I Do.

“Dr. Parker?”
They were all on me
Nine pairs of avidly curious
empathetic eyes,
and they were on me
For the first time in my
three sessions of coming here,
It was finally my turn.

Right beside me
I felt the familiar reassuring hand
tangling with my fingers on my lap,
and I felt a blinding sense of relief I always had.
She was here....it was alright.
With an agonizing effort,
I closed my eyes and
painfully willed my mind to
go back and retrieve the
Two decades of memories locked up...
painstakingly sealed through the years...
My mind listened,
and they all came rushing back.

It was as though a door long closed
Had finally burst open
And I saw it all
All over again.

I saw mother
Through my vaguely covered
grown-up remembrance
I could remember her doting love
And pure affection
I saw Soraya
My little pure-hearted sister
We were so happy together
Until He came
And destroyed us forever

The Man
Who had somehow gotten past
Momma's defenses
The bastard who had slowly paved
His ruinous ways into our lives.

I should have known
By the way his eyes glinted at
The sight of squandering our money away
I should have known by the chilling leers
He sent Soraya and I from time to time
I should have suspected
The horrible monster lurking within
But I didn’t

Then mother died
And the monster sprang forth.

Even in my subconscious
I could feel my present body stand
At attention
An electric current running down my spine
As my brain reconnected with
Memories well hidden by two decades
The images came in
And my present body instantly understood
I saw myself as I was
At 8 years...