nice to her and said how pretty she was. Nobody had said that to her in England, apart from Jim, her mother’s boyfriend, and the way he had said it made her feel uncomfortable and it came across as being “dirty”. These Americans however seemed to be genuinely complementing her, and for probably the first time in her life, for a moment she felt good about herself.

The elevator finally arrived at the destination where Jane was taking Rebecca. It was a corridor with lots of wooden doors, Rebecca could only guess they were offices where the lawyers met their clients or had meetings. In the centre was some kind of reception desk, where a black woman was working.

“Hey Doreen” Jane said, “I have Rebecca Sands here”
Doreen looked at Rebecca and smiled at her, “aren’t you one of the most prettiest girls I have ever met”
“Hello Miss Doreen” Rebecca replied, still nervous at all the high powered people that seemed to be around her
“Is Mr Davies free?” Jane asked
“Well he’s in with Lisa and Malcolm at the moment”
“Oh, I thought it was ok to come up” Jane queried, clearly puzzled
“It is Jane” Doreen answered, then added “They are all expecting you, so if you want to take Rebecca right on in”

Doreen picked up an intercom telephone and said into it, “Mr Davies it’s Miss Gardener with the Sands girl” then she replaced the receiver and pressed a button on the desk. Rebecca heard a buzzing sound and Jane pushed on one of the wooden doors and as it opened led Rebecca by the hand into what seemed like a large office.

By the window was a large wooden desk with telephones on it and a state of the art desktop computer. On the walls seemed to be all kinds of certificates. The only one Rebecca had ever got was her one hundred meters breast stroke, when she was nine, and that had been lost to her when she ran from Jim her mother’s boyfriend just after her mother’s funeral. Also in the room were shelves of books and trophy cabinets, and what seemed like an en-suite bathroom, and something resembling a small kitchen.

Behind the desk, sat the lawyer, Mr Davies, who had rescued Rebecca from the police precinct and in front were a middle aged man and woman.

“Hello again Miss Sands” Mr Davies said as he got up to meet Rebecca and Jane, then he spoke to Jane, “Thank you Miss Gardener, that will be all”

Jane nodded and told Rebecca, that she hoped that things would work out for her and left.

Rebecca watched Jane leave and then turned back to Mr Davies, she was still feeling guilty at walking out and causing them to panic so in a quiet and very contrite voice said “I’m sorry sir that I caused trouble”

“That’s ok Miss Sands, Miss Gardener explained, and I shouldn’t have left you alone in the coffee bar like I did, I can see now why you thought our relationship with you had come to an end.”

Mr Davies showed Rebecca to a chair, took a bowl of what looked like little chocolates wrapped in a twist of coloured paper, on the desk and offered her it. Rebecca took one, unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth.



At first it seemed nice, but the chocolate seemed to have an aftertaste of being sick. Although Rebecca tried to hide it, Mr Davies spotted it and said “Sorry Miss Sands, I forgot that Hershey’s have an unpleasant taste to British born people” then he picked up another bowl of chocolates, “This is Dove chocolate, you should find it more to your liking”



Rebecca tried one of this other lot of chocolates, and found that it was quite pleasant and not a bit like the awful Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses.

Mr Davies then went and stood behind the couple in front of the desk.
“Miss Sands, or may I call you Rebecca?”
Rebecca nodded

“Rebecca, this is Malcolm Duncan from our commercial section and this is Lisa Duncan, Malcolm’s wife, she sometimes does work for us as well”

Rebecca then responded with “Hello Mr and Mrs Duncan”

The Duncans said their hellos back, and then Mr Davies continued, “Malcolm and Lisa are both friends of your uncle and also are both registered foster parents, although they have not had any children in their care for about three months, so they will be looking after you until your uncle arrives. Hopefully that should be sometime tomorrow, depending on road conditions. He last rang in to say he was on Highway ninety five, in fact your uncle recommended them when we were trying to find a safe place for you to stay”

Rebecca looked at them and they seemed “kind”, but then Jim was good at putting on a kind appearance.
“You know Uncle Matthew? Rebecca asked nervously
“We interned together in this firm after law school” Malcolm replied.
“And we used to have him over to dinner from time to time” Added Lisa
“We even got to attend his wedding, when he married Susan” Malcolm chipped in.

Mr Davies then walked back to his chair and sat down, at the desk

Then Lisa asked Rebecca, “Do you have a suitcase down stairs?”
Rebecca seemed perplexed by the question, “Suitcase?” she asked, then twigged that they were asking if she had any luggage and replied No Miss”, then she corrected herself, as this was the US, “I mean no Mam”
“You don’t have to call us Sir or Mam Rebecca” Malcolm chipped in, “Malcolm or Lisa will do fine”
Lisa was still on the luggage issue and then asked Rebecca, “Do you have a backpack or any other bags”
“No” then Rebecca hesitated and said slowly “Lisa”. Referring to an adult by their first name was completely alien to Rebecca.
“So” Malcolm intervened, “You only have the clothes you are wearing”
Rebecca slowly nodded and said in her all to frequent sad voice, “it’s all I have Sir, I mean Malcolm”
“That’s ok honey” Lisa reassured her, “We can find some spare clothes we still have from the last child we fostered, he was a boy of about your size, and then we can wash what your wearing so they will be clean for when your uncle gets down”

At this exchange, Mr Davies said that such an arrangement did not seem right, as this was one of the most top law firms in New York City and he fished in a desk drawer and then handed something to Malcolm. From what Rebecca could see it was a small oblong piece of plastic and was grey with some writing on and a strange picture.
“Malcolm, here’s the office credit card, you and Lisa can take the rest of the day off to get Rebecca here a few changes of clothes and something to carry them in, just don’t go too overboard” Mr Davies told him, then he turned to Rebecca, “Matthew is one of our own guys and Rebecca as your part of his family, we consider you one of us as well, and just like in the marines, we take care of our own”

“Thank you Mr Davies” Rebecca uttered, she felt overwhelmed by how much these people seemed to care about her, maybe she wasn’t the worthless person Jim had once told her she was and what she had come to believe herself.

“Rebecca Honey” Lisa opened with next, “I think we need to let Gavin get on with work now, he’s quite busy you know”
“But never too busy for someone like you Rebecca” Mr Davies chipped in, “I have a daughter too, and she calls me all the time from college in Michigan”

Malcolm and Lisa stood up and each took one of Rebecca’s hands and led her out of the office and to the elevator, all the while they were telling her where they would take her clothes shopping.

Just as when they went up, on the return trip to the ground all sorts of people got in and out and some would speak to Rebecca, and for the first time in a long time, she was smiling. It seemed that things were back on the up, and for the moment she forgot about Corporal McCaskey and Mazy, whose fates still took them down a darker path.

The whole of the afternoon was like a whirlwind of going into American shops, and looking at new clothes, at prices that seemed unimaginably high to Rebecca, even if they were priced in dollars instead of pounds. In Slough, all her clothes had come from charity shops, it was not until Commander Mark Johnston and Corporal Tania McCaskey had collected her from her rough sleeping on the streets of London, did she ever have any new clothes in her entire life, well that she could remember at least.

The most embarrassing moment was when they were buying underwear. A shop assistant misunderstood and thought Lisa was buying new underwear for herself and asked if she was buying new brassieres as well. Lisa then explained she was shopping for Rebecca and not herself, but before Lisa could say anything else Rebecca without thinking quietly mentioned that Jim, her mother’s boyfriend, before her mother had died, would not let her mother wear any, and without realising it, by the way she said it inferred that his perverted rule would have applied to her as well.

The shop assistant was visibly shocked, so Lisa quietly explained to her that she had been told that the man Rebecca was referring to was now in jail for making certain indecent materials, and that Lisa and her husband at the front of the shop were foster parents who were looking after Rebecca until her Uncle could make it down from New Hampshire to take her home back to his family.

The shop assistant then bent down to Rebecca’s level and expressed how sorry she was that such things had happened to her, and then sensitively and gently with Lisa reassuring Rebecca she would be OK, the shop assistant led Rebecca to a changing room and fitted her for her very first bra, such as it was.

The rest of the shopping expedition went without further embarrassment, as slowly Rebecca acquired new things, including night clothes a brand new top coat, suitable for the colder weather, and new shoes. They even managed to get her a New York Yankees base ball hat and Tee-Shirt.

They also got Rebecca a pink wheeled carrying case to put all her new items in, for when she would make the eventual trip north to her new home with her Uncle Matthew and his family.

The next part of the afternoon, for Rebecca would seem one of the scariest, a ride on the New York Subway



Rebecca had heard so much in England about the famous or infamous New York Subway, that she expected to be mugged umpteen times, and had to be coaxed into speaking by the Duncans, who told her they commuted all the time and had never had any trouble, on the subway.

When it was two stops before their stop, two NYPD officers got on and Rebecca when white with fear, as she looked at them and started to hyperventilate, Why would they not leave her a lone
“Come on honey” Lisa told her and put a reassuring arm around her, “Slow breathes”
Rebecca closed her eyes and tried the deep breathing exercise, all the while expecting to be rearrested and frogmarched back to the police precinct.

The subway stopped at the station before their stop and the two police officers got off of the train, oblivious to Rebecca’s existence. Once the doors closed, and the train started up again, the tension overwhelmed Rebecca and she broke into tears, Malcolm asked what was wrong and Rebecca through her sobs said how she thought the police officers were coming to take her away again. As Lisa held her arm around Rebecca, Malcolm told her that not all the New York cops were like the ones in that precinct and as she had seen, the two officers were not interested in her at all.

The subway train came into their station and the three of them got off of the train, left the station and walked for about four hundred yards before coming to the house where the Duncan’s lived.

A female elderly neighbour was also coming back from work and spotted Rebecca and turned to Malcolm and Lisa saying “So you have got another kid again”
“Yes Martha” Malcolm replied, “It’s only a short term placement this time”
Martha came over to Rebecca and bent down to speak to her, “You aint going to play loud music and scream and shout are you chid” she said with what seemed like an air of menace.
Rebecca was frightened and instinctively clung to Lisa. Lisa put her arms around Rebecca to protect her, “Oh come on Martha, you know that was another teenager’s car radio, Jack was hardly noticed when he was with us” Lisa told the old woman

Martha straightened up and gave a look of indignation, “I’m surprised they still allow you to bring these hoodlums around here” then pointing at Rebecca’s face, “you can see from that bruise on her face she must have been in a gang fight. Don’t you ever think of others, you should know that these types lower our property values. I am going to have to make another complaint I see

Once again Rebecca burst into tears, someone had said it, she was a worthless piece of unmentionable stuff after all and even her mere existence caused people trouble. Maybe she was right that the world would be a better place without her and again the thought of her uncle rejecting her briefly started to cross her mind

Malcolm looked back at Rebecca and pull out the front door key, and angrily told her “Martha, I think you have said enough, Rebecca here is not a juvenile offender, in fact she has been a victim” Oh how he emphasised the word victim “of a child molester who was in a violent relationship with her mother before she died barely a month ago, she isn’t like Jack. And Jack was acquitted of all but one charge, and that was just possession of Marijuana, and even that is on appeal”

“And what of her deadbeat dad” Martha retorted.
“He’s dead” Malcolm angrily retorted, “Rebecca is an orphan now, and the likes of you do not help”

Martha sniffed a self righteous sniff and decided to think better of replying to Malcolm’s angry outburst and just went in to her house.

Malcolm opened his door and Lisa led a crying Rebecca through the hall to the stairs, where after putting the shopping on the floor of the hall, sat down and got Rebecca to sit down with her. Lisa then put her arm around Rebecca and hugged her. Malcolm closed the door, put the chain on and came and squatted down to be at Rebecca’s level.
“What did I do to her?” Rebecca sobbed, “I’m not a hoodlum am I?” she pleaded
“Rebecca” Malcolm started, “Martha has always been like that, she just hates children and complains every time we have one assigned to us. We had a lad a while back, sent to us by the court, and one night one of his so called friends showed up and caused a problem, and the police got involved. Jack had nothing to do with it, but Martha refuses to believe that”
“I don’t want to cause any trouble sir” Rebecca tearfully replied, then added “I promise”
“We know you don’t honey” Lisa reassured her, and the three of them spent the next five minutes just sitting there while Rebecca recovered, with Lisa saying that if Rebecca was her daughter she would be real proud of her and if she were not around the world would be a poorer place.

They then got up and hung their coats up, and while Lisa and Rebecca took the shopping upstairs and Lisa showed Rebecca her room, Malcolm sorted out the evening meal, which amounted to ordering Pizza.

It took about twenty minutes before the pizzas arrived and the three of them sat in the kitchen to eat, but before they ate, Malcolm said they should all hold hand while he gave thanks for the food.

Rebecca held both Malcolm’s and Lisa’s hand and closed her eyes, the last time she had formally said prayers was at the funeral of her mother, the last time she had prayed personally was when her mother was dying, and her prayers had not been heard. But she did not have a human soul then, maybe God would hear her now.

Malcolm started the prayer “Lord we thank you for this food and your bounteous gifts you give us, we give thanks for the pizza delivery boy and pray that you keep him safe on his rounds tonight” then he added, Just for Rebecca, so she thought, “We also give thanks for your child Rebecca, and we give thanks that she has been delivered from a bad situation and we pray for your blessing upon her and that you grant her Uncle Matthew safe passage down here and a safe return journey for the pair of them to start her new life. In Jesus name we pray.”

They all then said amen and opened their eyes and Malcolm, started serving the pizza. Liza noticed a tear rolling down Rebecca’s cheek and asked her what was wrong. Rebecca told her with a sigh, “The last time I prayed, I was praying for my mum to get better, but she died”

Lisa gently squeezed Rebecca’s hand, “Honey, I don’t know why he took your mum, maybe so you could get a better life away from that monster, I can’t say Rebecca, but God has brought you to us, and you’re safe here”
“Thank you” Rebecca replied and forced a weak smile and then tucked into the slice of pizza suddenly realising how hungry she was.

Luckily Malcolm had deliberately over ordered, as he had been told what had happened to Rebecca, so there was plenty for her to eat.

Soon they had all finished, and it was a little while before bedtime so Malcolm asked Rebecca what she used to do in the evenings, play games watch television read? Rebecca just told them that when she could she just hid behind her bedroom door, hoping that Jim would not remember her existence, and wishing he would not make her mother go out to visit one of his friends and would not beat her if she did not bring back enough money. Rebecca described how terrified she had been, and a number of times had to stop as the emotion overwhelmed her.

A tear ran down Lisa’s cheek as she heard this tale, and she hugged Rebecca. Lisa had heard a number of tales from the foster children she had come through the door, but this had to rate as one of the worst, especially as this was an innocent child who had never before been in trouble with the law, until the arrest at the airport.

Malcolm response was “I know this sounds unchristian, but I just hope that guy rots in jail”

After a while, it was time for bed as Rebecca had started to yawn, still lingering after effects of Jet lag from her journey from Luton Airport back in England. Lisa took Rebecca up and asked if she needed help changing into her new night clothes, but Rebecca politely declined help. After all she was eleven. Rebecca then went to the bathroom, brushed her teeth on a new travel toothbrush they had bought her, used the facilities and returned to the bedroom.

Lisa had brought up for her a glass of water should she need a drink in the middle of the night.
Rebecca thanked her, not only for the glass of water, but for taking her in, Lisa said it was a pleasure to have her as she loved children and always wanted to help them. Rebecca got into bed and Lisa switched off the main light, leaving a small nightlight on and closed the door, telling Rebecca to let them know if she needed anything.

Rebecca pulled up the blankets. felt warm, she felt safe and she felt loved. Rebecca then drifted off to sleep

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Rebecca was in a meadow in her night clothes. The ground was soft beneath her feet and their seemed no sharp stones or brambles to hurt her bare feet, bit the cold earth did make them cold.

This seemed strangely familiar this set up, and Rebecca nervously looked around for the incarnation of Jim, but the only entity to arrive was Hogan O’Brian, the leprechaun

[img=200x300]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Leprechaun_ill_artlibre_jnl.png[/img]

“OK, OK” He started, “So I got the bit about the orphanage wrong, you humans are so strange, the way you are so cruel to each other” Then he paused, “Well I suppose we are not so very different”
“Am I dreaming again?” Rebecca nervously asked
“Yes you are my dear, you are safely tucked up in bed at the home of that absolutely charming couple. I see that there are some decent human souls in this world of yours. I took the liberty of controlling your dreams a bit more; this is just like my glade in Ireland, before they built a ruddy great factory on it, the stupid humans”
“It’s lovely Mr O’Brian” Rebecca told him
“That it was my dear, that it was” Then the Leprechaun pointed at Rebecca’s feet and instantly slippers appeared and her feet warmed up, “You really ought to wear bed socks my dear, the duvet was coming off of your feet, so I just fixed that in the real world, and got my cousin Rosie O’Brian to tuck you in again.
“Rosie?”
“Yes my dear, she will be watching over you from now on, that was what I wanted to mention, plus it was me that let you Uncle know about what happened at the police station, Mazy kind of got in contact, I’d rather not explain how, she just did and let me know what they had done”
“Is there anything you can do to help Mazy” Rebecca asked, “She was really nice to me”
“Like I said, we’re working on it, but it won’t be me. This is why Rosie is taking over, I’ve been called to England, they are assembling some kind of special team at that Facility thing, and I have been asked to join”
Then Rebecca remembered something Mazy had told her, “Mr O’Brian, Mazy mentioned something about a place called the Mystical Realms, was that where my daddy came from as well?”
“Yes My dear, it is a place of” Then the leprechaun stopped, “Rebecca, it’s for the best if you don’t know about that place, but he was from there.”
“Why was he murdered” Rebecca asked
“Your father was killed because he dealt with affairs of the human heart, and the Spirit of Lust, a major spirit of vice was jealous”
“Will she come after me?” Rebecca asked, suddenly wondering if she was in danger from her father’s killer.
“No, that nasty piece of work probably never knew you existed, and anyway, some mortal managed to get her in some mortal created artificial universe and closed it down with her trapped inside. I’m not to clear on the details, and the mortal concerned now lives in Ireland with his wife and two children. He did us a great service that man”
“Anyhow, my dear, the bottom line is, sorry I got things a bit wrong, and I’m sorry about denigrating your uncle’s character, and upsetting you. He did class you as his number one priority, because you’re his family and he loves you very much, as does his wife and son. So my dear, no slipping away thinking your worth less than a wooden nickel to coin a term from these shores. Oh and my cousin Rosie will be watching over you from now on, but I am not sure if she will show her self, she is kind of shy”

With that the leprechaun removed his had and bowed and wished Rebecca further pleasant dreams.

Then Rebecca’s dreams became chaotic in the sense that all of our dreams can be chaotic, because this time they were natural, and yet somehow Hogan had set it so that Jim did not disturb them nor did she have any nightmares.

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“Time to get up honey” Lisa said as she gently aroused Rebecca from her sleep
Rebecca came round and looked up at Lisa and smiled. Lisa and Malcolm were nice people and the leprechaun had confirmed it, if it had ever needed confirmation.

Lisa handed Rebecca a large bath towel and a bathrobe, and then took her into the bathroom and showed her how the shower worked. Lisa then left her to shower in private. After using the bathroom facilities and showering, Rebecca dried her self, put on the bath robe and returned to her room, carrying her night clothes, and in perfect privacy, unlike in the group home or the police cell, she got dressed into the clothes that Lisa had laid out for her on the bed: underwear, socks, a pair of slacks, a warm tee-shirt, a pink hooded top and her shoes, which had been cleaned by Malcolm.

After getting dressed, she placed the night clothes into the pink wheeled carrying case, and wheeled it to the top of the landing. Rebecca looked down the stairs and picked up the case to try and carry it down. Malcolm came to the bottom of the stairs and looked up at her and saw what she was trying to do
“Rebecca, stay there a moment” Malcolm told her
Rebecca froze, had she done something wrong she suddenly wondered , but no. Malcolm ran up the stairs to meet her and picked up the case. “I just wanted to carry this down for you Rebecca, so you don’t fall” he told her and then took it down stairs. Rebecca followed him and said thank you to him. Malcolm said it was a pleasure to help her and that he had fixed breakfast.

Rebecca entered the kitchen, and smelled the cooking, it was a mix of pancakes and sausage, something Rebecca had only seen served at The Facility in London. Again they sat around the table and Malcolm gave a blessing for the food, gave thanks for the nights sleep and requested continued blessings and protection for Rebecca and her uncle and then they ate. This time, Rebecca did not cry, but did ask if they thought her uncle would be arriving that day.
“Well Rebecca”, Lisa started, “If he doesn’t make it down or is too late in the day, we love having you here to stay with us”
“And we mean that Rebecca” Malcolm added
“I loved staying here Mr and Mrs Duncan” Rebecca replied, she still felt uncomfortable using the adults first names, it was so not what she was brought up to do. then with her voice choking with emotion Rebecca added, “and I really love you as well”
“We love you too Rebecca” Lisa told her
“And we always will” Malcolm added in

After they finished breakfast, the three of them got their coats on and in the hallway, Rebecca spontaneously hugged Lisa and then Malcolm, just to show how she felt about these two people that had shown the former Spirit of Kindness, true kindness, and they had done it in spite of her background and with out being influenced by some empathic ability, which made it even more special.

