Chapter 16
“Oh my god!” The words fell from my lips as I searched for something to hold the door open with. Scanning the small room, I discovered a tray of empty food near the sink. Grabbing it without losing my grasp on the door, I wedged the tray between the frame and the self-closing door.
After securing my escape route, I rushed to the side of the restrained occupant. “Let me get you out of this!”
Ripping off the Velcro straps, I had an unpleasant flashback of Meyers and his disgusting antics. Pushing the disturbing thoughts to the back of my mind, I focused all my energy on the task at hand.
After freeing all four limbs, the patient sat up on the cot. “Are you alright?”
“Yes, thank you.” Ocean blue eyes stared back at me with deep gratitude as she massaged her swollen wrists. Stroking her shoulder-length blonde hair maternally, I surmised she couldn’t be much more than eight years old.
“What’s your name sweetheart?” I asked seating myself beside her on the cot.
“Jessica.” She replied, her tiny voice hovering between shy and afraid.
“I’m Cassia.” I thrust my hand toward her eagerly. Moving her petite hand slowly towards me, she accepted my gesture. Feeling her warm little hand in mine nearly made me jump with joy. I felt like it had been years since I’d been touched gently by another human being.
“Why on earth do they have you here? You’re just a little girl!” I felt a lump form in my throat as my imagination flew in all directions. All I hoped was that she hadn’t had to endure the torturous tests and inhumanities that I’d lived through so far.
Uncertainty clouded her young expression as she searched my face with suspicion. I could understand her reluctance to trust strangers; this place quickly teaches a person that no one should be trusted.
Smiling at her, I hoped that I could gain her trust. Frankly, I was just ecstatic to have some normal company again. Apparently deciding to confide in me, she spoke quietly as though telling me her darkest secrets.
“I’m…’mune to everything.” Confused, I frowned as I tried to decipher what she meant. Thankfully, she chattered on while she reached up and began braiding a section of my long black hair.
“When I was in my mommy’s tummy, she had a bad disease called…” She pursed her little lips and scrunched up her face as she tried to recall. “AID.”
“AIDS?” I offered, my heart sinking as I foreshadowed her mother’s fate.
“Yup. But I didn’t get it.”
My brow knitted together again. I’d heard of babies being born free of AIDS when their mother’s had it. It didn’t totally explain why they’d consider her immune to ‘everything’.
Jessica continued to tell her short life story.
“Daddy told me that the doctors tested me a lot…to see why I was…’mune.”
“Immune.” I corrected her softly.
“Immune. He said they looked at my blood and it was…different.” My heart literally stopped. I could feel it pause as I held my breath, waiting for the next sentence.
Was she…like me? Maybe I wasn’t the only one. I didn’t know whether to feel elated for myself or pity for her.
“Different?” My voice was but a whisper as I urged her to continue.
“Yah. The doctors said that I couldn’t catch a cold, or the flu or even something called cancer.”
Knowing my own medical history and lack of illnesses, this young girl seemed to be molding herself into my own life story.
“Jessica, I’m going to ask you something very strange, but it’s very important that I know, okay?”
Her big blue eyes turned serious as she stopped playing with my hair and stared up at my face.
“Do you have a birthmark…right here?” I touched my pointer finger to the center of my chest. I’m sure my heart was pounding so hard that I could feel it banging against my finger.
This could be the moment, the moment where I discovered I wasn’t truly an anomaly in this cruel and cold world.
That maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t alone.