Chapter 2 - Maribel does not want revenge
I took Maribel inside.
Not to interrogate her.
To get her away from the pool.
Her knee had scraped against the stone.
No head strike.
No fall into water.
No serious injury.
The family doctor cleaned the abrasion and checked her shoulder because she complained of soreness where Presley had shoved her.
Nothing fractured.
No emergency room.
No dramatic scan.
Maribel sat in my study wearing my suit jacket over her yellow dress because she had started shivering.
“Are you mad?”
“Yes.”
“At Presley?”
“Yes.”
“At Delphine?”
“Yes.”
She looked down.
“Don’t send Presley to jail.”
I almost smiled.
“That is not happening.”
“She’s mean.”
“I know.”
“She said the house will be hers.”
There.
I sat across from her.
“When?”
Maribel hesitated.
“Other times.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did she say?”
“Sometimes she says when Delphine owns the house, my room is going to be different.”
My stomach tightened.
“What different?”
“She said it might be for guests.”
“Who said that? Presley?”
Maribel nodded.
“Did Delphine ever say it?”
“Not to me.”
Good.
I did not put words in her mouth.
Then:
“Has Presley pushed you before?”
“No.”
“Hit you?”
“No.”
“She takes stuff.”
“What stuff?”
“Hair clips. Candy. Once my bracelet but she gave it back.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“Delphine said cousins share.”
Presley was not Maribel’s cousin.
She was Delphine’s niece.
But adults had repeatedly called them family.
Maribel took that seriously.
I asked:
“Do you want to see Presley again?”
She looked frightened by the size of the question.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s okay.”
Then:
“I don’t want her to lose everything.”
Children rarely ask for punishment in the way adults imagine.
Maribel wanted:
Her gift out of the pool.
Her scraped knee not to hurt.
Presley to stop taking things.
May you like
And her bedroom to remain hers.
I could work with that.
