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Girl eases around the plants and shuffles forward, trying to be as small and still as possible, just in case she has done something Bad. She wishes Sun Hair would have on the happy face again; that makes Girl feel light. She keeps her head down, careful not to make eye contact. At Sun Hair’s feet, she drops to her knees.
The touch on her forehead is soft and gentle. Girl looks up.
“Thisisgoingtobedifficultalis.” She sighs. “Trustmeokay.”
Girl doesn’t know what to do, how to show her obedience. Another little sound escapes her.
“I’msorry.” Sun Hair reaches into a box on the floor and pulls out It.
For a split second Girl freezes, too frightened to move. She glances around the room expecting Him to break into this too-light place. She scrambles backward.
Finally she screams. Once she starts, she can’t stop. She knows it is Wrong. Bad. Stupid to make so much noise and that the Strangers will come and hurt her now, but she is past the rules, past thinking. She hits one of the baby trees and it falls sideways, hitting the ground with a loud noise.
She screams more, gulping down air, trying to get away from it, but the white cave wall stops her. She hits it hard, feels pain thump her in the back of her head.
Sun Hair is talking to her, stringing sounds together that are as pretty as shells, but she can’t hear it. Her heart is beating so fast, and It is still there, in Sun Hair’s hand.
As It gets closer, Girl starts to scratch herself, drawing blood.
Sun Hair is with her now, holding her so tightly that Girl can’t claw herself.
“Okayokayokayokay. Nohurt. Iknowyou’rescared. It’sokayokayokay.” Sun Hair’s voice finally comes through.
Girl’s screaming fades. She breathes hard and fast, trying to be strong, but she is so scared.
Sun Hair lets go of her. Slowly, as if she is the one afraid, the pretty woman lifts It up.
Girl’s eyes widen. She feels sick inside, desperate. The air in the room darkens; everything smells like smoke and blood.
It catches the light. She closes her eyes, remembering his dark, hairy fingers twisting the strings . . . bending the twigs . . . threading the beads. She whimpers.
“Alis. Alis.”
The touch on her cheek is so gentle that at first she thinks she’s imagined it . . . that Her has come back.
“Alisopenyoureyes.”
The touch feels so good. She can breathe again. Inside her chest, her heart begins to slow down.
“It’sokayalis.Openyoureyes.”
Girl is beginning to hear something familiar in the garble of sounds. It pokes at her memory, makes her think of a time so long ago it turns to mist when she reaches for it. Slowly, she opens her eyes.
Sun Hair backs up a little. “Thisisadreamcatcher,” she says, unsmiling now. “Youknowthis.”
Dream Catcher.
She feels her tummy start to shake.
In a single motion Sun Hair breaks the dreamcatcher in half, then she rips the strings apart. The beads go flying, skitter across the floor.
Girl gasps. Ohnoohnoohno. This is bad. He will come now, He will hurt them.
Sun Hair reaches into the box and pulls out another one. She rips it into pieces and throws it away.
Girl watches in awe. Sun Hair ruins another and another. She takes something from the table and smashes it down on the pieces in front of her. Finally, smiling again, she holds a dreamcatcher
toward Girl. “Breakit. No hurt. No hurt.”