Malcolm and Lisa walked along holding hands, while Rebecca held Lisa’s hand, while she pulled the pink suitcase along in her other hand all the way to the subway station. Malcolm then bought their tickets and they made there way to the platform.

Rebecca’s heart almost skipped a beat when she saw two NYPD officers.
“It’s ok Rebecca” Lisa whispered, “We know them”
Malcolm waved at the officers and they waved back, then one of them said “Are you fostering another kid again”
“Yes Pete” Malcolm replied, “This is Rebecca Sands, her mother recently died and her mother’s boyfriend turned out to be, well not someone you would want children near, if you catch my drift”
Officer Pete, manage to interpret what he was talking about and asked Rebecca “Did you mommy’s boyfriend hurt you?”
Rebecca was just petrified, and just about uttered, “He tried to, so I had to run away”
The officer held an upright thumb with his right hand, “Good Job, sounds like you were right to get away from that no good piece of trash”
“What about her Father?” Pete asked Malcolm
“He died some years back apparently” Malcolm explained.
Officer Pete shook his head, “That’s sad, this must be your first orphan you’ve had are you looking after her while the city puts her up for adoption or are you going to apply to adopt her yourselves this time”
“My uncle’s coming for me” Rebecca replied, only slightly gaining more confidence because the Duncans seemed to know and trust this cop.
Lisa decided to join the conversation, “But if were not for her uncle coming down, I for one would adopt her in a heartbeat”
“And so would I” Malcolm added.
“Well Rebecca, if your uncle weren’t coming, would you like to live with the Duncans?” Officer Pete asked
Rebecca was slightly confused by the question and worried by it, so she nodded and then said “Yes, they are nice people and I love them but my Uncle’s coming to collect me, well they told me his was?”
Pete could see that his question had distressed the child so replied “Sorry I didn’t mean to upset you there Mam”

Just then the train arrived, and they all got on.

Through the journey into New York City, Rebecca sat between Lisa and Malcolm on one side of the carriage and the two police officers sat opposite them, and Pete talked with Malcolm about the latest results from the local baseball team. Rebecca just held Lisa’s hands and her suitcase pulling handle and looked at the floor.

They arrived in the city centre without incident and then made their way back to the legal firm where Malcolm worked and entered the foyer. Then they took the elevator up to where Mr Davies worked. Unlike before there were a lot more people going up, and this time they were more interested in getting to their desks than chatting to Rebecca.

At the reception when they got out of the elevator, they found Jane on duty at the floor’s reception desk, “Morning Rebecca and how are we today?”
“Fine Miss Gardener” Rebecca replied, then unprompted, “I really liked staying with Mr and Mrs Duncan”
“We were happy to have her” Malcolm commented
Lisa gently squeezed Rebecca’s hand, “Absolutely she is an absolute delight”
“I’m so happy that worked out for you Rebecca” Jane told the child, then added, “see people do want you and do care about you”

Rebecca smiled and nodded, “Yes Miss Gardener”

Then Jane smiled at Rebecca, “I have a nice surprise for you in Mr Davies office” and then picked up the intercom phone. “Miss Rebecca Sands to see you, Mr Sands” Mr Sands? Rebecca pondered

Malcolm opened the door, but just stayed there as Lisa let go of Rebecca’s hand and suggested that she go inside to see who it was.

Rebecca wandered into the office, hardly daring to believe what she suddenly suspected.

But it was true

“UNCLE MATTHEW” she screamed with delight, dropped her suitcase handle she had been trundling along and ran up to him.

Matthew Sands stooped down to catch her then lifted her into the air and held her tight, “Rebecca I have been so longing to see you”
“So have I Uncle Matthew” Rebecca replied, then in a sadder voice, “I didn’t think you would want to see me after I got in trouble with the police”

Matthew put his niece back down on her feet and looked down at her, “I don’t care if you were in trouble or not, you’re still my little sister’s daughter, and I love you Rebecca, you’re family and we stick together like glue”
“Yes Uncle Matthew” Rebecca replied all smiles and very happy, and then she hugged him

“And I have another surprise for you Rebecca” Matthew told her, “I actually got my business partner Tobias to drive down with me in one of our pool cars, because he has business here in New York, so you and I are flying back to meet the rest of the family, who can nor wait to meet you. We have even decorated your own room.”
Rebecca smiled, then a worrying thought passed through her mind, “But Uncle, I was arrested along side Corporal McCaskey at the airport”

“No worries Rebecca” Matthew reassured her, “That was at JFK, we are flying from La Guardia

Then Matthew took Rebecca by the hand and led her out of the office. On the way Rebecca picked up the handle of her suitcase and trundled it out.

“Thanks for your help yesterday Jane” Matthew told Jane
“It was a pleasure to help you Mr Sands” Jane replied then spoke to Rebecca, “I’m so happy for you”
“Thank you Miss Gardener” Rebecca replied.

They then called the elevator and Matthew and Rebecca, hand in hand went down to the ground, with no intervening stops on the way down.

The reached the foyer, but at the main reception desk there was a man in a brown coat, with what looked like a police shield and a handgun in a holster, a female in a suit and another man in a grey suit, also carrying a police badge and a gun. The reception clerk looked up and pointed at Rebecca and Matthew, and the three of them walked over to intercept them.

Rebecca suddenly had a feeling of utter terror and started shaking her head repeating the word “no”

“I am John Zachery, this is Melanie Carter of Juvenile division and this is my colleague Harry Smith” the man identifying himself as John Zachery said to Matthew
“Why are you here?” Matthew asked, with irritation in his voice
“We are here to speak with Rebecca Sands here”
Then the man identified as Harry Smith added, “We have some questions to ask her”

Rebecca’s face just crumbled, as she sat down on the floor and burst into tears. The NYPD had come for her again, just as she was about to finally leave New York with her uncle..

They would not give up and now it seemed Rebecca had come so close to the new life that Colonel Samuel Peters had promised her, and yet she was now so very much far from it, courtesy of the New York Police Department.

To be continued

[Sticks]

Episode IV – …And Yet So Far

”Just because you are paranoid, it doesn’t mean people aren’t out to get you” is how the old saying goes.

According to the Wikipedia definition of paranoia is:

Paranoia is a disturbed thought process characterized by excessive anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat. In the original Greek, παράνοια (paranoia) simply means madness (para = outside; nous = mind) and, historically, this characterization was used to describe any delusional state.

So paranoia is a debilitating condition that can make the sufferer believe people are out to get them, and could explain why so many people live in fear of secret government conspiracy controlling their lives and monitoring their every conversation.

But what if they really are out to get you?

Well that seems to be what Rebecca Sands, the former Spirit of Kindness, believes. She has twice been in the clutches of the New York Police Department who are convinced she is some sort of co-conspirator with Corporal Tania McCaskey in some crime she has never heard of, cheque fraud. She thought things were on the up, when a law firm rescued her from them, the Miami PD said they were not interested in her, she got new clothes and stayed with a very nice Christian couple and best of all was reunited with her Uncle Matthew.

But now it seems the NYPD will not let the matter drop, and have sent three more people to get her and have a third bite of the cherry, perhaps permanently…

-

Rebecca was sitting there on the floor of the foyer of the law firm looking up at the two male police detectives, and the lady police officer from juvenile division, sent to come and throw her into prison or worse. They had come to do this cruel deed, just after a happy reunion with her Uncle Matthew, Rebecca must be a really bad person she thought if all these bad things kept happening to her

“Why are you harassing her?” Matthew demanded, “She is not guilty of any crime”
“Are you her lawyer or something” John Zachery, one of the detectives, asked in an irritated tone.
“Look bud” the other male detective butted in, “we just need her to come down town, ok”
“Now if you will step aside sir, Melanie Carter is here to look after Miss Sands rights as she is still a minor” Detective John Zachery told him pointing back at the woman with his right thumb

Before Matthew could respond, as their questions and orders came too fast for him to get a word in, they heard the sound of Rebecca suddenly choking and gasping for breath.

~ ~ ~ ~

Suddenly it seemed to Rebecca that her windpipe was closing and she could not breathe, She tried frantically to breathe in short fast pants but it seemed like a loosing battle and she was going to die. Rebecca was sweating now and her heart was racing and to cap it all she was also feeling feint. Rebecca collapsed on the floor, choking, still trying to breathe.

Rebecca was in a really bad way what with feeling feint, she was also feeling dizzy and felt light headed, she felt sick and her chest and stomach hurt badly. The NYPD had obviously come to kill her, and they were doing it by somehow suffocating her. She was also shaking and crying as she fought for every breath of air. She was absolutely terrified each breath would be her last, or that her heart would explode.

What bad thing had she done for them to be doing this to her?

The breathing was becoming more difficult as Rebecca was getting exhausted by trying to stay alive, and she was now getting weaker and weaker, she was terrified that she would soon be to exhausted to breathe and suffocation and death would soon follow.

Several thoughts ran round her head as she lay dying

Jim, her mother’s boyfriend must have got some way of remotely punishing her for running away and getting him in trouble.

Maybe it was they Spirit of Lust as well, the spirit of vice who murdered her father, she must have escaped somehow and come to kill her.

Any second now, Rebecca felt she was going to die.

~ ~ ~ ~

Matthew and Melanie Carter, the woman, the detectives had brought along, squatted down to try and assist Rebecca as she appeared to hyperventilated and go into convulsions as she lay on the floor.

Detective John Zachery took out a cell phones, dialled a special number and called for paramedics to be sent to the building immediately.

Matthew just held her hand and kept calling Rebecca’s name as she lay on the floor going paler and paler and rapidly gasping for air.

About two minutes later they were joined by Lisa Duncan, who had just come out of the elevator, seen the commotion and ran up to help.

Lisa pushed her way through Melanie and Matthew and looked right down at Rebecca’s face.
“Rebecca” She said in a clear firm tone, “Breathe slowly”, then she sat Rebecca up and cradled her in her arms, “We have to know first aid to be registered foster parents” Lisa then told Matthew.

“What’s happening to her” Matthew asked, his voice cracking with emotion.
“By the looks of it, she’s having a panic attack!” Lisa exclaimed, then she noticed the two men with police badges and then said, “She almost had one yesterday at the mere sight of two NYPD officers”. Then Lisa returned back to trying to reach Rebecca and telling her to breathe slower, but Rebecca was not responsive and barely coherent. She was still breathing too fast, and murmuring “What did I do wrong” and “please don’t kill me” over and over again.

A lone paramedic in motorcycle gear, with his kit bag burst through the door into reception and raced up to Rebecca, “I’m the first response” he yelled.

“Have you got a paper bag?” Lisa asked him as the paramedic reached Rebecca
“Sorry Mam” the paramedic responded, “We don’t recommend paper bag rebreathing nowadays” then he took out a syringe and a small bottle.
“What’s that?” Matthew asked
“It’s a mild form of Alprazolam” explained the paramedic, “The normal version usually comes in tablet form”
Quickly he pulled the correct dose into the syringe and then got Lisa to hold Rebecca’s arm still while he injected her.

Within about a minute, Rebecca’s breathing had calmed down and she immediately burst into uncontrollable crying and saying how she thought she was going to die
“That’s one of the other symptoms” Lisa told Matthew

Rebecca honestly thought she was going to die, and now she could breathe, but she felt so incredibly weak, the NYPD had got her.

An ambulance pulled up outside and two paramedics came with a gurney into the building
“Why are you taking her to hospital?” Lisa asked, “Once these things pass it’s usually over”
“Because she’s a minor and I had to administer the Alprazolam we have to as a precaution” explained the first-response paramedic

“We didn’t know this would happen” Detective John Zachery told the first-response paramedic, almost ignoring Matthew’s presence, “We just came to speak to her”

“IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO MY NIECE” Matthew shouted at detective Zachery, and then he turned back to Rebecca who had been strapped to the gurney, given an oxygen mask and was being wheeled out to the ambulance.

Matthew picked up Rebecca’s wheeled pink suit case and followed the paramedics out, turning back only to tell Liza to call Gavin.

Matthew saw them load the still weeping Rebecca into the ambulance and made to get in.



One of the paramedic’s blocked him, “Sorry sir, only relatives or law officers can ride with the patient”
“I am her relative” Matthew insisted, “I’m her uncle”
“Sorry sir, only parents, or immediate guardians can count here”

Matthew was getting frustrated, “Rebecca’s parents are both dead” he told the paramedic, and then pulled a folded up document from an inside coat pocket and handed it to the paramedic. “This piece of paper is confirmation from the Rochester County social services department in New Hampshire that I am Rebecca Sands’ legal guardian”

The paramedic took it and looked at it, and then showed it to the other paramedic who came in the ambulance.

Detective Harry Smith came up from behind, “Any problems here?”
“No officer” the second paramedic responded and then handed the piece of paper back to Matthew and told him, “Ok you can ride in the back with your niece”

Matthew jumped into the back of the ambulance and sat down so he could look at Rebecca and hold her hand to try and reassure her.

“I’m getting in too” Detective Harry Smith told the paramedic.
“No way” objected Matthew, “You’re the reason she’s in this state”

Detective John Zachery came out and told Detective Harry to let them be, and that they would find out from the driver where she was being taken.

The first ambulance paramedic got in the back and closed the door, about two minutes later the ambulance pulled out into the traffic.

Rebecca was still crying, and repeating that she thought she was going to die, and asking what she had done wrong and what ever it was she was sorry. She was clearly out of it.

“Rebecca, love you haven’t done anything wrong” Matthew tried to reassure her.
“I’m sorry uncle” Rebecca sobbed
“Rebecca, you have nothing to be sorry about, I am going to have those guys badges, because I love you Rebecca, and I hate seeing you hurt like this” Matthew’s was becoming overcome by his emotions.
“Sir, I think she needs to rest” the paramedic told him, “I am going to have to administer a sedative and it will knock her out”
“Do what you have to, just get my sister’s baby well” Matthew replied
Matthew then watched as the paramedic injected Rebecca, his little sister’s only child, his niece with some kind of compound to help Rebecca sleep. He held her hand as she drifted off to sleep, telling her as she slipped into unconsciousness that he loved her and was not going to leave her side.

Once she was under sedation, Matthew looked at Rebecca lying there on the gurney with the oxygen mask and broke down.
“Are you ok sir?” The paramedic asked him
Matthew sat up and wiped his eye, and recomposed himself, ”Just give me a moment”, then after a minute or so told the paramedic that Rebecca was the only child of his sister whose death in his mind, had been caused by a piece of low life scum who had forced his sister into prostitution, and that Rebecca was the only link he had to his dead sister, and he was determined to bring her up as his own daughter, and now she had been hospitalised over some offence she was totally innocent of.
“I’m sorry about back there earlier” the paramedic apologised, “I had no idea”.

The ambulance sped through the New York traffic and arrived at the hospital within fifteen minutes, and Matthew insisted on staying with Rebecca as they wheeled her to a ward, all the while he kept telling the hospital staff he had did not care how much it cost, and that he had medical insurance aplenty, he just wanted his Rebecca fit and well.

On of the nurses, got confused with the relationship of Matthew to Rebecca and told him that his daughter would be fine and that she was in the best possible care. Matthew chose not to correct her, as that was how he now considered Rebecca to be, his daughter, or she would be if he had his way. It was something he briefly mentioned to his wife Susan, and she had seemed to be of the same mind as him, if he had read her right, that is.

At his request, the hospital staff found a private ward. Matthew was told to wait outside, while the nurses changed Rebecca out of her normal clothes into a hospital gown, as she was still heavily sedated. Matthew told them that Rebecca had some proper night clothes in her suitcase, but the nurses told him it was regulations until she was seen by a consultant.

Matthew relented, and decided to take the opportunity to use the hospital payphone to ring his wife to let her know of the delay. Instead he saw Detective John Zachery, Detective Harry Smith and Melanie Carter enter the corridor.

“You’ve got a nerve” he growled at them, “What are you going to do now, handcuff her to the bed.”

John signalled to the others to stay back.

“For your information detective” Matthew started, “I am Rebecca Sands uncle and because both her parents are dead I am also her legal guardian, and if necessary her lawyer”
“Sir” Detective John tried to say, but Matthew was not finished
“No you look, for your information as well, when you had my niece arrested at JFK that was the first time ever she had stepped foot on US soil, I have the documentary evidence to prove it, and if you persist in trying to fit her up for some crime committed in another state, that has now accepted the truth about my niece, I will file a civil suit against you and the department for harassment, false arrest and false imprisonment. You are lucky I have a good health insurance plan, or else I would be suing you for the cost of this trip to hospital”
“Sir,” Melanie interjected, “if he is the girl’s uncle, her legal guardian and her lawyer, then you don’t need me”
Detective John Zachery turned to her and told her, “Ok Melanie, thanks for making yourself available”
With that, the woman left the two detectives.

Matthew was confused, “I thought you were going to arrest Rebecca and take her to juvenile halls or something”

Detective John Zachery shook his head, “We seem to have our wires crossed, Mr Sands, we need to talk”

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Rebecca started to come round, she was shivering and still felt woozy from something, and then felt a pain in her right hand, so weakly she was just able to lift her right arm and noticed there was some needle inserted into her hand, which had a tube attached, which led to a see through bag attached to a metal stand, which had some kind of electronic box attached



Rebecca had been put on an intravenous drip.

Then she noticed she was in a bed and no longer in her clothes, but a typical hospital gown, and someone was gently holding her left hand with two hands.

“Welcome back to the land of the living love”, Rebecca heard in a familiar voice, it was her Uncle Matthew, she had vague recollections of him saying he would not leave her, when she had just been saved from suffocating and everyone, apart from him, seemed to be trying to kill her.
“Uncle Matthew” she said weakly, “I’m sorry” and then a tear emerged from left eye and trickled down the side of her face, then she added, “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble”

Matthew took a handkerchief and gently wiped Rebecca’s tear away, “Rebecca, love, you didn’t, you just had what we call a severe panic attack and your body kind of shut down, given what has happened to you, I’m not surprised, but your safe now”
“But the police” Rebecca insisted, “They came to lock me up”
“About that Rebecca, they spoke to me” Matthew reassured her, “They are not going to arrest you or lock you up, you’re not to worry about them now, concentrate on getting better”
“I don’t understand Uncle Matthew”

Rebecca tried to sit up, but still felt cold, woozy and was unsteady.
“Don’t get up love, your still on sedatives, something to help you relax and stop you having another attack love” Matthew told her
“Does this mean your not going to take me to your home now” Rebecca asked tearfully, she was still pretty confused and distressed.
“Rebecca, love, no it doesn’t, and it’s going to be your home as well. Your aunty Susan knows what has happened and the hospital is keeping you in over night, and I am going to stay here in the hospital with you, even if I have to sleep in this chair”

There was a knock on the door, it was the consultant. Rebecca watched as the consultant handed a big square thing to her uncle and asked him to sign something, which Uncle Matthew duly did. Then the consultant came over to Rebecca and asked her how she was feeling.
“I feel dizzy” she replied, “and I don’t feel strong, and I’m cold”
“Side effects of the medications and we will get you a cardigan to put on” the consultant told her, “You gave everyone a nasty fright there”
Rebecca again in a tearful voice replied, “I’m sorry sir, I didn’t mean to”
“I’m sorry Rebecca” the consultant told her, “that came out wrong, it wasn’t your fault, you were just unwell, that’s all”
“Yes love” Matthew chipped in, “nobody is blaming you for anything, now Rebecca, as I said, I’m here and we want you to get well.”

Matthew then turned to the consultant, “Does Rebecca still need that drip in her hand” he asked, “It will make putting a cardigan on a bit difficult”
“It is standard procedure here, as your niece was sedated when she was admitted, and I would like to keep it in for the time being, to see how she progresses” the consultant replied, “any way the nurses are able to help her put on any other clothes around it. I will ask them when they next come by this way.
“And when will that be?”
“It’s hard to say, this is a busy hospital Mr Sands”

“But I’m cold Uncle Matthew” Rebecca whined
“I hear you Rebecca” Matthew replied, then he took his top coat off and gently laid it over the bed where Rebecca lay, and being carful to avoid the IV, he mad sure it covered past her shoulders.
“Try and get some sleep love” Matthew told her, “I’m right just here, I’m not going anywhere”

Rebecca closed her eyes and tried to ignore the sensation from the IV drip needle, luckily Uncle Matthew’s coat did help to warm her up, for a brief moment she wished he was her daddy, especially as she could just about tell that he loved her like she was his daughter and wanted to protect her, but Uncle Matthew being her daddy, wasn’t that pushing her luck a bit too far? After all, all sorts of nasty things happening to her must be because she had done something wrong? Rebecca was happy to settle for him being just the loving and caring uncle. He was turning out to be.

