Read Online Bless the Child by Cathy Cash Spellman - Free Book Online Page A

make you believe anything bad about me, you just reach inside your heart and you will know the truth. Do you understand me, Cody? Love feels good. It feels safe and warm and happy. When somebody loves you, that’s how you feel, understand? You can believe your feelings, sweetheart, even when people try to confuse you with words. Okay?”
     
    Cody hesitantly nodded her head yes.
     
    “Now let’s talk about Ghania. She does not read minds because nobody reads minds. Some people just pretend to. And I didn’t come here today because her God sent me, I came because I love and I miss you. And I wanted to make sure you were safe. I’ve been calling every single day since my last visit, trying to get to see you, but it wasn’t till today that your mommy allowed it.”
     
    Another nod.
     
    “Now Cody, this is very, very important. The other day when I was here, you said they hurt the baby . Can you tell Mim what you meant by that?”
     
    Cody squirmed in Maggie’s grasp, again unwilling to meet her eyes.
     
    “I’m afraid,” she said finally in a tiny, frightened whisper.
     
    “Of what, sweetheart? What are you afraid of?”
     
    “Somebody’s screaming,” she quavered, tears blurring the words. “At night. I hear them. Somebody gets hurt really bad and when Ghania hears it, she smiles and I get scared.”
     
    Maggie frowned. Could Cody be hearing the TV and misunderstanding? Or Eric and Jenna? It didn’t make sense.
     
    “Are you sure, love? This is very important, Cody. Could it be the TV?”
     
    Cody shook her head no emphatically.
     
    “Once,” she said, so softly Maggie could hardly hear, “I saw the blood.”
     
    “The blood? What blood?”
     
    “From the Screamers.”
     
    Maggie’s heart thudded in her chest. She tried to sound calm.
     
    “How do you know it was from the Screamers, Cody? How do you know it was blood? Maybe it was ketchup.”
     
    Cody looked haunted again, that strange look Maggie had seen earlier.
     
    “Ghania told me,” she said in a voice so small Maggie really had to concentrate. “I was bad and she showed me the blood from the Screamers. She said she could make me a Screamers, too.” The child’s voice wavered at the last of it, as she could barely say the words.
     
    Maggie’s stomach turned over. She pulled Cody very close, and hugged her to hide the tears in her own eyes. She had to bite her lip to stay in control.
     
    “Is there anything else, Cody? Does anything else hurt you or frighten you?”
     
    “She tries to make me drink the cocktail. But I won’t, so she hits me, and she twists my arm so it hurts me.”
     
    “Cocktail?” Maggie asked, puzzled. “What kind of cocktail, sweetie, does it have liquor in it?”
     
    Cody shook her head no.
     
    “What then? What’s in the cocktail, and why does she want you to drink it?”
     
    “Ghania says it will make me one of them.”
     
    “One of them? One of what?”
     
    Cody shrugged her little shoulders. There was a lost and helpless character to the shrug. “I don’t know, Mim. But it makes you really sick. Once she held my nose and made me drink it, but I threw up on her so she stopped.”
     
    “Good for you!” Maggie applauded. What could this mean? Could Cody be having nightmares? None of it made sense, except that it was all ghastly and abusive.
     
    “Could I come home now, Mim?” Cody asked softly. “I promise to be really good if you let me come home.” Dear God, she thinks it’s her fault she’s here . . .
     
    Hot tears trickled down Maggie’s cheeks as she cast about in her mind for how to explain to the child that she must stay.
     
    “Oh Cody, I want to take you home, so much . . . I love you more than anything in this world. I want you to know that, in you heart. That’s where you and I are going to keep everything that’s between us . . . in our hearts, okay? So if anybody asks you what we talked about, or if anybody says she can read your mind, you’ll know our