Chapter Two

She had never been given a present before, birthdays and Christmas were barely acknowledged by her mother and her many lovers, all it meant was her mother got very drunk hooked up with the nearest available guy then spent the night screwing him. It was always in front of her terrified daughter, the drunken couple would cackle with laughter when Melody begged the man to stop hurting her Mama.                                 'You will learn soon enough kid that your Mama is doing what the good Lord put women on this earth for.'                                                                                                              He grabbed the frightened child by her thick golden hair and held her up by it,        'You're a pretty little thing and in a couple of years your precious Mama will sell you to me so she can score her drugs.'                                                                                          He shook her hard and she bit her lip to stop herself from crying out in pain as her head burned from the pain of being held by her hair,                                                                 'Put her down darling, she's no good to you  just yet when the time comes she'll fetch a  good amount and we'll have a party.'                                                                            Her mother dismissed her daughter dragging the man's attention back to her and he dropped Melody who rolled under the bed out of his way and cowered in a corner watching the rusty bedsprings pushing their way through the rotten material covering them as the couple carried on rutting like the animals they were.                                This had been the reality of Melody's day-to-day living arrangement and Mary saw it in the child's eyes as she stared uncertainly up at these strange adults, she had lost count of the number of children she had seen brought to her in this condition. This dainty, pretty little girl had survived horrors that would crush most adults, starved, beaten ignored and left to fend for herself seeing things she should never have witnessed. The other Social Worker, a man called Simon, knelt to address her at her own level but Melody backed away, men terrified her because all they did was hit her and hurt her, none of the ones she had ever had contact with had shown her anything but pain.          'Hello Melody, My name is Simon and I have a gift for you too.'                                         She started to tremble with fear she knew what kind of gifts men had for her, the back of a hand across her face, or the same hand gripping her hair and shaking her violently or the sick ones who put her across their knees and spanked her hard before throwing her away and hurting her Mama. Men were not to be trusted and she backed into the Nurse's legs her eyes wide and fearful, the man looked surprised and then hurt by her actions,                                                                                                                    'Hey, it's okay, I won't hurt you Melody I just wanted to give you this.'                         He held out a pretty dolly to her but she made no move to take it, she knew this game far too well and refused to take part. As soon as her hand reached out to take the dolly it would be cruelly snatched away and the hand would grab her and shake her until her teeth rattled. Simon saw the fear in her eyes and stood up handing the doll to Mary without a word, they knew not to push a child so badly traumatised.                              Mary smiled at the little girl and handed her the doll,                                                        'There you go, isn't that nice of Simon to remember your birthday like I did?'              Melody said nothing clutching the teddy bear she carefully placed the doll on the floor and then fled back into the arms of the kind Nurse,                                                  'Hey, hey come on now that's not a very nice thing to do, you have hurt Simon's feelings.'                                                                                                                       The Nurse was old fashioned not knowing the little girl had been taken from her dead mother's side and was severely traumatised she set Melody away from her and frowned disapprovingly,                                                                                                              'Did your Mama not teach you any manners, young lady? You go pick up that pretty dolly and apologise to Simon right now.'                                                                             Melody was appalled, she had thought she was safe with the Nurse, hadn't she cleaned her and fed her? Confused and scared she looked at the floor frozen where she stood the teddy bear dropping from her hand as she trembled violently. Mary rushed forward to sweep her into her arms and hold her close stroking her back and murmuring in her ear,                                                                                                                             'It's okay baby girl, it's okay.'                                                                                     Glaring at the Nurse for her insensitivity she scooped up the teddy and walked out of the room to sit in a chair in the corridor rocking her gently.                                       'You okay baby girl?'                                                                                                           For some reason Melody sensed she was safe in this older woman's arms somehow she knew no one would hurt if Mary was there so she snuggled against her shoulder clutching the teddy to her chest. The adults continued talking over her head but she did not listen just stuck her thumb in her mouth and relaxed under the gentleness of Mary's touch.      'Do we have a foster home for her?'                                                                         Simon asked looking at Mary and then their boss, Julian Fisher, he was the Head of the Social Services Team at the hospital and had just arrived after reading the little girl's notes.                                                                                                                          'She needs specialist care, as far as we can see she has not been sexually abused but physically abused, mentally abused, starvation and I would guess she had been subjected to some pretty horrific sights.'                                                                                      All the adults paused to look at the tiny pretty child sitting so quietly and still on the senior Social Worker's knee, it was an unnatural position, she appeared to be cuddled into Mary but if you looked closely she was holding herself so stiffly it had to be painful for her.                                                                                                                        'We have only one family capable of giving her the care she needs but they are retiring soon. I'm not sure it would be beneficial for her to go to them and then have to be relocated just as she's settled.'                                                                                Julian looked at the two Social Workers both knew the service was overworked and understaffed, with a huge shortage of facilities for every sector. The couple Julian mentioned Anna and Henry, had been foster carers for more than twenty years, when their children had grown up and left to start their own lives, the couple had begun taking in unwanted and traumatised children. They had an amazing success story, almost all the children they cared for went on to lead 'normal' fruitful lives. If this tiny child was to have any chance at all she needed their care for however long they could give it so Mary sighed and stood up cradling Melody in her arms.                                                         'We don't have a choice, the system would crush her she's far too fragile for anyone else.'                                                                                                                           Anna and Henry welcomed the little girl using all their years of experience, they did not crowd her or make any fuss of her, instead, they spoke in soft voices, showing her to her room, telling her what was hers and what she needed to do. Children as traumatised as Melody needed structure and rules to follow as they tried to make sense of their new world. It took the couple a month to break down some of the walls the little girl had erected, slowly she told them of the abuse she had suffered the doll Simon had bought her remained untouched on a chair in her room.