It was about an hour before the nurses could come and attend to Rebecca, and carefully they manipulated the IV so that Rebecca could put on a cardigan, and then they took her to the bathroom. When she returned, another nurse brought an extra blanket, to help keep her warm. All the while the nurses chatted to each other as if Rebecca wasn’t there, except when they had to tell her to do things, and then they put her back into bed and left her in the ward with her uncle sitting in the chair beside the bed.

Matthew asked Rebecca if she was still feeling cold, but at that moment she was fine.

Again Matthew asked how she was feeling, and from Rebecca’s reply, Matthew could tell she was still feeling a little light headed and groggy from the medications, and so once again he told her she could try and get more sleep and not to worry, as he was there to watch over her and protect her.

Rebecca moved down a bit more in the bed and did her best to pull the covers over her left shoulder, but she could not do much about her right arm, as it still had the IV in it. Matthew then carefully placed his top coat over her so her right shoulder was covered and just her hand with the drip was poking out. Then he brushed Rebecca’s hair from out of her eyes and sat back down in the chair, just gazing at Rebecca, as she once again dropped off to sleep.

As Mathew watched over her, he remembered how he and Susan would just sit for hours hand in hand, watching their son Frank sleep in his cot. Also when ever Frank was ill while he was growing up, Matthew and Susan would either take it in terns to sit vigil, or would sit vigil together. Matthew just wished Susan was with him, to sit vigil over his niece, and eventually, Matthew drifted off to sleep.

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Matthew started to wake up, and noticed a small woman, almost as if she were a dwarf.



She seemed to be repositioning the coat and the covers so Rebecca was still warm and snug in the hospital bed. Then he noticed her stroke her hair. Then Matthew realised, she was not a nurse, but as he was about to speak, she looked at him with intense green eyes and then melted away, and then for Matthew everything went black.

Matthew came round; the visitation by the small woman must have been a dream. It was a very funny one as it seemed quite real

Rebecca was still fast asleep and looking quite peaceful compared to when she had the seizure at the law firm, brought on by the appearance of what seemed like two detectives and a woman to arrest her for the third time.

He looked at the air tickets he had bought to take himself and Rebecca to Portsmouth International Airport in New Hampshire. He looked at his watch; the plane should be taking off by now. So they missed a flight, there would be others, being with his dead sisters orphaned child was all that mattered at that moment, if only they had not had that family row all those years ago, perhaps his sister might still be alive, and perhaps he could have persuaded her to have joined him in the US, but that was all water under the bridge, and her last legacy was in front of him, sleeping in a hospital bed, with a drip in her hand, lonely, frightened and vulnerable, and his duty to protect, even if other members of the Sand’s family were shunning her.

It was around five in the afternoon when the consultant came round, and Matthew gently woke Rebecca up.

The consultant measured her blood pressure, her pulse rate and her breathing, all seemed nominal. Even the light-headedness was dissipating, so the consultant told the two of them that the IV drip could come out and so he removed it, and put a big plaster on Rebecca’s hand from where it had been. The consultant then told Rebecca that if she ever began to feel like she did, then she should try breathing slowly and deeply through the nose using the diaphragm and abdomen

Matthew told the consultant that he would try and remind Rebecca should such an episode happen again.

The consultant then reiterated, that just to be on the safe side, they would keep her in over night, once again Matthew insisted that if that was the case, he would stay there as well

The consultant told him there was no need as she would be all right.

Rebecca grew worried when she heard this, she had only just been reunited with him that day, and now they were trying to separate him from her. He had told her that he was there to protect her, if he went, then maybe the NYPD would seize their chance to reclaim her. She still did not understand what her uncle had meant when he had told her that they were not going to arrest her. She had heard them, they wanted to ask her questions and she remembered that back in England, when someone on the news said a person was helping police with their enquiries that really meant they had been arrested. Perhaps they had lied to her uncle; perhaps they were getting this consultant to send her protector away.

Rebecca’s windpipe began to close and she began finding it difficult to breathe

“Please don’t leave me” she just about gasped, “I’m frightened” she gasped again, then “they’ll take me away” she added

Matthew sat down on the side of the bed and held Rebecca’s hand, “Come on Rebecca, breath slowly through your nose” he told her, then he got her to imitate him as he did the Diaphragmatic Breathing, while the consultant stood next to him.

With in three minutes or so Rebecca was back to breathing normally

“Who will take you away?” the consultant asked Rebecca
“The police will” Rebecca whined, “They say I helped Corporal McCaskey do a cheque fraud, but I don’t know what that is” she pleaded

“Who’s corporal McCaskey?” the consultant enquired
“She’s an army officer” explained Matthew, “she was accompanying Rebecca on a plane from England, but it got diverted here, and when they landed she was arrested on an extradition warrant from Miami for a cheque fraud that was committed there while she was in the UK”
“So why is she afraid is the police will take her away?”
“They keep saying I was something called an accomplice” Rebecca chipped in, “but I don’t know what cheque fraud is Uncle”
“They have arrested her twice so far, and the second one they effectively made her strip in front of other prisoners in the police cells” Matthew added, “and her attack was triggered by some officers turning up as we were leaving our New York office” Then Matthew turned back to Rebecca, “Rebecca, those guys who showed up, are not going to hurt you or take you away” Matthew reassured her, “All they want to do is talk to you, and they are not going to take you to the police station, and when they do, I will be with you”
“Please let my uncle stay” Rebecca pleaded to the consultant, “I promise to be good” she added

Matthew turned back to the consultant, “No way am I leaving my niece while she is in this state” he insisted.
“But hospital policy”
“I don’t care about hospital policy, she needs me and if I go now, she will have a relapse, can’t you see that”

“I think you may be right, I will tell the administrator that in my medical opinion you should not be separated from her at this time” the consultant relented, “Meanwhile I will try and find a double room so you will be comfortable as well, but if we have a high demand”
“I appreciate that “Matthew told the consultant.

Then the consultant left to continue his rounds.

Rebecca sat up in the hospital bed, and the best of her ability, she hugged her uncle and closed her eyes, “I love you Uncle Matthew” she told him

Mathew hugged her back for about a minute, “I love you too Rebecca” he reciprocated, then he got off of the bed and sat in the chair beside it, and held out his hand so Rebecca could hold it.

About a quarter of an hour later, the nurse brought in a meal for Rebecca, but nothing for Matthew. Rebecca offered to share what little they gave with her uncle, who was now her hero. Matthew politely declined; he said he would ask a nurse late to get himself something from a vending machine.

After the nurse cleared the empty plates away, twenty minutes later, they told him they had found a double room and would ferry them across. Another nurse came with a wheel chair and insisted that Rebecca sit in it as it was hospital policy. While an orderly pushed it, Matthew came along carrying Rebecca’s suitcase and his overnight bag.

The double room was nice and spacious, and unlike the single room, a lot warmer. It had it’s own ensuit bathroom and shower, plus it had cable television, so uncle and niece spent a happy evening watching the nature channel, to help Rebecca forget about what had happened and so she could relax.

After about three hour long documentaries, Rebecca started yawning and was having trouble keeping awake, so Matthew opened her suitcase, took out and gave to her, her night clothes and closed the curtains around her bed to give her privacy while she changed out of the hospital clothes.

While Rebecca was changing, Matthew used the private ward’s telephone and phoned Susan his wife to update her. Like him she was completely aghast at how Rebecca had been treated, and told him how she and Frank were eager to meet “the new member of the family”.

New member of the family? It sounded like his wife Susan was amenable to an idea he had floated at her, just before he had left to drive down to New York.

Rebecca finished changing, pulled at the curtain to try and open it, but she found it difficult, so Matthew said his goodbye to his wife on the telephone and helped her open the curtain. After Rebecca had gone to the bathroom, as instructed by her uncle, she got back into bed, and Matthew tucked her in, and wished her pleasant dreams.

Soon, Rebecca was asleep, and Matthew gently laid his top coat over the bed to act as an extra blanket to keep his precious niece warm during the night. Then he kicked off his shoes, took off his watch and put it on the cabinet and lay down on the bed next to hers, and unusually for him was drifting off to sleep quicker than normal.

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Rebecca was standing in a snow plane, in her night clothes and she suddenly felt very cold, and she started to shiver.

“Thought you could escape me then you little urchin” came a terrifyingly familiar voice.

It was Jim

Jim trudged towards her, “What’s the matter little girl, No Hogan to protect you”

Suddenly he produced a meter long bamboo cane, just like the one he used to threaten to hit her with when her mother was out seeing to his “friends” in order to make her keep her mouth shut. The first and only time when he actually hit her was when she was nine, when he laid into her and used it across her legs and bottom, not because she had been naughty, but to show what she would get if she disobeyed him. The bruising lasted several days, and her mother was made to write a sick note to get her out of PE so the teacher would not see it. When she was ten, it disappeared, and that corresponded with one of the times that Jim beat her mother up, her mother had just told her she had taken the beating for her Rebecca, and they never spoke of it again. But now Jim had it back, or a new one at least.

She tried to run, but the snow was just too deep for her and so he caught up to her in no time, pushed her to the ground and raised it up his arm brought the bamboo cane down on Rebecca back hard.

It was agony and Rebecca screamed in pain and started to cry

He lifted his arm again
“Run away from me will you” he shouted at her, and then hit her again.
Rebecca screamed with pain.

“Scream all you like you snivelling little brat; no one will hear you hear, and even if they did they would not give a monkeys”
Then Jim snarled, “They would probably think you deserved it”

He lifted his arm again, “Tell tales on me will you”

Jim brought his arm down with all his force to inflict maximum pain on Rebecca with the bamboo cane and Rebecca flinched, waiting for its cruel sting, Jim’s hand just moved down and she was spared. Some how the cane had been removed from his hand.

Jim looked at his empty hand, “What the hell?” Jim shouted, then he looked down at the crying girl lying in the snow “Ok, I don’t need a cane to punish you, you little urchin” and he lifted his foot to kick Rebecca in the side.

Rebecca looked in terror at Jim’s heavy boot as it reached its highest point before it would be accelerated into her soft unprotected little body.

Suddenly she was aware of another man running through the snow, and Jim was knocked to the ground.

“LEAVE REBECCA ALONE” a familiar voice shouted

“Uncle?” Rebecca asked.
“It’s ok love I’m here” her uncle replied

Jim started to get up off of the floor, “Who on earth are you?” he demanded
“I’m her uncle” Matthew responded

Matthew got between the man and his niece, to protect her

Rebecca just raised her self up on to her left elbow, looking at the two men, one who had caused her pain and the other, her hero, her rescuer, her Uncle Matthew
“So Rebecca, still getting others to fight your battles to save your worthless hide”

Matthew pulled Jim to his feet in one go by his shirt lapels, “My niece is worth a lot more than you, you scum”
“Mind your own business; this is between me and her”
“She is my business, she’s family” Matthew replied, then he threw Jim to the ground
Jim sat up and pointed at a frightened Rebecca, “I have the right to punish her, just like I had the right to punish her mother for disobeying me”
“You really are a nasty piece of work” Matthew told him, “Anyway I thought they put you in prison”
“Yeah, but your precious little niece there keeps bringing me right on back, because she knows she is a worthless piece of crap” Jim shouted those words “worthless piece of crap”, pointing at Rebecca, and secretly Rebecca thought them true, after all why were all these horrible things happening to her if it were not so?

“Rebecca, love” Matthew said out loud, still watching Jim, to make sure he could not attack her again, “It’s not true, you are worth a lot to me”

Rebecca looked up at her uncle, and slowly got to her feet, making sure, her uncle was between her and Jim, she was trying to stop crying, and was still in pain from the caning Jim had inflicted upon her.

“Look at that snivelling little wretch, how could anyone care about such a pathetic creature as that?” Jim sneered

Rebecca looked down at the ground, Jim was right, wasn’t she Rebecca had been a runaway, she had used powers to make people do things, which wasn’t right, and even the NYPD thought she should be in prison. Maybe Jim had a point

“I care about her” Matthew barked back, and then he turned round and gently held Rebecca’s upper arms, “Rebecca, I love you and am so proud of you, as if you were my own daughter”

Rebecca hugged her uncle, “I love you Uncle Matthew, I’m so glad you want me” she tearfully told him.
“Don’t listen to that man Rebecca” Matthew lovingly told his niece, “You’re not worthless”
“I guess not Uncle Matthew” Rebecca sighed
“Rebecca, you are worth a lot to me and everyone who loves and cares about you” Matthew insisted
Rebecca looked into her Uncle Matthew’s eyes and could tell that he meant it, so maybe he was right and Jim was wrong, and she wasn’t what Jim had told her she was, especially if her uncle was prepared to move heaven and Earth to come for her and protect her. “No I’m not worthless Uncle” Rebecca said with more confidence.

Suddenly there was a loud and elongated “No” as both turned around to see Jim fading into nothingness.

Then both of them were standing in a meadow, in warm summer sun, with a short lady standing before them. The lady held up her right hand and a green glow surrounded Rebecca for a second, and the pain from the caning vanished.

Matthew recognised her, ”I saw you in the hospital”
“Indeed you did sir, I was not careful” the lady replied in an Irish accent
Rebecca then remembered what Hogan O’Brian the leprechaun had told her earlier, “Are you Rosie O’Brian?”
“The very same my dear”
“So we are dreaming?” Rebecca asked
“Absolutely, my dears, you are just dreaming”
“What?” Matthew replied
“Was Jim here?” Rebecca asked
“No, but your self loathing took on his form, you must listen to your uncle a bit more”
“Yes Miss O’Brian” Rebecca replied.

I have to let you go now, pleasant dreams for the rest of the night

With that, Rebecca’s dreams became more chaotic as normal dreams are, but these were happier ones, a gift from Rosie, so it would seem

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“Morning Rebecca” Matthew told her as Rebecca awoke from her dreams, “How are you feeling” he then asked

Her uncle was dressed and ready and sitting on his bed, and he had taken out some fresh clothes from the suitcase for Rebecca to put on.

Rebecca sat up, swung her legs over the bed, and edged forward to try and get off. Her uncle then got off his bed, picked her up and gently put her down so she could stand on the floor, then she just hugged him. “I love you Uncle Matthew, thank you for saving me” she said.

Matthew was momentarily caught off guard by this show of emotion and the word’s “saved me”, could she really have shared the same weird dream that he had of defending her from some assailant in the snow? Surely not – that was impossible Matthew kneeled down, and hugged her back, “I love you too Rebecca”, he reassured her, then told her, “you need to get showered and dressed, so we can get out of here”

Matthew waited while Rebecca took her clothes for the day into the shower room, had her shower and got dressed in there. Then she emerged and they waited for the nurse to bring Rebecca breakfast. Again she tried to share with her Uncle Matthew, and again he declined, telling her she needed it more than him.

The consultant arrived, examined Rebecca and cleared them for leaving, which they duly did.

Outside the hospital, Matthew hailed a yellow cab and requested that it take the two of them back to the offices of the law firm.

Matthew told Rebecca, not to worry or panic, but they were going to talk to Detective John Zachery alone, and he had promised them that Rebecca would not be re-arrested by the NYPD as they had done two days before. Even so, Rebecca was still worried.

They arrived at the offices of the law firm and walked through the foyer hand in hand to the elevators and took the elevator to the floor where Mr Davies worked. On the way up, Jane got in the elevator. ”I’m so glad you’re ok” she told Rebecca, “we were worried when we heard what happened to you”
“Thank you Miss Gardener” Rebecca replied, “I was very frightened” she added
“I bet you were honey” Jane Replied
“And I was very angry at the way they showed up” Matthew told Jane
“Mr Davies is planning on lodging a formal complaint” Jane replied
Just then the elevator doors opened. They reached the floor where Mr Davies worked.

Doreen was on duty at the floor’s reception desk. Doreen leaned over and spoke to Rebecca “And how are we today Miss Sands, are you feeling better?”
Rebecca looked up at her kind face and replied “Thank you Miss Doreen, I’m better now”. This was not really accurate, but Rebecca had learned that adults always asked people how they were as some kind of greeting, and they never really wanted to know how you were truly feeling inside. Rebecca was scared stiff, she was being taken to see an NYPD detective, who had tried to take her away the previous day

There was a buzz on the intercom and Doreen answered it, then put the phone down and pressed a button on the desk. “Mr Sands” Doreen told Matthew, “They’re inside waiting for you, go right on in”

Jane went down the corridor to another office and Rebecca waved “goodbye to her” Jane smiled and waved back.

Then Rebecca was led by her Uncle Matthew into the office.

In the section where there were easy chairs and a coffee table, sat Mr Davies and Detective John Zachery.

Matthew and Rebecca sat on a couch which was next to them. Rebecca looked at the Detective in abject terror, and clung on to her uncle’s arm.
Matthew whispered into her ear “Long slow deep breaths love, long slow deep breaths”
Rebecca started the slow breathing regime, trying to be brave and not cry.

“Rebecca” Detective Zachery opened with, “is it ok if I call you Rebecca”
Rebecca nodded, hardly able to utter a word
“Let me just say this first Rebecca, I apologise for scaring you like that yesterday, I was not made aware the full facts of the situation”
“ok” Rebecca forced out, still on the brink of tears due to shear terror, then she squeaked out, “Please sir I don’t know what cheque fraud is sir, I didn’t do it” then she was unable to hold the tears back.

Matthew put his arm around his niece and gave her a hug, “It’s ok love, they know that, he’s not here to arrest you”

Mr Davies leaned over and handed a box of tissues to Matthew, he took one and handed it to Rebecca to dry her eyes.

Detective Zachery waited for Rebecca to calm down, “I’m sorry that your upset Rebecca, I should have introduced myself better yesterday, I’m from IAB”

“IAB?” Rebecca repeated in a tearful voice
“It stands for Internal Affairs Bureau, we investigate if police officers are accused of breaking the rules”
Rebecca turned to her uncle, “I didn’t do anything wrong” she pleaded, tears still in her eyes.
“Rebecca love, this guy polices the police, he’s investigating how you were mistreated” Matthew replied
“That’s right Rebecca” the detective confirmed. Then he paused, looked at Matthew and then continued, “When any prisoner in police custody commits or attempts to commit suicide, we are now informed as a matter of routine, just in case of procedural errors.”

Rebecca remembered how she had rolled her bed sheet up, to make a rope to hang her self, when she thought not even her uncle would want her and when she thought everyone considered her to be a criminal.
“Oh no” she whispered
Matthew gave her a reassuring hug, and once again Rebecca looked up at him. “It’s ok, I know about it love” he told her, “and I’m here for you now, and I will never let you get that low again”
“Am I in trouble?” Rebecca asked her uncle
Matthew just shook his head and kissed Rebecca’s forehead, “no love, not you’re not, the people you put you in that cell are”

Detective Zachery waited again then continued “Rebecca, usually this inquiry is just what we call a paper exercise, and we normally speak to the custody sergeant or the person who made the discovery in this case, Detective Fern Brown.”
“She was nice” Rebecca quietly said, “is she in trouble because of me” she then asked, worried that she had got someone who had been kind to her in to trouble with the law.
“No she’s not Rebecca, far from it, she was most helpful. She told me how you were made to strip naked in full view of everyone, in violation of protocols to hand back some clothing, if I heard correctly”

Rebecca, thought back to how she had been ordered to remove the clothing she had been made to wear by the group home run by the Administration for Child Services, and once again Matthew had to hug his niece as she was reduced to tears, just remembering the humiliation she had felt. “They were laughing at me” Rebecca sobbed
“My Niece had her human rights violated in that police station” Matthew told the detective.
“So we are discovering” the detective replied then he asked,”Rebecca did anyone tell you that when you were being questioned you could have a youth advocate present”
Rebecca, just shook her head then still crying, replied, “They just kept shouting at me, they wanted me to say I was something called an accomplice to cheque fraud and I don’t know what they are”
“Well that confirms that” Detective Zachery told her, “We looked at the interview logs and there was no evidence they asked you that, and being a minor they were not supposed to interview you in the way they did”
“Then why did they?” Matthew asked
“Well for a start, they claim that as the person she was with was wanted on an extradition warrant they didn’t think the regulation applied as it was not a crime committed in this state”
“What!” Matthew exclaimed
“And to make matters worse, and I suspect this was the real reason, they were in a sort of competition with two other precincts, that have been given official warnings on who can clear the most number of extradition warrants”

“But there wasn’t a warrant out on Rebecca” Mr Davies interrupted, “When we contacted the Miami Police Department they said their suspect worked with a male suspect and not a minor. In fact the Miami PD were lead to believe the NYPD had both the male and female suspects and not just the female one until we informed them”
“Yes Mr Davies” Detective Zachery responded, “My colleague also contacted the Miami PD to confirm their procedures for interviewing suspects who are minors, just in case the officers claimed they were following their protocols”
“And were they?” Matthew asked
“Miami PD has exactly the same safeguards; the interviewing officers were just trying it on in my opinion, to get your niece to confess to being an accomplice to get more points in their sick little competition with the other two precincts. We have had problems over the years across the US with minors making false confessions due to inappropriate confessions.”

