Prodigal | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Prodigal | Previous Challenge Entry
By Cori Van Gorkom
05/08/08
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She was a lone figure on the broad concrete steps. Cold was seeping into her bones as the freezing wind tore at her matted hair. The sky had been spitting at her for over an hour as she sat there, and her ragged clothes were wet and uncomfortable.
The girl seemed oblivious to this, however. Her dark eyes were focused off in the distance, on something only she could make out, and steady streams of tears ran down her face, melting into the rain drops and dripping off her chin.
A dark bruise colored her jaw, marring the pale, freckled skin.
She was a runaway, and far from home. And she did not see a way through this newest development. Living on the streets was all well and good, until you discovered you were pregnant, and you had no income and no food and no home. And when you could not pay for the drugs you needed, and you did not want them anyway, no matter how much your body craved them, because you cared for this child developing in your womb, even if you hated the man who had raped you all those months ago.
She did not respond as the car pulled up in front of the public library. The soft mutter of the engine was not enough to pull her from her distress, and she was too deep in her sorrowful brooding to notice the thud of the door opening and closing, and then the footsteps slapping through the puddles towards her.
Strong arms scooped around her, lifting her frail body against a firm, muscular chest. And then she was being carried gently back to the waiting car, and carefully settled in the passenger seat.
“Dad wants you to come home,” a soft voice rumbled at her, as the driver climbed back in. “I want you to come back home.”
The girl blinked, and turned to look at him. Steady green eyes looked back at her, serious eyes that had watched over her ever since she had been a little child. Her older brother.
“I don’t deserve to go home,” she admitted.
“Doesn’t matter. You’re family. We love you.” The older brother smiled at her. “We’re going to help you.”
He reached over and pulled her into a brotherly hug.
For the first time, the runaway felt warm.

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