“And my niece would have confessed to this if the ACS hadn’t intervened” Matthew said with growing anger in his voice
“But I didn’t do anything” Rebecca insisted, “I kept telling them I had never been abroad before and they didn’t believe me”
Matthews tone dropped as he spoke to Rebecca, “I know love, but they believe you now”
“Yes we most certainly do Rebecca” Detective Zachery told Rebecca, and then he continued “We are also investigating the interviewing officers for possible perjury over getting the judge to order the ACS to surrender you Rebecca back to the police station.”
“What did I do to them?” Rebecca asked, still very upset
“Nothing Rebecca” Detective Zachery told her, “like I said, they were in this competition and they wanted the points for sending Miami PD two suspects instead of one, so they told the court that Miami PD had requested your extradition as well and the ACS was blocking it”
“Why didn’t the ACS group home contest it?” Matthew asked, “I understand they just folded”
“Well that care home is usually for juvenile offenders” Detective Zachery told him

“Is that why we were made to walk outside in the cold?” Rebecca asked, “And why they made us miss meals if we didn’t make our beds properly” she added in all innocence

“I don’t think that’s supposed to happen” Mr Davies chipped in, “Did they make you miss a meal Rebecca?”
“No sir” Rebecca answered, “but one girl had to miss breakfast and make all our beds, and when we were marching outside in the cold one girl did this” and Rebecca mimicked the action of someone holding their arms up to try and keep warm, “and she had to do twenty push-ups while we watched and then she wasn’t allowed to eat anything for the rest of the day”

Matthew was now concerned that someone else had miss treated his niece, “Rebecca love, while you were walking outside, what did you get to wear if this girl was cold”
“We were only allowed to wear a white tee-shirt and jeans uncle” Rebecca replied, again in all innocence for as far as she was concerned, that was how it was, then she added, “only the man who made us march was allowed to wear a coat”

Matthew looked at detective Zachery and Mr Davies, “That shouldn’t be happening, should it”

“I’m afraid I’m not briefed for policing the ACS, you would have to raise that with the ACS directly”
“I’ll do that” Mr Davies told him, “I have contacts in the right places to look into that”
“But my friend Mazy told me people said that’s how we deserved to be treated” Rebecca insisted, again in all innocence
“No it isn’t love” Matthew told her, put his arm around her and gave her another hug, “especially not my little girl”
“I thought she was your niece, not your daughter” a confused Detective Zachery asked
“Your right, she is my niece, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s my little girl now” Matthew replied, still hugging Rebecca
“I think I understand” The detective said, “You love her very much, I can tell”
“And I love my uncle Matthew” Rebecca announced and put her arms around him and tried to hug him as best as she could.

“Anyway” Detective Zachery interrupted, “Getting back to the matter in hand, the officers appear to have lied to the judge to get the ACS to surrender Rebecca, so they could put her on the same flight as this Corporal Tania McCaskey.
“But I never saw Corporal McCaskey” Rebecca chimed in.
“That was because by the time you got there, someone got the call that the Miami PD officers had arrived at the airport earlier than planned and Miss McCaskey was taken to the airport” Detective Zachery explained.
“So she’s in prison in Miami” Rebecca then asked, “She seemed a nice lady”

Detective John Zachery paused again, “This is where this sorry mess really turns into a fiasco. I got a call from my counterparts in Miami, it seems when they got someone in to ID McCaskey, and he told them that she was not to one who committed the offence in the fist place. The Miami PD and the NYPD yesterday got an angry call from a Colonel Samuel Peters in England, confirming that she was out of the country when the offences was committed, so she has been released. She now trying to find the money to get back to New York”
“So why did they arrest her if she didn’t do it either” Rebecca asked with a confused tone of voice

Detective Zachery then went onto explain further “Rebecca, it seems that Corporal McCaskey’s details may have been on a D O D laptop that was stolen two months ago, and an identity thief used her passport number to commit the fraud. The arresting officers should have confirmed her identity in New York before calling Miami. They never even bothered to interview the rest of the people on the flight she came in, which for crying out loud was a US Air Force aeroplane. “

Then Rebecca asked, “Am I free to go with my uncle to New Hampshire please”
“Absolutely” the detective reassured her, “I don’t think we will need you further as we have enough to institute disciplinary procedures, if not criminal ones against those officers who abused you”
“I was so scared of them sir” Rebecca sniffed, “I was frightened you were all trying to stop me go and live with my uncle and I kept thinking I had done something wrong” and then she broke down again, and again her uncle had to hug her to try and comfort her
“Rebecca, you never did anything wrong” The detective told her, “it was the officers who processed you who got it wrong”
Matthew then turned to Rebecca, “Rebecca, I think we have taken enough of Detective Zachery’s and Mr Davies valuable time”
“Ok Uncle” Rebecca sniffed and then took another tissue from the box as Matthew offered it to her

The detective stood up, and so did Mr Davies. Rebecca just looked up at him, as she wiped the tears from her face.

The detective looked at Rebecca and then spoke to her, in as kind a voice as he could manage, “Rebecca I’m so sorry you were treated this way, after we have concluded disciplinary proceedings, the department will be talking with your legal representatives about compensation, but I just want to assure you that the New York Police department takes rule breaking by its own officers very seriously and there are many who work there, like Detective Fern Brown, who would be horrified at what happened to you, as it reflects badly on them.”

Mr Davies then showed the detective to the door, and just as he was in the doorway he stopped and told Rebecca, “Rebecca, I spoke to Mrs Lisa Duncan, and she said this experience had made you afraid of NYPD officers, you don’t have to be, most of them are doing an excellent job in protecting people like you and your uncle. They aren’t out to get you.”

Rebecca got up, and then walked up to the detective with her arms wide open. The detective knelt down and allowed a tearful Rebecca to hug him.
“Thank you” she was just able to get out.
“That’s alright” the detective whispered, “I’m just sorry this had to happen to you”

Rebecca let go of him and the detective stood up and left, then Rebecca ran back to her uncle and hugged him, has he had got up off of the sofa.

“Take as long as you like” Mr Davies told them, so Matthew knelt down and hugged his niece back, with what she had been through since the plane she was one had been diverted, she needed a lot of reassurance that things from now on would be ok.

After about ten minutes, Matthew left the office, said goodbye to Doreen and Jane, took the elevator down to the foyer and left via the front door.

Outside there was an NYPD officer with a squad car, “IAB suggested you might like a ride to the airport” he told Matthew, “to show we are not all bad guys”

Rebecca instinctively gasped at his presence, but her uncle reassured her that it was ok this time.

The police officer let Rebecca sit at the front while her uncle sat in the back with the officer’s partner, and true to their word they drove them to the airport, whilst the police officer at the front expressed how angry they were that some of their colleagues had let the force down, by targeting Rebecca, especially given her experience back in England at the hands of a child molester.

They arrived safely at the airport, and Matthew was given two tickets by the police officer who had been driving them, to make up for the flight they had missed while Rebecca was in the hospital.

Rebecca gave both police officers as big a hug as she was able, and then Matthew and Rebecca went to baggage check-in to check Rebecca’s suit case and then they went through security without a hitch and made it to airside.

They just had thirty minutes to wait in the departure lounge before their flight, a domestic flight to Portsmouth International Airport in New Hampshire, the nearest airport to her uncle’s home in Rochester, so they sat together on a seat, with Matthew holding a protective arm around Rebecca waiting for the flight to be called

Rebecca smiled at her uncle and he smiled back, he had proved to be every much the hero she had believed him to be, and she knew that he loved her, just as if she were his daughter.

However Rebecca began wondering, how his wife and his son going to react to her?
Her uncle had said how they were eager to meet her, but were they really?
She knew that her grandparents on her mother’s side also lived in New Hampshire, but they refused to have any dealings with her or her mother, so what did they have against her and would they oppose her living with her uncle?

Rebecca kept expecting something to go wrong, to prevent her leaving New York, but the flight was called and so they made their way to the gate, and into their seats on the plane.

Rebecca closed her eyes, still fearing the worst
“Not long now love” Matthew told her
Rebecca nodded, but she was too afraid to speak, as just when things seemed to look up, something would happen to shoot her dreams down in flames.

Then the plane taxied to the runway. Waited for ten minutes, and finally took off

Rebecca was back on her way, but how would she be received in Rochester New Hampshire?

She didn’t want to tell her uncle, but she was worried her welcome might not be that warm

To be continued

[Sticks]

Episode V – Various Types of Welcome

Ever wanted to make a fresh start and ever wondered what we really mean by that?
We have all sorts of natty euphemisms for this concept:

• Turn over a new leaf
• Start a fresh
• Clean slate

To name a few, but do they mean anything?
I suppose if we were to move to another city, we have to make new friends, take out new utility subscriptions, etc. But that is not what we mean by a fresh start, is it?

Is it not the idea of dumping all the baggage you have been hauling, literally and metaphorically, and starting as if you had never existed.

The trouble is, many people still hang on to their “baggage”, or it follows them.

This could be the situation a certain former minor spirit of virtue, the Ex-Spirit of Kindness faces. After willingly giving up her powers, such as they were, and to be honest she never knew she had them in the first place, and becoming fully human, she was promised a new life, as plain old Rebecca Sands, with her uncle and his family. But things went awry when the plane got diverted to New York.

But her uncle has shown himself to be one of the most decent and honourable human beings to walk the face of the planet, in sharp contrast to the so called boyfriend of Rebecca’s mother, and rescued her from her travails. Now it seems she is back on target to start the wonderful new life that was promised way back in London at the top secret base known as “The Facility”. This is to be Rebecca’s Fresh start.

One problem, how will those at the other end react to Rebecca, will she be welcomed or seen as someone intruding into their lives. As Rebecca sits with her uncle in the plane, she secretly dreads the latter, especially given how her life has been so far…

–

The plane reached its cruising altitude and the flight attendants were dealing out the in-flight meals. Rebecca was sitting by the window while her uncle sat on the isle seat, switching her gaze from the window to trying to see over the seats in front of her, the flight attendants delivering the food and drink.

Eventually they reached the two of them and they were given some kind of cold sandwich in a cellophane package with a small round carton containing mineral water.
“Thank you” Rebecca politely said as she received hers
Matthew also said a thank you, and then asked Rebecca if she had problem’s opening hers up, but Rebecca was able to manage it all by herself.

Rebecca found the meal was not as good as the food served on the US Air Force, but it was not inedible, so she ate it slowly, staring at the back of the seat in front her, thinking about what was ahead of her.
Matthew polished his of quite quickly, since he had eaten hardly anything since the following day when he had sat by Rebecca as she lay in a hospital bed after a severe panic attack.

As Rebecca and her Uncle Matthew tucked in, one of the flight attendants came up and asked Matthew if he wanted coffee, which he accepted, and then the attendant asked if his daughter wanted fruit juice or a soda.
Rebecca half expected her Uncle Matthew to correct her, but he just turned and asked Rebecca what she wanted, which made Rebecca feel good inside Yet again her uncle thought of her as if she was his daughter

Rebecca smiled at her uncle and opted for a soda, and then said another thank you to the flight attendant.

But as she drank it she went back to being reflective and pondering what kind of reception she would get.

Her beloved uncle could somehow sense something was playing on her mind, “Rebecca, are you ok?” he asked
Rebecca thought for a moment, her uncle had told her things would be good with the rest of his family, but the fact her grandfather had wanted nothing to do with her and her mother still played on her mind. What would her aunty Susan and cousin Frank be like? After all apart from her grandparents, her uncle was her only blood relative, so no wonder he loved her, they had one person in common, her dead mother.
“Rebecca” Matthew repeated.

Rebecca turned looked up at her uncle, “Uncle Matthew, do you miss my Mum as well” she asked
Matthew sighed, “Yes love, every day, when we were children we were quite close”
“I’m sorry I could not tell you, but my mum’s boyfriend would not let me” Rebecca said in a downcast tone
“That’s ok, love, I found out eventually” Matthew told her to try and reassure her, “From what I heard about this boyfriend of my sister, he was a real nasty piece of work”
“I was frightened of him Uncle” Rebecca said with pathos still in her voice. Then she looked down at the floor, “I had a dream about him last night, I was in the snow and he came and started hitting me”
Matthew suddenly had a strange sinking feeling, had they shared the same dream?
Rebecca looked up at her Uncle, “But then you came and saved me” she told him
“And then that small lady said that he was actually your self loathing” Matthew told Rebecca

Rebecca’s eyes opened wide, “So you were there as well Uncle Matthew!” she exclaimed
“Yes love, it appears so, and I don’t know how, but I was with you there” Matthew replied, “and remember what I told you there”
“That I’m not worthless like Jim said I was”
“Exactly” Matthew responded, and then he thought for a moment, “Did he ever tell you, you were worthless in real life?” Matthew asked
Rebecca nodded, “Sometimes, when I didn’t do some of the things he wanted me to do which didn’t feel right”
Matthew had another sinking feeling, remembering the shared dream they had somehow had, “And did he ever hit you in real life?”
Rebecca just nodded and then tears slowly rolled down her face, then she remembered how her mother had tried to protect her from Jim, sometimes at the cost of a beating, “I miss my mum too” she said quietly
Matthew placed his left hand on Rebecca’s right hand, “You and me both”
Rebecca just nodded, with the tears streaming down her face.

Matthew handed Rebecca a serviette so she could wipe her face, and then the same flight attendant who had served them earlier came by to collect the used trays and cups before landing.
“Everything ok sir” she asked
“Yeah, Rebecca just misses her mother” Matthew explained, “She died about a month ago, we were just talking about her”
“So she was your wife then” the flight attendant enquired
“My sister” Matthew corrected
“Oh so this young lady is not your daughter then” the flight attendant replied, then added “sorry I just thought she was your daughter”

Rebecca felt like she had been kicked in the guts by this flight attendant emphasising the word “not” and reminded her, that even if she and her Uncle Matthew were close with in his family, she would always be the outsider, just like at her school where all the children shunned her, because their parents had instructed them to, on account of something her mother did for a living, but she knew not what. The flight attendant did not even use her name.

“Daughter, Niece, those are just words” Uncle Matthew told the flight attendant, “As far as I’m concerned Rebecca here might as well be my daughter, because that is how I intend to bring her up as”, then he visibly held Rebecca’s hand to emphasise the point.
“I think that’s wonderful sir” the flight attendant replied, then she turned to Rebecca, “I’m sorry about your mother, but your uncle is a good man and obviously loves you very much”
“Thank You” Rebecca replied and then handed the flight attendant her used tray, as did her uncle. The flight attendant then moved away to deal with the next row.

Rebecca and her uncle just sat there holding hands, united in their grief for a sister and a mother.

Not long after, the seatbelt sign went on as the aircraft made its decent into Portsmouth International Airport

“Will Aunty Susan and Cousin Frank be meeting us at Portsmouth airport?” Rebecca asked
“I’m afraid not” Matthew replied, “Susan works today as it’s Saturday, at a real estate office in Rochester, and Frank is at an important baseball game, he’s one of his teams best pitchers” Matthew added with pride
“Oh” Rebecca sighed Obviously they must not think much of her she thought if they had better things to do than meet her off of the aeroplane, then she asked, “How are we going to get to your house in Rochester?”
“There’s an air service up to our local airport at Skyhaven, sometimes I like to take the train instead when I have time, but it would be a bit to late arriving in Rochester at this time of day. Even so by the time we arrive, Susan’s will have only just finished work, and Franks game should be into it’s forth innings” Matthew explained then he added, “So we will catch a taxi home”
“Ok” Rebecca murmured
Matthew could sense her disappointment at not being met, “It just means we have more time to catch up before we meet the others”

The plane managed to touch down with no problem as the storm that had diverted the USAF plane had now gone. The plane taxied to the stand and Matthew and Rebecca disembarked.

After twenty minutes in baggage retrieval, Matthew picked up Rebecca’s suitcase and walked with her, holding her hand. Matthew handed both passports to the immigration officer, and Rebecca remembering what happened in New York feared that history would repeat itself, but they were waved through like so many of the other passengers.

They then made their way to a ticket desk so that Matthew could buy tickets for the air service to Skyhaven. After buying the tickets, Matthew phoned up his wife’s work and got voice mail, so he left a message that they had arrived in Portsmouth and were taking the next flight to Skyhaven airport near Rochester.

Because it was a smaller aircraft, Rebecca got to take her suitcase on as hand luggage, and trundled it behind her with one hand while she held onto her uncle’s hand with her other hand. If anyone had seen them and did not know it, they would have thought of them as father and daughter, so naturally did they connect with each other, but still at the back of her mind Rebecca kept worrying how she would be regarded by her Aunt Susan and Cousin Frank, she was after all, invading their space.

They reached the gate and boarded the small aircraft. Her uncle carried the suitcase up into the plane and stowed it away. Again Rebecca had the window seat, so her Uncle Matthew could sit protectively in the isle seat.

While they were waiting for takeoff, Rebecca thought back to her earlier childhood and how she had never heard from her grandparents on her mother’s side. Maybe her Uncle Matthew would know why

“Uncle” she asked
“Yes Rebecca?”
“Why do nana and granddad not want to have anything to do with me?” Rebecca asked in a quiet sad voice, “What did we do wrong?” she added.

Matthew let out a big sigh, “Well, Rebecca, you obviously haven’t heard, I’m sorry, but I have to let you know, your grandma passed away last fall”
Rebecca looked down at the bottom of the chair in front, another member of her family had died, “Oh” she squeaked out.
Matthew held her left hand and turned to look at her as best he could in the airline seat, “I’m sorry, I did write, but I suspect my letter was intercepted by that Jim guy”
“He did that with all of our letter’s Uncle” she responded.
“Anyway Rebecca, it was all very sudden, she died in her sleep, she didn’t suffer”
“But why did they not want to have anything to do with us, what did we do wrong?” Rebecca insisted

Matthew thought it was best to explain the whole family background and so began, “When my father was stationed with the US Airforce in England, he met and married an English girl. I was born first, and my sister, your mother was born when I was five. We stayed in the UK until my father was transferred back to Rochester where he retired from the air force. Your mother was doing A levels at the time so she stayed behind with friends.”
“Is that when my mum met my father?” Rebecca asked
“Yes, they started living together without getting married and it upset mom and dad a lot, because they were committed members of our church, then she fell pregnant with you and it got even worse. Dad told her that if she wanted to return home, she had to give you up for adoption or marry your father. She didn’t see why as she was great friends with your father until he walked out.”
“I was told he was summoned to some place called the Mystical Realms” Rebecca interjected.
“Whatever” Matthew replied and then continued the family history, “she asked if she could come back after that, but dad was adamant that she should give you up for adoption, I think he didn’t want the shame of a child born out of wedlock under his roof, because he thought it would reflect on him and. Your grandmother tried to convince him otherwise, but he was immovable. Either your mother gave you up or he would cut all links with her. I already had a son with my wife Susan, She practically fell pregnant on our wedding night, but because of complications at birth she couldn’t have anymore children, so I offered to adopt you, it seemed like a win - win solution, but your mother said that was tantamount to saying she could not look after you and so my offer was turned down. Dad cut all links, but I still kept talking with my kid sister in hopes we could get a reconciliation, but that was not to be”

Rebecca thought for a moment and got very worried, “If granddad doesn’t want me, does that mean I can’t live with you after all?” If she could not stay with her uncle, where could she stay?
“Dad is not running my family” Matthew reassured her, “,I am, My wife Susan thinks he is a stubborn old man and that neither of you would have suffered at the hands of that monster if it weren’t for his intransigence.”
“Does he have nothing to do with you either because you talked with me and my mum?” Rebecca asked
“We still talk, we’re members of the same church so we have to, I eventually stopped mentioning you or your mother some years ago, as he got angry every time I brought you up in conversation, but I think it’s time he was made to face the consequences of his pride” Matthew told her, then he added, “Rebecca I love you and I will care for you like you were my own daughter”
Rebecca looked up at her uncle, “Thank you Uncle Matthew” she replied, “I love you and I promise to be good”
“I know you will love”

The plane taxied to the runway and took off. This time there were no in flight meals as it was a short service, and in less than an hour they were touching down at Skyhaven.

Matthew again insisted on carrying Rebecca’s case and soon they were coming into the arrivals hall. Again Rebecca held her breath as they went past some official, but again, unlike New York, nothing happened.

Rebecca asked her uncle if she could pull her suitcase along, and so her uncle let her, they then started heading for the exit and the taxis, hand in hand

“MATTHEW REBECCA” shouted a female voice

“DAD, REBECCA” shouted a teenage boy

Rebecca looked around to see who had called hers and her uncle’s names, but there were quite a number of people milling around. Then her uncle stopped and pointed at a woman, in her mid to late thirties, with very short brown hair, looking stern and a teenage boy that bore a resemblance to her uncle, “Look Rebecca they came to meet us after all!” her uncle exclaimed, “I didn’t expect them to do that”

Just then the boy ran up to her uncle, “Hey dad you made it back with her at last” the boy said in a joyful manner.

Uncle Matthew let go of Rebecca’s hand and grabbed the boy’s shoulders with both hand, “Hey Frank, I thought you had an important ball game today”
“Yeah Dad, but I told the coach that something came up, family wise” Frank explained, then he turned to Rebecca, “There’ll be other ball games, but I didn’t want to miss meeting Rebecca when she landed”, and then he gave Rebecca an unexpected, but welcome hug.

While Frank was embracing Rebecca, the woman came up and embraced Rebecca’s uncle and kissed him passionately.

“I heard so much about you” Frank told Rebecca and then released her from the bear hug, “Say what did they call you in England, Becky? Becca?”
“Rebecca” Rebecca answered, confused by the question
“Did you not like Becca or Becky?” Frank pressed
Rebecca was confused, “My name’s Rebecca”
Frank put his palms up “Sorry Rebecca, it’s just some girls I know with your name kind of shortened it to one of those alternatives”
“They just called me Rebecca in England”
“Rebecca’s cool” Frank then reassured her then took her suitcase telling her, “Let me take that for you”

Rebecca let go of the suitcase and allowed her cousin to take it.

The woman finished hugging her uncle and came across to a now slightly overwhelmed Rebecca, and knelt down to be at her level, “I’m Matthews’s wife” she introduced herself, “And you must be Rebecca”
“Yes Mrs Sand” Rebecca said in a nervous and demure manner
“Aunty Susan will do” Susan told her smiling and looking Rebecca, then she gave Rebecca a big hug, “You should have been with us long before this” she then added quietly
“Sorry Aunt Susan” Rebecca replied, nearly on the edge of crying, “But the plane got diverted and then they arrested me for a crime in Miami I never heard of”
Rebecca was going to go on, but Susan interrupted, “I didn’t mean that stupid mix up in New York sweetheart, I meant we should have had you when you were a baby, you and your mother”, then she kissed Rebecca on the forehead, stood up and took Rebecca’s hand.

Matthew then took Rebecca’s other hand and the three of them walked to the parking lot, with Frank carrying Rebecca’s suitcase.

So it seemed to Matthew, that Susan his wife still supported his suggestion at that time long ago to adopt Rebecca, but a lot of water had flowed under the proverbial bridge since he suggested it all those years ago, did she still think it was a good idea, and what would his son Frank think of it, would he object at the prospect of his inheritance being halved?

They located the car, which was a red Jeep, with a top on



and Susan got in the driver’s seat

“I wanna ride shotgun with mom!” Frank exclaimed as he went to deposit Rebecca’s suitcase in the trunk of the vehicle.
“Oh no you don’t” Matthew told him, “You ride in the back with your sis..” then he stopped, winced, “your cousin” ”That was some Freudian slip” Matthew thought, then reflected “Thank goodness Susan didn’t hear, I don’t want to bounce her into anything”

Rebecca looked up at her uncle with sad eyes, instantly Matthew could tell he had upset his sister’s child by highlighting she was not his direct flesh and blood, so he knelt down to talk to her. “Sorry Rebecca” he whispered to you, “I still consider you as if you were my daughter, if that’s ok with you”
Rebecca nodded, “Can I think of you as if you were my daddy then?” she whispered back in a pleading tone
“Sure love”, then Matthew spoke to Frank in a way that both Rebecca and Susan could hear, “Frank can you not refer to Rebecca as Cousin Rebecca, but just Rebecca” then he told Rebecca, “You can just call Frank, Frank, you don’t have to say Cousin Frank”
“Anything you say Dad, fine by me!” Frank replied and shrugged as if he had been requested not to stop breathing.

Matthew opened the passenger side door and tipped the seat forward so the children could get in. As the ground clearance was high, Matthew lifted Rebecca up so she could get in behind Susan, and then Frank climbed in unaided. Matthew then moved the seat back and got into the passenger side. Frank then leaned over and helped Rebecca with her seat belt, and then he buckled himself up

The Jeep then pulled out

Frank gently took hold of Rebecca’s right hand with his left, and Rebecca turned her head to look up to him. “I would like to think of you as my kid sister if that’s ok with you” he whispered.
Rebecca just smiled and nodded, this was just one of the few moments in her short life, that she felt happy. Two people wanted to consider her as part of the family, but what about the third, her “Aunt Susan”

After a twenty minute drive, they arrived at the house where the Sands’ family lived.

Rebecca had finally arrived at her new home, well the place she would be staying at the kind generosity of her dead mother’s elder brother anyway

Susan got out, and then got Rebecca’s suitcase out of the back whilst Matthew let the children out of the back, again he had to lift Rebecca down because of the height of the vehicle’s ground clearance.

As Rebecca stood in the driveway she saw that it was big and there was another car, presumably her Uncle Matthew’s

As Matthew opened the front door, and while Susan was locking the Jeep, Frank grabbed Rebecca’s hand and led her briskly though the front door, up the stairs and to spacious bedroom. “This is your new room Rebecca” he informed her, and then he pointed to where the upstairs bathroom was. Matthew then called Frank down for something and so he rushed back down the stairs leaving Rebecca alone in her new room.

Rebecca sat down on the bed and sighed, this was much nicer than Jim’s dingy flat, but she had left so much of her life behind, well she had no choice, not the way he had given her his twisted ultimatum just after her mother’s funeral. In the strange way, one thought can link to another she found herself wishing her mother could see that she had finally escaped that violent and sickening man, which led her to thinking about her mother and how she could not see her when she went into hospital for the last time and again how much she missed her, and a pain deep inside gnawed at her and she felt she was at the bottom of a very deep dark well, with no chance of escape.

“You ok sweetheart?” Susan’s voice interrupted Rebecca’s thoughts.

Susan had brought up the suitcase. Susan then sat on the bed next to Rebecca and put her arm around her.
“This is a lovely room, thank you” Rebecca started, “And thank you for letting my uncle look after me, I promise to not cause any trouble” she added with a pleading tone. Rebecca was still nervous about what her aunt really thought of her
“I know you won’t sweetheart” Susan reassured her, “But I can tell something is bothering you”
“I don’t know Aunt Susan, I just feel horrible” Rebecca replied, and a tear slowly started down her cheek.
Susan then hugged Rebecca, “I know what you are going through, I felt the same in the eleventh grade when my best friend Mandy died in an automobile accident several years ago” She explained, “I still miss her everyday as well, and your uncle, he misses his sister every day, I can tell”
Then Rebecca broke into sobs, “It hurts, Aunty, it hurts” she wailed.
“I know sweetheart, I know” Susan told her, “But we’re all here for you now”

Susan held Rebecca for what seemed like ten minutes, Frank briefly came to the door of Rebecca’s room, but on seeing his mother comforting his younger cousin, he backed off. He was only sixteen, but he knew enough to keep out of certain things. Rebecca had been through a lot, ever since the funeral, and only now when she was safe with the only family she still had left, would the grief start to reassert itself.

Susan helped Rebecca unpack her suitcase, and put things away, to try and change the mood from the sadness, she told her that she needed to take her out shopping for more clothes, then she got Rebecca to come down and help lay the table for an evening meal, as she told Rebecca, that one way to ease the pain of loss sometimes was to be busy so you did not dwell on things.

When the home cooked meal was served, it had been cooked by Matthew, as he happened to be the better cook; they all sat down, and like the Duncans in New York, they all held hands, whilst her Uncle Matthew said the prayer for the food.

After dinner, when the dishwasher was loaded, Rebecca slipped out of the main living room to go up to her room, as she thought that her Uncle Matthew ought to have some time alone with his immediate family., She was only a niece and not his daughter, she would only be in the way and she had taken enough of his time from his family as it was. Frank spotted her and asked her where she was going, because he wanted to get her to create her avatar on the family’s Wii. Without any protest she came back into the room, and spent a good time creating the avatar with Frank’s help and then trying out the ten pin bowling, with Frank, Matthew and Susan, all playing together with her.

It seemed like Frank was right, as Rebecca for the evening, on what had been a long day, forgot what had happened, and for the first time as far as she could recall, had fun, even if she didn’t win. It was like heaven, it was as if she was part of a family at last, and mercifully forgot that she did not think she was

“They look so natural together” Matthew whispered to Susan, and took hold of his wife’s hand
“Yes Matthew, they certainly do” Susan replied, and squeezed her husband’s hand.

Eventually it was bed time, and Susan reminded them it was church the next day, so they all turned in for the night.

After she got in, Rebecca felt the nice warm bed, and was thankful for finding such a nice loving and caring family, who would let her live with her beloved Uncle Matthew. She caught herself wishing he was her daddy, as she could hardly remember her real father, the Major Spirit of Virtue, the long dead, Spirit of Friendship, but that would be pushing her luck a bit too far. Better to settle for what she had

Soon she fell asleep, and fortunately none of her dreams featured the hated Jim

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Sunday morning was bright and sunny but cold.

Rebecca woke up early, and made for the shower and managed to get in first. The controls seemed stiff, so she needed both hands to turn it on, and then she had to wait for the water to heat up, which seemed to take forever. Then she noticed a pull cord that turned the shower heating on, but it was just out of reach, and she did not want to disturb anyone by jumping, so in the end she had to endure a cold shower, which took her breath away. Rebecca found herself crying again, with tears of frustration, and was shivering violently when she wrapped a bath towel around her.

She opened the bathroom door to be confronted by Aunt Susan, in her nightgown carrying something over her left arm.
“Sorry Aunt Susan” Rebecca sobbed, “I didn’t mean to keep you waiting
“That’s ok Sweetheart, but you look frozen” Susan told her in a soft voice.
“I couldn’t switch the hot water on” Rebecca wept.
“I’m sorry about that, we should have left it on for you” Susan apologised “I’ll get Matthew or Frank to put an extension on it for you” then Susan ushered Rebecca back into the bathroom, closed the door, switched the hot water heater on and gave her what she was carrying, it was a bathrobe, “This used to be Frank’s” she explained, “It will do until I can buy you your very own one”
“Thank you Aunt Susan” Rebecca responded and then replaced the towel with the bathrobe.
“Didn’t you want to have a hot shower?” Susan queried.
Rebecca slowly shook her head, she did not want to delay her aunt, and she had showered albeit a cold one.
“Ok sweetheart” Susan relented, “Go and get dressed, now”
“But I don’t have any pretty dresses aunty, for church” Rebecca said to her aunt, with tears still in her eyes,
“What you have Rebecca is perfectly ok, we like to think of our church as a family, and if anyone does complain tell them to see me, ok”
“Yes Aunt Susan” Rebecca responded and then left the bathroom so her aunt could use the shower, and she went and got dressed in the most respectful clothes she could find from amongst those that were bought for her by the Duncans in New York.

When he got up, Matthew prepared a cooked breakfast and Rebecca tried to help, but as she could only just reach the back of the stove, she was assigned the task of setting the table. While she was doing it, to make conversation, Matthew asked if she had slept ok and how she was feeling. Rebecca told him about the shower and Matthew after apologising, told her he would look into it.

Frank, being a teenager was last to get up

Eventually they had breakfast all together and it was Frank who said the prayer. Because there was an early men’s business meeting, both Frank and Matthew left early, leaving Rebecca alone with Aunt Susan, but somehow the thought did not fill her with dread as it would have done a day earlier. In spite of her initial appearance at the airport, Aunt Susan seemed just as kind and decent and caring as her beloved Uncle Matthew, and she found she loved her Aunt Susan just as much as her uncle Matthew. It also seemed to her, that her aunt loved her too, even though Rebecca thought she could be seen as the outsider.

Eventually it was time for Rebecca and her aunt to leave for church, and so she was helped by Susan into the front Passenger seat of the Jeep, and strapped in. Her aunt got in and because it was so bright, Susan put on her sunglasses and drove off.

As they were driving along, Rebecca remembered how she had been what they called a minor spirit of virtue, The Spirit of Kindness and she got worried
“Aunt Susan” she started
“Yes sweetheart”
“The corporal on the aeroplane from England said you had been told I was some minor spirit of virtue”
“Yes indeed they sure did Rebecca” Susan replied
“Won’t the people at church think I’m a witch?”
“Not if I have anything to do with it Rebecca” Susan started, “the way it came across to me it sounds like something you can read in Genesis chapter six where Sons of God as it says went with daughter’s of men and they had children. Now some say the Sons of God were priests, but there is a view that they were angels, so maybe if you take the view that they were angels, this major spirit of virtue was just an angel doing exactly the same thing”
“So my father was an angel?” Rebecca asked, as she tried to shield her eyes from the sunlight.
“That’s what I like to think, and I would say that the Spirit of Kindness was some angel part of you, like a guardian angel almost, keeping you safe until you could meet those two from our armed services that found you. And don’t forget Rebecca, you voluntarily out of your own free will gave up this minor spirit stauts and God rewarded you by giving you your human soul. With the kind of power you had Rebecca, some would have tried to hold onto it, and I am so proud of you that you did not do that sweetheart”

Rebecca thought for a moment then came back with “When I was the Spirit of Kindness, they said I made people be kind to me when they would not have done” then her voice cracking with emotion added, “I didn’t mean to hurt them aunty, I wish I could say sorry to them”

Susan pulled the Jeep over into a safe parking spot and stopped it. She then turned and held Rebecca’s hand and looked into her sad eyes, “Was your mother’s boyfriend kind to you”
Rebecca choked with emotion could only shake her head and hang it in shame.

Gently Susan lifted Rebecca’s head with her hand, and instinctively Rebecca turned to face her, “They were only kind to you because they had it in them, not like that monster who tormented you.”
“But I made them do it and it was wrong, aunty”, Rebecca replied with tears flowing down her face
“Sweetheart the fact you are so cut up about this shows me you have a good heart, and that’s one of the many reasons I love you Rebecca, as for those people, in the book of Hebrews it tells people to show hospitality to strangers, because they could be entertaining angels without knowing it, if we think of you at that time as part angel, then all you were doing was helping them obey that part of scripture. Now I know it’s hard Rebecca, and I understand the way you feel about it, but you have nothing to be ashamed of, you needed help, you asked for it in a some what unconventional manner and people out of the kindness of their heats chose out of their own free will to help you. Now did everyone you meet stop and help you?”

Rebecca thought back to the one and a half weeks she had to sleep rough in London, on the move in case the police caught her and sent her back to Jim, and gently shook her head, “No Aunt Susan, it wasn’t everyone”

“So this special power, you freely gave up wasn’t hurting people at all, otherwise everyone would be effected, wouldn’t they?” Susan replied
“I suppose so Aunt Susan”
“Those people, who helped you, chose to help you” Susan pressed home

“Rebecca” Now Susan’s voice was showing a faint sign of emotion, “you are like the daughter I wish I could have had, and if you feel low or sad, I will always be here for you”
“I love you Aunt Susan” Rebecca told her
“And Matthew, Frank and I definitely love you, a lot”

With that, Susan restarted the Jeep and with the sound of accapella hymns on a CD to sing along to, they finished their journey to church

The church was not a bit like the churches that Rebecca had been to before, they were Anglican churches, old cold and draughty, this was a modern affair. There were no pews, only seats that could be moved and at the front where there was a pulpit, there looked like some kind of pool that was covered over. When Rebecca asked what it was, she was told it was a baptistery, when she asked if that was where the babies were baptised, she was told that they did not baptise babies, only believers by total immersion, as that was what the Greek word baptizo meant, and in Romans six baptism she was told was portrayed as a burial.

Susan told her that her Son Frank had been baptised in this building the very day of his sixteenth birthday and it had been one of the most happiest days of her life when, as Susan put it, “Frank put on Christ” It completely went over Rebecca’s head, but Susan assured her in time she could come to understand all about her beliefs.

Rebecca in order as she thought, so as not to get in the way, gravitated to the alcove near a fire exit and peeked out at the assembling throng, even so Frank came up to Rebecca and greeted her again. Rebecca asked him if their granddad was there, but Frank said he was visiting someone out of town that weekend
Rebecca was not sure what she felt, upset that he was not there or relieved that she would not make him ashamed to be there, since her granddad was ashamed of her because her mother was not married to her father when she had her.

Frank, as he was called left Rebecca and went over to greet other people as they came in the main front door. Rebecca thought he looked really smart in his suit jacket, white shirt and tie, and looked down at what she was wearing and felt inadequate, but then she noticed other children coming in with clothes similar to her, and even some of the adults came in casual attire, and no one batted an eyelid. Her Aunt was right, this was like some enormous family, and she observed the way people greeted each showed they cared about each other.

The only odd moment was when an elderly woman was speaking to someone Rebecca could not see, and the woman turned to look at her, and mouthed something along the lines of “That’s her, here in the house of God” and had a look of disgust on her face Rebecca was confused momentarily about this as it seemed so at variance with how everyone else were interacting.

Eventually everyone was seated and Rebecca sat between her Uncle Matthew and Cousin Frank. Susan sat next to her husband Matthew.

A man walked to the podium in a normal suit jacket
“He doesn’t have a dog collar” Rebecca whispered to her uncle
“Because we don’t believe in special dress here” Matthew whispered back.
Rebecca then fell silent, she was going to be a good girl, she was determined.

The man at the podium listed a number of men who would be doing various things in worship and described himself as “presiding”

Rebecca had never seen anything like this before, in the Anglican churches she had visited, the priest did everything apart from reading from the lesson from a Bible and play the organ.

A hymn was announced, and another man came to the front, and began leading everyone in singing the hymn, without any organ or any musical instrument. Rebecca had never heard of that before, but the singing was incredibly beautiful, and she tried to join in as best she could, but they were not hymns she recognised.

After the singing, the presider rattled of a list of announcements about upcoming events and then started to refer to her Uncle Matthew as Brother Matthew Sands, her Granddad as Brother Thomas and Frank as Brother Frank, “Now most of you will know” the presider began, “that just over three weeks ago both Brothers Matthew and Thomas Sands suffered a bereavement” the presider continued, “when Thomas’ daughter, Matthew’s sister, Frank’s aunt passed away overseas in England. They then suffered anxiety and heartache week later when Rebecca, a granddaughter, a niece and a cousin of only eleven years old went missing after the funeral”

Rebecca hung her head in shame and whispered, “sorry uncle, sorry Frank”
Matthew put a loving arm around Rebecca and gently hugged her to show her things were ok, as did Frank.

The presider continued, “Well remember the prayer chain we started, where brothers Matthew, Frank and Thomas…”
At this Frank whispered under his breath ”And he only took part reluctantly”

“The presider went on, “.. all took part. Well, never say that prayer does not work, as it says in the book of James The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. At the beginning of last Monday, Rebecca Sands was found living rough by two members of our armed services, she was taken to their base, a place of safety given food, shelter and clean clothes. The police in her home town of a place called Sloff”
“That’s not how it’s pronounced” Rebecca whispered
Matthew raised his hand, “Carl, it’s pronounced Sl-ow, as in ow that hurts”
“Sorry Brother Matthew” the presider smiled, “These foreign place names always trip me up” he nervously joked and then went on “Ok, the police in Slough were told she had miraculously been found safe and well, and they were sent photos of Rebecca enjoying a meal in the base canteen and were also told that they had even traced our brother Matthew as her long lost uncle. And so with the agreement of the authorities in England, Rebecca was put on a plane to America. There was a brief misunderstanding in New York, but that was resolved yesterday, and Rebecca is here with us today”

Rebecca’s face was bright red, but even so, she nervously stood up, unbidden. She found it very hard as a sea of faces turned towards her. There were also a load of amen’s muttered. After about thirty seconds Rebecca sat down and looked down at the ground, but looked up again when both Matthew and Frank briefly put loving arms around her back and shoulders.

But the presider had not finished, “Because Rebecca ran away from the man who had claimed to be her mother’s boy friend, the police, because in England, in cases like these, usually investigate those nearest to the person reported missing, first, usually to eliminate them from the investigation, found, how can I say it delicately with young children here in the auditorium, on his computer, highly disgusting material and evidence, and it pains me to say this, that children were harmed by this man and number of others”

Then the presider spoke directly to Rebecca, “Rebecca, by running away like you did, I believe you helped save a lot of other children who were in pain and suffering like you were at the hand of that man and his associates, and praise the Lord God kept you safe and brought you here, where you can be safe. I’m just sorry that you had to suffer so long, like you did and there was no one you could have turned to for help earlier”

Rebecca was really red with embarrassment, whispered “Thank you”, and looked around, and heard the sounds of “Poor child” and “We’re so glad you’re safely with us now”

The presider was now finishing his little speech about Rebecca, “So, just as Sister Susan and Brothers Matthew and Frank have welcomed Rebecca into their home, I would like us to welcome Rebecca into our midst, and I believe Rebecca you will find a lot off love here in this congregation”

Rebecca was not used to being the centre of attention, like this but somehow this felt good, that all these people who had never met her before, had been praying for her and had cared about her and it kind of made her feel special, a really unfamiliar feeling, that she had only begun to feel when she had found out about her uncle driving down to pick her up and getting his own law firm to rescue her from a prison cell, when she was innocent of any crime and arranged for her to be fostered by another very nice Christian couple.

The presider then announced the next song, which he called “The Greatest Commands”, and it was another one Rebecca had never heard before. Again it was without any musical instruments and it seemed to be a song where people sang different parts.

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Rebecca really felt overwhelmed and she could not help but smile as she tried to sing what was called the alto part.

After a number of songs, another man came and “led thoughts” around what they called “The Lord’s supper”, but she had seen in the odd Anglican Church as “Holy Communion” and then after a prayer, a plate of some type of cracker was handed around, and some people took some and some, especially the young children and some of the teenagers did not. When the plate came their way, Rebecca knew just enough that she did not take communion, because she never did when ever she had been taken to an Anglican service, but to her surprise Frank did. It was the same when they handed a large plate with small individual cups of some red liquid. Again Rebecca did not partake, communion was only for adults in the Anglican Church, but she was puzzled that Frank partook; maybe they did things differently here in America she could only guess.

When a basket was being handed round, Matthew slipped Rebecca two dollar bills so she could put them in the collection, which Rebecca dutifully did. In the past she had only ever put in up to the maximum of ten pence, if she ever had money, but these people were putting in notes and some of a high value.

The sermon was about twenty minutes and Rebecca, not wishing to show up the people who had taken her in tried to listen to it intently, as the speaker talked about one of the New Testament letters, about some guy who had been a slave and had run away.
This resonated with Rebecca, as she had been a runaway, and indeed the preacher briefly used her as an example of someone running away and perhaps assisting a higher purpose, in Rebecca’s case bringing to light a nasty group of individuals and in the case of the runaway in the letter, becoming a brother,what ever that meant as quite a bit of the lesson went over Rebecca’s head.

The preacher did say when he mentioned Rebecca though, that her case was unique and that young people did not need to go to such extremes, as there was always someone to talk to, and he pointed to that congregation’s counselling service.

After the service a lot of people came up to Rebecca and told her how glad they were to see her, she was pretty, that the family she was staying with were utterly devout members of the congregation and that they were sorry for her loss, and she did a good thing by leaving that nasty man. All the time Rebecca would nod politely in agreement, and try her best to remember her manners, and all this attention embarrassed her yet gave her a really wonderful feeling that people genuinely cared about her.

Through out this experience Matthew and Susan both stayed with her, which reassured her, especially in the throng of unfamiliar faces, and a number of people told her uncle that he was such a good man for travelling all the way down to New York to pick Rebecca up.

Then it was time to go home, so Rebecca thought, but instead they all went to a fire station and in a mess hall, that is except for the elderly woman who had mouthed at her earlier. Susan told her that they were having something called “pot luck meal”, in her honour to help welcome her to their little community.

Rebecca was utterly speechless, if so many people did this for her, she really must be special after all and not worthless like Martha the neighbour of the Duncans had told her three days earlier.

After the prayer for the food, Rebecca got to go first to the large table of dishes, and Susan guided Rebecca through the etiquette of potlucks and soon she was chatting with other children of the congregation and the occasional adult, with Frank a in protective mode sitting right next to her, unlike back in Slough when the children shunned her on the orders of their parents.

After about an hour and a half people packed up, and the Sands family and Rebecca went home.

Frank got Rebecca to once again play on the Wii until it was supper time, and then after a light supper they played on the wii again until it was time for bed. It seemed that Frank was determined that Rebecca was not going to sit on her own in her bedroom and brood as long as he could help it, and Rebecca was so glad to be included in activities that took her mind off of all the awful things that had been in her past.

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The following morning, Rebecca once again woke early, but this time an extra piece of cord had been attached to the switch for the water heater, and so she was able to have a hot shower this time and it was like heaven compared to the previous morning.

Breakfast was a bit more rushed as Matthew had to leave early to catch up on work that had accrued while he was off rescuing Rebecca from what she had been told were rouge NYPD officers. Frank also came down in a hurry, grabbed a bowl of cold cereal and left to go to his school.

Soon Rebecca was left alone in the house with her Aunt Susan, who only drank a glass of fruit juice and had some bread product that was in a ring. Susan called them bagels and offered Rebecca one. They seemed dry at first, but they were quite tasty, especially with what Susan called jelly on them. Rebecca was then surprised to find it was actually jam, and told her aunt what it was called in England. For about ten minutes, Rebecca and her Aunt Susan talked about how certain items in America had different names to what they were in England.

And then it was time for Susan to take Rebecca to what would be her school, and she was to go into what Susan called the sixth grade, or the first level at a middle school in the education system they had in New Hampshire.

Susan took Rebecca to the school office and was met by what Rebecca called the headmaster, but Susan told her was called the principal. Rebecca was over awed by this new figure of authority as he said his hellos to her and told her that he hoped she would be settle in quite quickly.

Rebecca was asked to wait in the office, as Susan wanted to speak to the principal in private, so Rebecca sat there on her own, very still and afraid to move as the secretary looked very strict. In the principal’s room Susan explained about Rebecca’s background and what had happened to her in Slough, England. Susan purposely left out the bit of Rebecca being a former spirit of virtue, but as it was a side of Rebecca’s life that Rebecca felt uneasy it was probably the right call and plus it was not relevant to how Rebecca was now. Susan also told the principal; Rebecca was still fragile and sensitive about her time under Jim’s domination, because of what he had done to Rebecca and her mother.

Because of Rebecca’s past background, the principal thought it was best that before Rebecca started at his school, the teachers who would be teaching her ought to be briefed so they could be aware and head off any awkward questions from Rebecca’s new class mates. The decision was taken that Rebecca should start the following day, plus it would give her aunt the opportunity to buy extra things the school required Rebecca to have, such as a kit for gym class and clothes more in keeping with the school’s dress code. Susan was also given a brochure of what was expected of Rebecca.

Eventually Susan emerged from the principal’s office, followed by the principal,

The principal bent down and told Rebecca that she would be starting the following day at eight o’clock sharp, and then he told her, that because it was some weeks into the semester, she would have to stay behind in the detention classes after school and at weekends until she caught up with the rest of the class.
Rebecca just nodded nervously and squeaked out “Yes sir”. He was big and tall, just like Jim was and so Rebecca was terrified of him, and she did not want to say anything that might anger him. It had worked sometimes with Jim, and so it was the only thing she could think of to avoid a beating.
Susan was not happy at this and told the principal that Rebecca could be seen as being “punished for being the victim of a violent home life in England that had fallen apart”
Rebecca was utterly astonished, even her Aunt Susan was standing up to figures of authority on her behalf
Susan told the principal in no uncertain terms that if need be, she and her husband could get Rebecca up to speed at home, just like they had done with her son Frank when he was at this school and had been off due to a serious illness. Susan also reminded the principal that both she and her husband were still on the board of governors.

The principal then seemed to back down and Rebecca would not have to serve her time in detention outside school hours after all.

As they left the school to go shopping for the things Rebecca needed, Susan sensed her niece had been terrified, so just outside the car she asked her why she was scared of the principal, Rebecca murmured something to the effect that the principal was of the same build as her mother’s boyfriend. Susan then reassured Rebecca, that the principal would never hit anyone and was one of those who did not believe in corporal punishment, and then Susan gave Rebecca a big hug.

The rest of the morning was taken up with shopping and in the afternoon Rebecca sat quietly in her Aunts Real Estate office looking through the brochure of the new school. When they got home Susan recounted to Matthew the encounter with the principal, and Matthew agreed with Susan, his Rebecca, (His Rebecca? – Rebecca tuned in to), should not be seen to be being punished when she had not done anything wrong.

That evening Frank apologised to Rebecca that he could not play with her on the wii, as he had homework, so Susan stepped in, as Matthew was cooking the dinner.

Rebecca’s first day at school was a complete culture shock, she had to wait until the other classmates had done the pledge of allegiance before a teaching assistant brought her into the classroom which would serve as some kind of form room before lessons actually started. The form tutor as sensitively as she could, explained to the class that Rebecca used to live in England, but she had come to America to live with her aunt and uncle, because her parents had died. The children could ask general questions about England, but they were not to press her on previous life in England as it might upset her.

She was asked by the teacher if she ever went by Becky or Becca, but Rebecca still confused by this question just stated that her name was Rebecca, and there the matter was settled.

As she was shown to her desk in the form room, she spotted one boy by the name of Darren, who had been at the church with his parents and who had spoken to her at the potluck meal. He too was not originally from America, as he was from Toronto, and immediately the two formed an instant rapport, so much so that they ate their lunch together during the lunch period, and he made sure she knew where to go for the various classes.

There was some teasing that Darren had got a girlfriend and Rebecca was worried that he might drop her, as she thought he was really nice, but Darren just told them “So what if I have” and “Your just jealous” and Rebecca was impressed.

Come home time when some parents came to collect their children Darren insisted his father wait for Rebecca’s aunt to come and pick her up before they went home, so Rebecca was not left waiting alone. When Aunt Susan did show up, she delighted that Rebecca and Darren were in the same class. On the way home in the Jeep, Rebecca talked all about how Darren helped her through the first day at her new school. Susan told Rebecca what wonderful people Darren’s family were and how delighted she was that Rebecca had made a friend.

It was the same over the evening meal, she talked all about Darren helping her through the first day at school and how he stood up to those who said she was his girl friend. Rebecca half expected Frank to tease her about Darren, but he just said she deserved some happiness after what she had been through and besides, Darren was one mean pitcher in the little league, Whatever that was Rebecca wondered

Rebecca’s second day at school was much like the first in that Darren was still taking her under his wing, what they had in common was that they were both born outside of the US and so spoke differently from the rest of the class.

On her third day, Darren mentioned that the church where his parents and her aunt and uncle went had a youth club on the Friday night, and his elder brother always gave him a lift to it in his pick up on his way to his night shift job and his father would collect him in the evening. Darren suggested his brother could pick Rebecca up from where she lived with here uncle and aunt, if they would agree.

When Rebecca put this to her uncle and aunt, they both thought it would be a good idea, and they rung Darren’s parents just to check, and confirmed the drop of and pick up times.

On Friday at school, it was business as usual, Darren helping Rebecca get into the swing of American schooling in the sixth grade, and Rebecca providing him with someone to talk to who like him had been born outside the US.

Evening rolled around, and just as arranged, Darren’s brother, Michael picked Rebecca up from her uncle and aunt’s home and drove the pair to the church building. On the way it started to rain, but Michael told Rebecca it was just a hundred yard dash from where he would drop them off to the church building

The pick up pulled up and the two children got out and ran through the rain to the church building, where they were met by the elderly woman who had mouthed something at Rebecca that previous Sunday.

Darren was allowed in with no problem, but the woman blocked Rebecca
“I don’t think so little lady” she told Rebecca in a stern voice
“But why?” Rebecca whined
“The Bible clearly teaches that ‘No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the LORD’” the elderly lady said in a tone of righteous indignation, then she pointed at Rebecca and angrily told her “and according to your Grandfather, Thomas Sands, your parents were not married. I’m surprised Matthew and Susan had the gall to bring you to church last Sunday, I will be having words with the minister as he obviously didn’t know”
“Mrs White” Darren pleaded, “It’s raining”
“That can’t be helped master Darren now run along inside, this little lady has to go home, she should not be here”
“Then I’m going home with her” Darren insisted.
Mrs White barked back at him, “You know the rules; any one leaving early must have their parents pick them up”
“But..” Darren started
“DON’T TALK BACK TO AN ADULT” she growled at him, “Now get inside”

Rebecca was devastated, it was like being back in England when people excluded her on account of something her mother did. She could see that Darren desperately wanted to help, but this elderly woman was very effectively stopping him

The elderly woman turned back to Rebecca, “You had better go away little lady, before I call the police” and then she slammed the door on Rebecca as she stood there in the pouring rain.

Rebecca did not have any money on her, because she had been told refreshments were free and someone was picking her up, but that was ages yet, so crying as she went, so as not to bring shame on her uncle and aunt by being arrested as the lady threatened, she left the building and started walking down the street.

Rebecca went down a main road for a distance, and because of the time of year and the rain it was getting very dark and she was getting soaked, by the torrential rain. Rebecca was in tears and she was trying desperately trying to remember the route Darren’s brother had driven and her aunt had driven, but in the dark it all looked so different and she was afraid.

Suddenly a pick up truck screeched to a halt beside her.

There were two men in the truck with baseball caps on and from what Rebecca could see they were drinking something from green bottles.
“Want a ride girlie” the front seat passenger asked her in manner that unnerved Rebecca and remembering the injunction not to accept lifts from strangers, she just shook her head and tried to carry on.

The pick up truck moved up to be parallel to her and then over took her and stopped again. Rebecca stopped and looked in horror as the man got out.

“That was not a suggestion girlie” he said with an evil glint in his eye, “We’re gonna have some fun” he added. For a moment it looked like Jim, finally come to get her.

Rebecca turned around and started to run, screaming for help, but she only got fifteen feet away before the man managed to run and catch up with her and flung her to the ground, and then held her down.
“You can scream all you like, girlie; no one will hear you in this weather”

Then he picked Rebecca up, and as she screamed in vain for help, the man started dragging her towards the pickup truck…

To Be Concluded

[Sticks]

Episode VI – Full Circles

It is said by some that the universe could be in the shape of a large toroid, or to put it another way, the shape of a doughnut. If you go far enough you end up where you started.

The former Spirit of Kindness, who goes by the name Rebecca Sands, appears to have done this. She managed to run away from one man who did unspeakable things to children like her, for profit, who was indirectly responsible for her human mother’s death. She then ended up relinquishing her status as a minor spirit of virtue of her own free will to become a plain eleven year old girl, was sent to America to live with her uncle and his family.

And now, after being turned away from a church youth club by an elderly lady who believes that because Rebecca’s parents were never married she should not step foot in a church building, Rebecca has been forced to try and find her way back to her uncle’s home through the rain soaked streets of Rochester in New Hampshire, only to run in to two men with a pickup truck, who seem to want to do the kinds of things to Rebecca that Jim, her mothers so called boy friend had threatened to do to her, and one of them is dragging Rebecca into the pickup truck.

In this sense, Rebecca has horrifically come full circle…

-

Rebecca was screaming with all her might, but the rain was incredibly heavy and most of the houses in the part of town she was in were well back from the tree lined roads. The man, dragging her in an arm-lock around her throat, towards the pickup truck was right; nobody would hear her above the sound of the rain.

Rebecca tried to prise his strong arm away, but he must have been a body builder as it was to no avail. She could not even stand upright, as he dragged her along. All Rebecca could think about now was that she was going to die and wondered if they would ever find her body, as this guys would probably kill her after they had done with her what they wanted. Maybe they even worked for Jim and had been sent to get her at the first opportunity.

She pleaded with the man to let her go, but he just asked why she wanted to deny him and his buddy some fun, and that struggling would do her no good, except he used what Rebecca was taught was really bad language.

They reached the side of the pick up

“Hey Vic” the man holding Rebecca shouted through the open window, “We’ve got a really live wire her, have you got anything to keep her from struggling?”
“Sure Joe” Rebecca heard the driver reply followed by the sound of another car door opening.

Rebecca screamed for help again, in sheer terror, crying as she did so, but to no avail. Nobody would be venturing out on a rain storm like this, to help a girl; especially a girl, who the elderly lady at the church building pointed out, was an illegitimate child.

“She sure has got a good pair of lungs Joe” The driver shouted at the man holding tightly on to Rebecca. Then to her horror, she felt him grab her legs and was wrapping something around her ankles that was thin and bit into her. The first man identified as Joe, spun Rebecca around so she was facing the ground and grabbed her arms and forced her hands behind her back, while the other man wrapped the same material around her wrists.
“I don’t know about you Joe” Rebecca heard the driver shout, “but this kid’s hollering is getting on my nerves”

At this the first man pulled out from somewhere a large sharp knife, rolled Rebecca on the ground and showed it to her, “You can shut up now girlie” he growled at her.
Rebecca through her tears clamped her mouth shut in terror at this man.

Then the driver came back after looking for something in the back of the pickup truck, produced an oblong piece of some grey sticky tape and firmly placed it over Rebecca’s mouth. “I’ll help you get her in the back of the truck” Vic the driver told Joe, and then Vic grabbed her feet.
“Boy, we are sure gonna have some fun tonight” Joe told Vic
“Yeah” Vic agreed

Rebecca tried to scream in hysterics through the tape over her mouth, but it was muted, and the sound of the rain was quite heavy. She felt herself now being lifted into the air as the two men picked her up to dump her in the back of the pickup truck.

She had spent just barely a week with her uncle’s family and now it was going to come to an end. These two men were going to do something horrible to her and most likely kill her at the end of whatever they considered “having fun” would be. She could vaguely remember the screams and sobs of the other children, brought to Jim’s flat when her mother would keep her tight sitting in her bedroom. These two people were Jims, or to be more accurate, Jim’s American counterparts, and Rebecca was probably one of many of their victims.

So was that how her tragic short life was going to end? – Would they even find her body?, or would she be like other little boys or girls she had heard about on the news, who vanished never to be seen again?

There was suddenly some metallic clicking sound coming from behind Joe, the first man that pierced the night through the sound of the rain.

“You boys can put her down on the ground right now” came the sound of a third man, a man who sounded almost familiar, but elderly.

“Mind your own business” yelled Joe without turning around, “We found her first”.

Rebecca felt her feet being lowered by Vic the driver.
“What are you doing Vic” Joe asked, “he’s only an old man by the sound of it, we can easily take him”

As Rebecca’s feet touched the ground, she could see Vic backing off with his hands raised, “It was his idea mister” he was whimpering.
“What are you doing Vic?” Joe yelled again.
“Joe, he has a shotgun” Vic explained

“Now you boy can put her down real slow as well” Rebecca heard the old man say above the sound of the rain.

Suddenly Rebecca felt a sharp blade held against her neck, “Back off old man, or the brat gets it”
“Joe let her go” Vic yelled, “He has a gun”
“And I have a knife at her jugular, who do you think has the faster reaction time, me or grandpa” Joe replied, “Vic get her feet” he then ordered

“I was ten times running the number one marksman on my base” the elderly voice said with stern resolution, “there is no way I can miss at this distance”

Rebecca felt blade firmly pressed into her neck, and she was going white with fear, was this third person was trying to save her or snatch her away as some kind of prize. She just closed her eyes and waited for the end.

The night was suddenly split by the sound of some siren and then Rebecca heard some car draw up close by.
“Joe Please” Yelled Vic, “just let her go”

Rebecca felt the knife taken from her throat as she was laid on the ground she opened her eyes so she could see the other car that had just arrived.

[img=500x250]http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/2941/NewHampshire_SP.jpg[/img]

It looked like a dark green police car and said “State Trooper” on the side.

“Now drop that knife on the ground real easy like” Rebecca heard the old man order Joe, and then she heard it clatter to the ground behind her.

Rebecca looked at the two police officers as they got out of the car brandishing their side arms.
“Put that gun down sir” Yelled one of the officers

There was another cracking sound behind her and then the elderly man shouted, “Hey Bert it’s me, you know I never carry a loaded shotgun in the truck”

“What?” screamed Vic, but it was too late, he was handcuffed by the other police officer and pushed into the back of the police car.

“Oh it’s you sir” the police officer replied then asked, “what seems to be happening”

“These scum bags were trying to abduct this young girl Bert, I just happened to be in the neighbourhood and thought I would do my civic duty and put a stop to that” The elderly man shouted at the two approaching officers.
“Good job sir, we just happened to be in the area responding to a report of a liquor store robbery in progress along this road” the first police officer replied

The second officer came right up to Rebecca and squatted down and placed his hand on her shoulder, “Sorry, but this might hurt” he apologised and then he pulled of the tape from her mouth, and Rebecca just ended up in uncontrollable sobbing. Then the police officer took a penknife from his belt and cut of the things that were binding Rebecca’s wrists, then he sat her up and cut off the thing binding her legs together. As the sobbing Rebecca looked at them, she saw that they were white and appeared to be made out of some kind of plastic. The police officer then took out some bag and placed them and the piece of tape in it.

“You take care of these two” said the elderly voice, “I’ll take the girl home”
“I’ll need you to come down town and make a statement from you and the girl” the second officer replied as he handcuffed Joe”
“Jethrow, I will come down after I have got this girl home, you’ve got enough here to charge them already” The old man instructed the officer.

The second officer marched Joe to the car and pushed him in the back with Vic his accomplice, and Rebecca finally got to look at her rescuer. He was old, and in the poor light and through her tears he almost looked like her Uncle Matthew.

The first officer came up to the two of them and spoke to Rebecca, “This man used to be the sheriff a few years back, so you are perfectly safe with him”, then he turned to the old man, “I just radioed to ask dispatch to send another squad car to attend the liquor store robbery and they told me they had no report of any, let alone along this road”

The old man just shook his head, “This storm might be causing signals from another area to be bounced over hear” he suggested, “We used to skip radio signals off of the ionosphere years ago, so it may have been something like that”
“Maybe” replied the first officer, “the female voice sounded Irish, so it could have come from New York”

The old man lead the still crying Rebecca by the hand, passed the pickup truck of the guys who had tried to abduct her to another pickup truck that was parked facing the wrong direction for American driving. The elderly man then lead Rebecca between the trucks into the road opened the door and assisted Rebecca getting in and strapped her in. He then closed the door and got in the driver seat, strapped himself in.

“Ok kid, where do your parents live?” He asked her in a gruff voice, “And what were you doing out on a night like this”
Rebecca tried to wipe her eyes on the sleeve of her coat, but it was soaked, “Their dead sir” she sniffed, “I was supposed to be at a church youth club with my friend Darren, but this lady said I was ill-e jit-e met and wasn’t allowed in” and then Rebecca broke down crying again.

The old man shook his head, “and she didn’t call anyone to pick you up”
“No sir” Rebecca sobbed, “She told me to go away or she would call the police”
The old man handed Rebecca a handkerchief to wipe her eyes, listening to the rain beat down on the car.

Then the old man asked Rebecca “Kid, you sound like you’re from England”
Rebecca just nodded, and then noticed that the old man was looking at her in a strange way.
“You remind me of someone, Kid” the old man told Rebecca, “So if your parents are deceased, who do you, live with”
“My uncle sir” Rebecca answered between sobs, “and his family”
“And where do they live?”
Rebecca screwed her face up, she had known the address, as she had to give it for school, but in the shock of the attack, it had gone from her head, “I can’t remember sir” she whispered.

The old man seemed to sigh, then he asked, “Hey Kid, do you know what your uncle’s first name is?”
“Matthew sir” Rebecca answered and then noticed the man frown slightly as if surprised by something.
“Do you know his last name Kid?”
“Sands sir” Rebecca replied and then for completeness said “Matthew Sands”
“And what’s your aunt’s first name?” the old man asked for some reason.
“Susan?” Rebecca answered

The old man immediately started the pick up truck, “I know exactly where you live” he told Rebecca, “I know him”

Throughout the ride, the old man seemed to go strangely silent and so Rebecca went likewise, she was now worried what her uncle and aunt would say to her. She had been turned away from their church because she was not supposed to have been their and wondered how they would punish her for bringing shame to them. She even wondered if her friend Darren would have nothing to do with her now, and she cried quietly. Her wonderful new life had been ruined, she had been attacked and somehow she thought it was all her fault, because she was what the elderly lady had said she was “Ill-e-Jit-e met”

Eventually the pickup truck arrived at her uncle’s home. The Jeep was missing from the driveway.

The old man turned the pickup truck engine off and got out, went round to Rebecca’s side and opened the door. Rebecca released the seatbelt and slowly climbed out, hanging her head in shame. The old man then locked the pick up truck and took her by the hand up the drive to the front door and rang the doorbell.

There was a sound of running feet behind the door, and the door was opened rapidly, by her Uncle Matthew.
Rebecca was going to say how sorry she was, when her uncle spoke first, “Dad? What are you doing here” he asked the old man.
Rebecca was shocked, and turned to the old man, “Are you my granddad?” she asked in astonishment, but the old man seemed to ignore her
“I was just driving through town Matthew” the old man replied, “and look who I found son” he added pointing to Rebecca, “She was wondering in the street when a couple of no good punks tried to have a go at her, but she’s ok and the police have them in custody now”
“Oh Rebecca!” her uncle exclaimed, “You better get inside have a hot shower and change out of those wet clothes”

Rebecca thought her Uncle Matthew would be sounding more angry with her than he was, maybe he was good at hiding it, so she trudged upstairs to her room, grabbed her bathrobe and headed for the bathroom. She must be in for it now

*

“May I come in son” the old man asked as Matthew was still in a state of shock
“Sure dad”
Matthew’s father stepped into the hallway and the two men looked at each other.
Matthew picked up a phone in the hall and began to dial ,“I need to call Susan” Matthew opened with, “She went out with Frank looking for Rebecca after we got the call from Darren’s mom” Then Matthew added, “I can’t drive at nights”
“I know son, it’s your night blindness” Matthew’s father replied, then the old man changed tone, “She looks a lot like Elizabeth”
Matthew nodded as the phone connected, “Frank, tell your mother in the Jeep there, your grandfather’s found her and brought her home”
“Oh that’s great news dad” came Franks voice over the phone, a pause, “Mom says we’re only five minutes away”, and then it hung up.

“Son” Matthew’s father started, “I was driving along when I saw a diversion sign, and when I got onto the diversion I saw these two guys trying to abduct the girl, I never realised until I spoke to the girl that she was Rebecca”
Matthew listened to what his father was saying, and the way it sounded seemed cold to him, so he needed to challenge his father, “And if you had known, would you have just driven straight on by on the other side”

Matthew’s father hung his head in shame as it were, something was going through his mind, “No Matthew, I couldn’t she’s just an innocent child”
“She always was dad” Matthew told him, “She always was” he repeated.
“You’re right Matthew, I’m sorry” his father responded, and it sounded like his voice might be cracking, but then he said, “I better go now, I have to go down town and give a statement, I’ll try and get them to see that they don’t need to interview Rebecca”, and then he opened the door and went out to his pick up truck.

*

Rebecca finished with the shower and made sure her wet clothes were in the laundry basket, but she still felt dirty. Her parents weren’t married so she was this illegitimate girl, and therefore should not be allowed near a church. She thought back to all those time she had visited an Anglican church, either with her mother or with the school, and thought even God would be angry at her for violating his law.

Tomorrow was Saturday, and then it was Sunday, and she did not know what to do, she liked their church, but if she was not supposed to be there . . .

Rebecca went back into her bedroom and just sat down on the floor between the bed and the wall. She did not think she deserved her nice soft bed, as she must be such a horrid person, and she just sat there holding her knees, resting her head against the wall and silently crying. She felt so ashamed and once again wish she had never been born.

There was a knock on Rebecca’s door, but Rebecca just sat there in the wet bathrobe, almost catatonic.

It was Aunt Susan, probably come to reprimand her.

But no!

Her aunt came in, bent down to take Rebecca by her hands and slowly lifted her up, and sat her on the bed. Rebecca could not bear to look at her in the eyes, so ashamed did she feel, “I’m sorry Aunt Susan” she was able to bleat before she dissolved into tears.

Susan sat down on the bed beside Rebecca and pulled her onto her lap and just held her in her arms, “Rebecca, sweetheart” she told Rebecca softly, “You have nothing to be sorry about, you didn’t do anything wrong”
“But I tried to go into a church” Rebecca sobbed, “and that lady said I wasn’t supposed to be there because my mum and dad weren’t married” she just about managed, then “and because I am Ill-e-jit-e-met”
“I heard Sweetheart” Susan responded, still comforting Rebecca, “Darren’s mother told me, Darren told the youth leader as soon as he could, what that woman had done, but by then you had gone”
“I didn’t mean to break the rules or cause trouble” Rebecca then sobbed
Susan made sure she was looking Rebecca in the eye, “Rebecca, you didn’t break any rules, that lady was using a piece scripture completely out of context and is one hundred percent wrong. In fact she is not even part of the youth club team, and I have no idea why she was there”

There was another knock on the door, Susan told them to come in and it was Frank with a mug of hot chocolate, “Dad sent me up with this for Rebecca” he told Susan. Susan took Rebecca off of her lap, and sat her on the bed, took the cup and gave it to Rebecca, and held an arm around her while she drank.

“I hope they lock those guys who attacked you Rebecca, I hope they lock them up for life” Frank told her, his voice betraying a lot of anger.
“That’s enough Frank” Susan told him
“By the way mom, Dad’s on the phone to the police, to see if Rebecca needs to go in to the station tonight and give a statement”
“Well not tonight she’s not” Susan insisted, “She’s not in a fit state to, she needs to have a good night sleep first”

Rebecca finished the drink and Frank took the empty cup, while Susan helped Rebecca get into her night clothes and then she tucked her into bed, and knelt by her bedside.

Matthew came in and told her that her grandfather had made a statement about how he had witnessed everything and had persuaded the police that she would be too traumatised to remember anything at this time to give a statement, plus the arresting officers had more than enough evidence for a conviction, and anyway being a lawyer, Matthew could speak to the DA on Monday to see what the situation was if need be.

Matthew called Frank to Rebecca’s room, and then Matthew lead a prayer, thanking God for bringing Rebecca’s grandfather along in the nick of time, and the police officers, and what a true blessing Rebecca was, and giving thanks for Darren who had alerted the youth club leader.

As Matthew and Frank left the room, Susan asked Matthew to bring her a cushion, she was going to sit next to Rebecca’s bed for a while, to reassure her that she could sleep in perfect safety. Matthew said he would bring two, so he could stay with her as well on the other side of the bed.
Frank butted in and told them hew would get the cushions so they did not have to leave his Rebecca.

Rebecca just sniffed, “I’m sorry I’m ill-e-jit-e-met” and a tear ran down the side of her head, as she lay on the bed”
“That’s not your fault love” Matthew told her, “and it doesn’t matter to us anyway”
“That woman at the church building was well out of line holding that against you” Susan chipped in, “Her attitude is unscriptural, and I am going to have word’s tomorrow about it”
“But you’re at work tomorrow” Matthew cut in, “I could go and see her instead” he then offered
“Thanks darling, but a woman did this to our Rebecca” Susan replied, She emphasised the “our” Matthew observed,”and so it needs a woman to deal with it. I can give Jennifer a ring to arrange for cover at the office”, then Susan gently stroked Rebecca’s hair, “beside’s I think Rebecca’s much more important at the moment than some Real Estate office”

As her aunt and uncle talked across her, Rebecca realised that they were going out of their way for her and it somehow did not seem right that anyone should be so concerned about a person like her. “I’m sorry to cause so much trouble” Rebecca whined
“You haven’t sweetheart” Susan reassured her, “that lady did, and you and me will sort her out tomorrow”
“I think you should have Brian there” Matthew insisted.
“Ok Darling” Susan replied.

Frank brought in the two extra cushions and gave them to his parents and wished Rebecca good night. Matthew asked Frank to phone up Brian, so he call in the elderly lady that had barred Rebecca from the church building, and would be present when Susan spoke to her. Frank duly left Rebecca’s room to phone the person he was asked to.

It took about twenty minutes for Rebecca to drift off to sleep, but Matthew and Susan stayed with her for another hour, before slowly getting up off of the floor, then they stood for a further ten minutes watching her sleep from the door
“I am so angry at Isabel” Matthew whispered to his wife, “I know Rebecca is my niece, but I could not be more angrier if she were my own daughter”
“Yes darling, I couldn’t agree more” Susan replied, and then they left to go to bed themselves, taking Rebecca’s wet bathrobe to hang up to dry in the bathroom. Susan insisted on leaving their bedroom door, open ajar, just in case Rebecca needed them in the night.

Strangely enough Rebecca did not dream about what had happened to her, it was as if someone had entered her dreams and were vetting them, so she had a restful night.

Frank had been talking on the downstairs computer via MSN with some people and so was a bit later to bed. As he neared, Rebecca’s room, for a moment out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw someone female in the room with her, and thought it was his mother, but as he looked again, there was only Rebecca, sleeping peacefully in her bed.

+-+-+

It was Saturday morning and Rebecca woke up later than usual, which was odd for her.
“You sleep well?” Susan asked her from the door.
Rebecca, was still groggy and so answered, “Yes mum” then realised what she had said and corrected herself as she became more awake, “Sorry, Aunt Susan I didn’t mean to call you mum”

Susan came in, sat on the bed and gave Rebecca a big hug, “That’s ok Rebecca, I don’t mind” she told her, then kissed Rebecca on her forehead, “I told you, you are like the daughter I could never have”

Susan then helped Rebecca get up and ushered her into the bathroom to shower, and made sure the hot water was on. Rebecca had had a serious blow to her self esteem thanks to the elderly lady at the church building, and Susan did not want Rebecca punishing herself for something that was not her fault. But Rebecca was eleven, she was growing up, so she had to let her do something’s for her self.

No matter how much Rebecca washed herself in the shower, again she felt dirty inside, what the elderly lady had said really hit home and it was almost like back in Slough, when the other children who shunned her, because of what her mother did for a living, what ever that was

There was a knock on the bathroom door, and an “Are you ok in there” from Aunt Susan, and so Rebecca quickly finished up, dried herself, put her bathrobe on and emerged from the bathroom, very subdued.

At breakfast Rebecca continued to be subdued and had to be coaxed into eating, Once again Matthew offered to come with her, but Susan was adamant, if a woman had done this then a woman had to confront her, and Rebecca had to see that this woman was “wrong, wrong wrongerty wrong” as Susan put it.

Just before they left, there was a knock on the door, and Matthew went to answer it, in case it was the police.

It was Darren and his brother Michael, come to apologise. Michael was mortified and Rebecca could hear from the living room that Michael was saying how he should have waited to see they were both safe inside instead of assuming they would be ok and driving off to work after he had dropped them off. Matthew asked if that was what he always did with his brother Darren and Michael admitted that was what he had always done and there had never been any problems before, the area was well lit and it was a clear line to the door.

Again Rebecca heard her uncle blame the elderly woman, that there was no way Michael could have known what was going to happen, but Michael insisted, from then on, he would make sure who ever he was taking would be escorted to the door, even if it was just his brother, and he would make sure they were safely inside before driving off.

Darren just came into the living room and looked at Rebecca sitting down on a couch waiting to go with Susan to the church building. Darren at that point found he just could not speak, so Rebecca got up and gave him a big hug, “Thank you for telling on that lady” she whispered into Darren’s ear, and then she let him go.
“Can I still be your friend?” Darren was just able to ask.
Rebecca quickly nodded, she had never had friends back in Slough, and she did not want to lose the one she had made that week.
Darren gave Rebecca a quick hug and then went back to his brother, Rebecca could just about tell, that Darren was crying too.

“He’ll be taking you to the senior prom next” Frank joked, but Rebecca just looked at him in a state of confusion.
“Sorry Rebecca, he’s a great friend to have I mean” Frank clarified.

Then it was time to go to the building, and Rebecca was dreading it, in the Jeep Susan told Rebecca that Brian the evangelist at their church had been away preaching at another congregation the previous weekend, but was back and he had been told all about what had happened, and that he had no problem whatsoever with Rebecca stepping foot inside the church building and that he had called the lady into the building, but he would be meeting Susan and Rebecca outside.

Rebecca was just silent and subdued, she had been told she was illegitimate and therefore second class, maybe that was why she never had friends when she was at school in Slough

Sure enough, once they got to the church parking lot, outside was a big black man in Jeans and a red golfing shirt with his name and the name of the church embroidered on it.

Rebecca felt nervous and immediately apologised for her dead parents not being married, and she was almost crying when she said it, but Brian just picked her up and told her “Rebecca, you are not responsible for who you were born to, whether you are legitimate or illegitimate, that’s something your parents would have to give an account for, not you”

And then he carried her into the building and into the main auditorium, where the old lady was patiently sitting amongst a circle of chairs. Susan followed behind and sat down on a seat on the other side of the circle facing the elderly woman.

The lady took one look at Rebecca and her face went red with indignation, “Why have you got that child in a House of God, don’t you know she was born out of Holy Wedlock”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Brian challenged after putting Rebecca down on a seat next to her aunt, “I know about her parents and she is still welcome to come into the building” then to emphasise his point, “anyway Isabel this is just a building, you should know that the church is not a building built by the hands of men” and then he sat down at a part of the circle between the two parties.

“But the Bible clearly says” the elderly lady started
“Isabel” Susan interrupted, “When you turned my niece away last night, did you even think what would happen to her?”
Isabel was indignant and clearly had not registered Brian’s point about the church building, “Well you should have thought about that before saying she could come into a house of God in violation of God’s Holy Law”
“What law Isabel?” Susan asked

Isabel then grinned a smug grin, “ Deuteronomy Chapter twenty three and verse two”
“Isabel” Susan then asked, “Do you eat pork?”
“Of course I do, what’s that got to do with allowing a child born out of holy wedlock into a house of God, thus condoning the sin of sex outside of marriage”
“Well Isabel, prohibition against eating pork is in the same area of scripture” Susan replied.
“But Jesus declared all foods clean, as did Saint Paul” Isabel protested
“Your right they did Isabel, the passage you quoted at my dau..” Susan stopped after this brief Freudian slip, and restarted, “at Rebecca last night and at us just now, like the food laws do not apply to us today Isabel, they were for the Children of Israel, not for us”

Rebecca caught the slip of the tongue her Aunt Susan made, Did she, like her beloved Uncle Matthew consider her to be as a daughter as well?

“In my day, Mrs Sands, these children were rightfully stigmatised, to show people it was just plain wrong to have children out of wedlock” then she turned to Brian, “Or is another Gospel being preached”

Before Brian could respond, Susan jumped in, “Isabel, don’t put words into our mouths, we just like you disagree with sex before marriage and having children outside the bounds of marriage..”

Rebecca looked down at the floor and felt like she had been kicked in the stomach, her Aunt must think the same of her as this elderly woman, because her parents were not married.

Susan put a gentle arm around Rebecca, “But if you like quoting the Old Testament so much, have you bothered to read Ezekiel eighteen twenty, it shows that what ever Rebecca’s parents did, God does not hold her responsible for it, The Bible teaches Rebecca here is totally innocent of any wrong doing they may or may not have done.”

“But, but” Isabel spluttered

Susan was now in full flow, “Remember Isabel, Jesus said not to hinder children coming to him in three separate gospels, do you want me to list them?, now why would he say that if he would turn them away based on their parent’s marital status? Why would he say what he said in John three sixteen if the marital status of the parents of the believer mattered?”

Rebecca could see that Isabel was loosing the argument, but that still did not stop her feeling dirty inside, and feeling second class.

“Isabel” Susan was continuing, “the fact that Rebecca’s mother never got to marry Rebecca’s father, does not alter how Matthew and I feel about her, we still love her as if she were our own daughter and your actions last night meant she was out in the rain and she was actually attacked, if my father-in-law had not come along she would have been murdered or worse” Susan was starting to let her emotions get the better of her.
“In my day” Isabel started to respond, but Brian signalled to both Isabel and Susan to stop.

“Isabel, let me just say this by turning Rebecca away from the building last night, the way you did, you broke our child protection policy”, Brian began, and then he went on “Isabel I do remember those days when a child was stigmatised like you said, and they were horrible times”, if I recall though it was to shame the parents into marrying, am I right?”
“Well I suppose” Isabel responded, but Brian would not allow her to speak any more
“But Rebecca’s parents are dead Isabel, so what did you achieve?”
“Why were you even there? You’re not even a youth leader Isabel?” Susan chipped in, before Brian motioned for her to stop as well.
“Well I am surprised at you” Isabel retorted to Brian, “I was only trying to protect the integrity of this house of God and”

“Isabel, I really hoped was someone else and not you” came a familiar gruff voice behind them,.

Rebecca turned round to see her grandfather had come into the building, and then she turned round and looked at the floor, so he did not have to look at her, as he was ashamed of her as well because she was an illegitimate child.

“Susan” Rebecca’s grandfather told her, “Matthew said you were speaking with Brian and the lady who turned Rebecca away last night. I suspected it might be Isabel, but I couldn’t be sure and I had hoped I would be wrong”

“But Thomas” Isabel said, “You agree with me, you even had the guts to disown your wayward daughter”

Rebecca’s grandfather came and sat next to Rebecca and looked across at Isabel, “I know I did, you said it was the only way”
“And it was” Isabel reassured him
“And now she’s dead, so what did I achieve” Thomas snapped back, and then he put a loving arm around Rebecca, “I orphaned my own granddaughter, that’s what”
“You were only doing what was ..” Isabel tried to come back with
“I allowed my pride to get the better of me, and when I saw Rebecca here, at the hands of those no good punks that she landed up in, because you turned her away from a place of safety, and afterwards when I had a chance to think about it, I could not help thinking, that the no good man that forced my only daughter to sell her body in a foreign land was because I did the same as you Isabel”

Isabel just shook her head, “But Thomas”

But Rebecca’s grandfather just cut her off and repeated, “I’m sorry it was you Isabel, as we go back the longest and were cut from the same cloth”. Then Thomas got up, walked to the door, and opened it. In walked two police officers and Thomas then returned to sitting beside Rebecca.

“I’m sorry Brian, but after my statement, and after what the youth club leader had to tell the police last night..”
Thomas did not get to finish his statement as one of the officers walked up to Isabel and told her, “Isabel Lloyd, I’m arresting you on suspicion of child endangerment” and then he read Isabel her Miranda rights while she looked up at the officer in disbelief and righteous indignation. The police officer brought out some handcuffs, but Thomas shook his head at them, “You don’t need them for her”
Isabel stood up and mouthed a thank you at Rebecca’s grandfather and then left with the officers

“I don’t think she’ll be back” Brian sighed, “I am not even sure she was a member”
“Her husband was” Rebecca’s grandfather replied, “She is still very much wedded to her old Lutheran beliefs I suspect

Rebecca still felt dirty and close to tears, “Granddad, are you still ashamed of me” she quietly asked
Thomas put his arm around Rebecca’s shoulders again and looked at her, “No I’m not Rebecca, I saw how you struggled last night against those punks and did not give in, and I am proud to have you as my granddaughter”

Susan was open mouthed, at the sight of her father in law finally recognising Rebecca’s existence and expressing pride in her. The scare the previous evening had certainly opened his eyes to how he had been. Susan could not believe this was happening because of how vitriolic he had been in years past.

Thomas then turned to Susan, “Susan, you make sure you and Matthew do what’s right by my Rebecca”
“Yes Thomas, I intend to” she replied, only just managing to control her emotions.

Rebecca got off of her chair and turned to her grandfather with her arms wide open, and he allowed his granddaughter to give him as big a hug as she could manage, “Thank you for saving me last night granddad” she told him, then added, “I love you granddad”
“I love you too Rebecca” he reciprocated, “And I want you to bring your new family to lunch at my house right after church tomorrow”

Thomas then got up and said to Brian, “I’m sorry the police had to come in here like that, the youth club lead did not know Isabel’s name and they were going to come to the worship service tomorrow, but when I was told that you were meeting her today, I had to let them know that the woman responsible was going to be here”
“I understand Thomas” Brain told him, “You had to do what you had to do, and I’m glad they did come today instead of tomorrow”
“I have to go down to the station, and make sure Isabel is treated right” Thomas replied, “In spite of what she did, she was a good friend over the years” and then Thomas slowly walked out, even Rebecca could tell her grandfather was deeply upset at what had happened.

Rebecca then got off of her chair went over to Brian the evangelist, “Sir, because I am what the lady said ill-e-jit-e-met, does it mean am I not allowed to come to church anymore” Rebecca asked still unsure as to where she stood, she had barely kept up with her aunt’s arguments, all she knew was that her aunt had been winning them.

“Of course you can still come to church” Brian beamed “You are always welcome,. Rebecca .You were never, not allowed to, Isabel was wrong, and she’s had no right to tell you what she did and do what she did” then for good measure Brian went on, “You can even come to the youth club on Friday, and I will be there this time to make sure you get let in”
Rebecca hugged Brian and then went over to where she had been sitting beside her aunt, who was by now standing up.
“Thanks for coming down” Susan told Brian as she took hold of Rebecca’s hand
“It was no trouble Susan” Brian replied, and then he bent down to speak to Rebecca, “And I am so glad I got to meet you at last Rebecca, although I must say, I wish it had been under better circumstances”
“Thank you Mr Brian” replied Rebecca as she looked up at the evangelist, he was a big man like Jim, but for some reason, his gentle manner meant he did not scare her, and so she smiled at him and he smiled back.
“Let’s go home now” Susan told Rebecca, “I want to discuss something with you, Matthew and Frank all together”
“OK Aunt Susan” Rebecca replied and was lead by the hand by her aunt, out of the building, into the parking lot to the Jeep

What was this thing that her aunt wanted to discuss Rebecca wondered and feared the worse, “What if they want to send me away because other members of their church thought the same as that elderly lady, where could she go then?

All the way home in the Jeep, Rebecca hardy dared to say a word, she just kept thinking about her status as an illegitimate child, would Darren be banned from speaking to her by his parents? What would happen if her classmates had found out? Already at school the teachers had to pull someone up for making fun of her accent, what if the school authorities didn’t want her there because she was an illegitimate child.

Rebecca knew that Uncle Matthew, Aunt Susan and Frank loved her, it was even the case now that her Granddad loved her, but if she was so tainted, was that fair on them to have her around. All sorts of dark thoughts about herself returned to dance around her head.

The Jeep stopped in the driveway

Susan said to her “You’ve been awfully quiet Rebecca”
“Sorry Aunt Susan” Rebecca apologised
“Are you still upset by what Isabel told you about your parents not being married?”
Rebecca nodded, “What’s being stigmatised Aunt Susan? It didn’t sound nice”
“Rebecca, it’s not and I can see Isabel hurt you really a lot, didn’t she”
Rebecca nodded and broke down in tears, “I feel so horrid and dirty inside Aunt Susan” she sobbed.
Susan leaned over and hugged Rebecca, “She was a mean and spiteful woman Rebecca” Susan told her, “your not dirty inside, that’s a big lie, I don’t believe that for one second”

After about five minutes comforting Rebecca, Susan got out of the Jeep and then helped Rebecca from the Jeep. Rebecca stood there watching as her aunt shut the door and locked the Jeep, then Susan turned round, bent down and put her hands gently on Rebecca’s shoulder. “Rebecca, we took you in to our home, and now you are living with us, but now I don’t think that’s enough” Susan told her, then she went and opened the front door and ushered Rebecca in.

They hung their coats in the hall and Rebecca entered the lounge, where her Uncle Matthew was sitting in an easy chair, reading some law magazine. Her Aunt Susan went upstairs to fetch Frank.

Rebecca sat down on the sofa, sitting very straight, she did not have a clue what her Aunt had meant by what she had said outside, they had given Rebecca a new place to stay and she was grateful for it, and she knew they all loved her to bits and she loved them back, so what else should they be doing?

Susan came into the living room, followed by Frank, who was slightly annoyed that he had been interrupted in trying to get to the next level of some game. Rebecca felt guilty that she was causing so much interruption and so looked down at the carpet in shame and keeping quiet.

Frank sat on a hardback chair from the dining table, backwards as it were, until his father told him to sit on it properly, so Frank turned the chair around, sat on it and leant forward.

Susan sat next to Rebecca on the sofa and put her arm around her.

“Frank, I want to discuss something concerning Rebecca”
Rebecca could not help herself saying “oh no” in a very worried tone, had she done something wrong at the church building? Was it to do with her being illegitimate? But then her Uncle knew all about that?
.
“It’s ok sweetheart, it’s nothing bad” Susan whispered, and gave her a hug as it were with the arm she had around Rebecca and kissed her on the top of her head.

“What Mom?” Frank Replied, “If it’s about looking after Rebecca by going with her to that youth club next Friday, that’s fine by me” Then he added to try and show he was a man, “I will treat her like she were my own kid sister, so don’t worry mom”

“But what if she were?” Susan said quietly, and for clarification added, “officially your sister Frank”

Matthew leaned forward in his chair, Was his wife finally voicing what he wanted to do for his dead sister’s child, his orphaned niece, but had thought was no longer an option due to the passage of time?

Rebecca felt confused, what were they talking about? Frank was her cousin, not her brother, how could she officially be his sister?

“Would you have any problems with that Frank?” Susan pressed.

Rebecca was even more confused, Frank had acted like the big brother she never had, so what was going on? Did her cousin have an issue with her.

“Mom, Dad, if you are thinking what I think you are thinking” Frank began slowly and deliberately, “I don’t care if you leave Rebecca everything, if that’s what you think I would have a problem with. My only problem mom is why you had to wait over a week before suggesting what I think you’re suggesting”

“So Susan you still want to?” Rebecca’s uncle stuttered, “Even after all these years”,

Rebecca still was wondering what they were talking about, Aunt Susan had said it was nothing bad, but it was disconcerting that they all seemed to be clued in, except her. She tried desperately to try and work out what it could be, something sounded familiar, but at that moment she was so wound up about her status regarding her illegitimacy and what others would think of her she could not quite put her finger on it.

Whilst Rebecca was wracking her brains, her Aunt replied to her uncle, “Absolutely Matthew, don’t you still want to”

“Absolutely Susan it’s what I wanted to do all those years ago” Matthew replied, “I just thought with Frank being older he“
“Hey Dad” Frank cut in, “I’m still here you know, and I say just go for it. Come on Dad, Rebecca deserves this after what she has been through”, then Frank looked right at Rebecca and could somehow sense her confusion, “Rebecca” he called
“Yes Frank?” Rebecca nervously replied.
“You know what we’re talking about?”
Rebecca slowly shook her head

“Sorry sweetheart” Susan told her, and then kissed her on the top of her head again, “As I said outside, we took you in and gave you a home with us, but I just don’t think that’s enough, I don’t want you to think of yourself as some kind of outsider just living with us Rebecca, I want you to be a full member of our family, I think its time Matthew and I formally adopted you as our daughter”

Rebecca was confused still, “I thought they only did that with babies and only celebrities like Madonna” she replied
Susan smiled at her, “It’s not just celebrities and babies, Rebecca sweetheart, it can be ordinary people and children your age as well”
Matthew got up out of his chair and sat next to Rebecca on the sofa and put an arm round Rebecca as well, “As you are my sister’s daughter” he started, “it will be classed as an intra-family adoption, and since Susan and I are already registered as your legal guardians, the process should be much quicker than a standard adoption”
“And then” Susan added, “We will legally be your new parents, and Frank will be your brother and you will officially be our daughter, just as if I had you myself”

Rebecca looked at Aunt Susan, then her Uncle Matthew and then Frank, then she turned to her Aunt Susan again, “If you are going to be my new parents, do I still call you Aunt Susan and Uncle Matthew or do I call you Mum and Dad?”
Susan smiled at her, “You can call us mum and dad or aunt and uncle, what ever you feel comfortable with Rebecca”
Rebecca thought for a moment back to what that lady had called her and so nervously she asked, “If you adopt me, will I still be ill-e-jit-e-met”
“No love” Matthew replied, “You won’t be illegitimate any more”
Susan showed Rebecca her wedding ring, “When you’re my daughter, nobody will be able say that to you again”

Rebecca hugged her aunt, “Please adopt me Aunt Susan” she pleaded, “I don’t want to be illegitimate”, then she turned and hugged her uncle, “Please Uncle Matthew, I want you to be my new Dad” then she added, “I promise to be good, please”
“First thing love” Matthew told her, “First thing on Monday morning I will start the process”
“In the mean time” Susan added, “You don’t have to wait if you want to call us mom and dad, just go right ahead”
“Thank you Mum” Rebecca slowly said to Susan, “Thank you Dad” she slowly said to Matthew. It seemed odd to her, but it felt like something she really wanted to do.

Rebecca then climbed off of the sofa and walked over to Frank with her arms wide open, Frank got off of the chair, and allowed Rebecca to give him a hug too, “Your finally going to be my kid sister at last” Frank told her, “I always wanted a brother or sister”.

The following day was Sunday again, and they all went to church together this time, in Matthew’s car, Rebecca felt really apprehensive, as to what people would think of her now. Her aunt and uncle were going to be her new mum and dad, and she had happily been referring to them as such in the house, although she knew that it was unofficial until the paperwork was approved, but for the moment, she was still technically this illegitimate child that the elderly lady referred to. Would others now treat her differently to how they treated her the previous week?

Outside the church building, Brian was there to meet them, as Matthew had phoned ahead, just in case anyone secretly agreed with Isabel. Their church had been like an extended tight knit family, so Matthew hated doing it, but with his niece, soon to become his daughter, being very sensitive about it, he did not feel he had much of an option.

Brian was as welcoming to Rebecca as the day before and told her that he was so pleased that her uncle and aunt would be becoming her new mom and dad. He then told her, that he would have to mention what happened on Friday as others would have heard, but he was on her side if anyone dared to agree with Isabel.

As the Sands family and Rebecca made their way into the auditorium, another elderly lady approached them and bent down to speak to Rebecca. Rebecca feared she might have the same view as Isabel the other elderly lady.
“Miss Rebecca” she said, “I feel so ashamed..”
”uh oh” Here it comes Rebecca thought,
“That someone of my generation could be so bigoted” the other elderly lady continued

Rebecca was confused, so the other elderly lady continued further, “from what I hear you are a wonderful little girl, and what Isabel did was inexcusable”
“But she said” Rebecca started to say, but the other elderly lady cut in “I know what she said dear, but I try and live by Romans 14 and as God has accepted you, so do I and I am thrilled to have you here with us”
Then the lady hugged Rebecca unexpectedly.

A number of other adults came up to the Sand’s family and expressed their shock and disgust at what had happened to Rebecca and all of them told her, if they had been there, then Isabel would have been over ruled and it would have been Isabel, not Rebecca who was sent packing that night. Rebecca was amazed and delighted, that people still seemed to accept her, in spite of her being an illegitimate child. It seemed it was only Isabel who thought it was an issue.

And so the service started, and Brian walked to the podium and looked around, coughed and then begun, “Before we begin worship today, I need to talk about an unpleasant incident on Friday at our youth club. Last week while I was away, the congregation welcomed Rebecca Sands to our fold. Now for any who weren’t here last week, Rebecca is an eleven year old orphan from England, whose father was murdered some years ago, and just around a month ago, her mother died. She has now come to live with Matthew and Susan, her uncle and aunt and her cousin Frank. Now on Friday Rebecca was dropped of with young master Darren at the youth club, but a certain individual”

Brian then scanned the whole of the auditorium and then continued, “Who is not here today, was not as welcoming. Because Rebecca’s dead parents were not married, this certain individual, and a number of people here know who it is, took it into their head to turn her away in the pouring rain. Now Rebecca was subsequently attacked by two people on a main road outside, and it was only thanks to her grandfather, Thomas Sands, Praise the Lord that she is still with us today.”

There were sounds of gasps from the congregation and “After all she’s been through already?”

Brian paused and then continued; “Now I know that God ordained that the best place to raise children is in a home with two married parents, but to hold this child guilty of something she had nothing to do with was so very wrong, and to put that child in danger just defies all reason. Now if anyone has a problem with Rebecca being with us, because of something her parents did or failed to do, all those years ago, I would like them to speak to me afterwards and not do what this person did and personally take it out on Rebecca. I for one have no problem with her being part of our fellowship”

Comments along the lines of how they are thrilled to have Rebecca with them and sorrow and anger that she had been mistreated and further comments along the lines of “how could any one have a problem with her?”

“One piece of good news I can reveal concerning Rebecca” Brian went on, “Matthew, Susan and Frank are not just taking Rebecca into their home, Matthew and Susan are taking her into their family as well and as soon as all the legal stuff is done, Rebecca is going to be adopted as their daughter and become a sister for brother Frank”

Comments of approval from the auditorium, and the word “awesome” and “Amen” being thrown around

The service then continued much like the previous week and afterwards, more people milled around Rebecca, hugging her, saying how pleased she was ok, how upset they were she had been treated by Isabel, and they would never have allowed Isabel to get away with what she did. There were also plenty of congratulations to Matthew, Susan and Frank. There were also lots of dinner invitations to Rebecca and her soon to be “new family”

Brian later reported, that the only person it seemed who had had a problem with, Rebecca, was Isabel, the lady that had turned Rebecca away, and that everyone else loved Rebecca and were very complimentary about her.

Rebecca could only just say “Thank you” with tears in her eyes as she was overcome with emotion that people actually liked her, loved her and did not care a hill of beans if she was illegitimate or not. Even Darren’s mother came up and hugged her and told her she was so glad that she was going to get a new mom and dad and was such a good friend to her son.

Then it was lunch with her Grandfather, which was another emotional affair, as years of resentment were finally brushed aside. Thomas had learned his lesson and was eager to make amends and do what ever he could to make it up to Rebecca, and Matthew. Even Frank seemed to be reconciled with his Grandfather, as he had rescued his soon to be sister from some thoroughly nasty individuals.

It was as if this former minor spirit of virtue, the Spirit of Kindness, had brought to the Sands family healing, just by her very presence, and all without any empathic powers.

The following day, at work Matthew got colleagues of his at his law firm to start the private intra-family adoption so Rebecca would finally become his and Susan’s daughter. He also found out from the DA, that the two men that attacked Rebecca were being investigated for other attacks on other young girls, and that it was unlikely they would need to call Rebecca as a witness.

On the Tuesday, Rebecca received news from New York when she received a letter from Mazy, another former minor spirit of virtue, the Spirit of Caring, she had been able to leave the group home and while her mother was going through detox, she was living with Malcolm and Lisa Duncan, as her stepfather had still not been granted custody, but did have supervised access. Rebecca also heard that an investigation by the New York City Administration for Child Services had put a stop to the practice of denying children food if their beds were not made properly, and the early morning exercise routine. Apparently a number of staff were suspended pending investigation into malfeasance.

On the Friday, when Michael arrived with Darren to go to the youth club, Susan offered to drive the two children there instead, not that she did not trust Michael, but because she had decided to help out at the youth club. When Rebecca walked through the doors into the youth club, all of the other children broke into spontaneous applause for Rebecca, and all of them without exception hugged her to show her how welcome she was. Through out the games and activities, Rebecca and Darren were inseparable and very well behaved, and everyone had a great time.

After about two weeks since the Monday Matthew put in the adoption application, they were to go to the courthouse for finalisation. Rebecca was given special permission from school to be off to attend, as was Frank.

The hearing went according to plan, and Rebecca got to say how she really loved her Uncle Matthew, and her Aunt Susan and how they had been really kind to her since she arrived, and how very much she wanted them to be her parents, so she could officially call them mum and dad, although she had unofficially been referring to them that way, and how she did not want to be illegitimate anymore,

Then the adoption was granted, and it was the happiest moment in Rebecca’s life.

As they were leaving the courthouse, outside was someone Rebecca had not seen for a while.

It was Colonel Samuel Peters in a long trench coat and a briefcase and Corporal Tania McCaskey also in civilian clothing. Rebecca ran to them and hugged the corporal first.
“How are you?” Rebecca asked her.
“I’m getting by” Tania replied, “I’m on suspension though until my court marshal”
“Why?” Rebecca asked, “They said you didn’t do it”
“I know Rebecca” Tania replied, “But because I was arrested, I still have to appear before a court marshal”
“That’s not fair” Rebecca told her
“I know” Tania said, “But it’s the rules”

“Idiotic rules” The colonel cut in, “I am still trying to get them to stop that nonsense, and if they insist on going through with it, I will be testifying on the corporal’s behalf personally”

Rebecca turned to the colonel, “I’m sorry I got those people to be kind to me” she apologised.
The colonel interrupted Rebecca, “Hogan said I had upset you by what I said” He told her, “I’m sorry Rebecca I never meant to upset you like I did, maybe I phrased my question badly. I had to see that like other minor spirits of virtue, you had a heightened conscious of right and wrong, which you did, and still have, and if you wanted to be human, which you did also. I know you would never purposely hurt anyone; minor spirits of virtue are hard wired not to, even when they become fully human, it is why you will make a wonderful caring and good hearted person.” The colonel explained.

Matthew and Susan came down to see the two military officers, “Thank you for finding my daughter” Matthew said to the colonel and shook his hand, and then he shook Tania’s hand and told her, “If you need a good lawyer, let me know, it’s on the house” then handed her his business card.
Tania took it and replied with a “Thank you sir”.

“You have a fine daughter there sir” the Colonel told Matthew and Susan
“We know” Susan replied, “And we lover her very much and I would like to add my thanks for you helping to bring her back into our lives again”

“Oh” The colonel interjected, “I almost forget”, and then the colonel opened his briefcase and brought out two envelopes, and handed them to Rebecca.

Rebecca opened the biggest one first, it was her certificate for the one hundred meters breast stroke she earned when she was nine! Then she opened the other envelope, it was a card from her teacher in Slough, wishing her every happiness with her new life in America with her new mum and dad.

“It was your teacher who reported you missing” The colonel explained, “You were big news in Slough when you ran away from that dirt bag. Luckily we had a good enough cover story and the LEO’s were satisfied. Your local social services were a bit annoyed, but hey, they’ll get over it”

Then the colonel took out a small box from his briefcase and handed it to Rebecca, “its not magical, I’m afraid” he told her, “But it won’t crumble to dust this time”

Rebecca opened the box and was astonished to see, an identical talisman to the one she had held when she relinquished her powers as the Spirit of Kindness and obtained her human soul

[img=100x200]http://ravenmoonlight.com/catalog/images/talisman_clay_blackgod.jpg[/img]

Rebecca put it on and held it in her hands, then she hugged the colonel, and said “Thank you” with tears of joy running down her face.

“Anytime Rebecca” the colonel told her, “It’s our job, we help minor spirits of virtue like you were” then he added, “By the way, Jenny Green sends her love”
The colonel and the corporal then got into a sedan and left.

The new enlarged Sand’s family then went to a pizza parlour to celebrate Rebecca’s adoption, along with her grandfather.

Rebecca’s journey had just about ended in one sense, dear and gentle reader, Rebecca Sands, the former Spirit of Kindness had found love, happiness and people who accepted her, but as we are all on a journey called life, that part would go on.

Rebecca was on her way to growing up, a well behaved, caring individual, and the one thing she decided she wanted to be when she grew up would be like her uncle, and now her father a member of the legal profession, to help people, like she herself had been helped.

By the way, what the Colonel held back from Rebecca, as he did not her to wish she was in anyway responsible, because she was most certainly not, was that the very day after Jim was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, he was murdered in his prison cell, by an inmate whose daughter was one of his victims.

The End

Next time dear and gentle reader, how does a goblin come to terms with the aftermath of a civil war, he and his wife were protected from, and his other relatives were not