“Trinity Marie! Get out here right now!” The mid-twenties woman yelled through the
sliding glass door. Trini stared morosely
at the oversized sweatshirt and then reluctantly pulled it over her head. It was at least 90 degrees outside.
“Trini!” Her mother yelled inside
again and Trini hurried to the door. Her
mother glared at her. “You’re going to
make us late.”
“I’m sorry Momma.” Trini had trouble
closing the glass door behind her because she was so little. She was already sweating. Momma took Trini’s hand and led her to the
door of the car. Trini stared out the
window quietly, watching the trees along the side of the long dirt
driveway. “Where are we going
Momma?” She wished that they were just
staying home. It was too hot to go out
in public, to wear her going out in public clothes.
“You have a Doctor’s appointment.”
Momma told her, but didn’t take her eyes off the road once to look at the
girl. Trini perked up. They were going to see Dr. George! Dr. George was always so nice, and he gave her
candy.
They’d been driving for over an hour
in the summer heat. Trini had her window
rolled all the way down and was trying to get as much of a breeze as she
could. The car didn’t have an air
conditioner. Her light brown hair was
matting to her head with sweat. “Here,
drink your water.” Momma held out her cup.
“You need to drink lots of water, okay?” She smiled at Trini and brushed
some of the damp hair off of the girl’s forehead. “I know its hot out, I’m sorry.” Trini took the cup, and the light changed, so
Momma turned back to the road to drive.
Trini stared out the car window with
a little bit of fear. The buildings were
run down and the people on the street dressed funny. They were all dirty and had holes in their
clothes. Momma looked around a little
nervously searching for something. “Oh,
here it is.” She muttered to herself and turned to park in front of a
warehouse. Trini’s eyes widened. This wasn’t Dr. George’s place. Dr. George had a nice place with trees and
pretty flowers.
She hesitantly spoke, “Momma? Where’s Dr. George?” Momma stopped folding her map and looked at
Trini.
“Oh, honey. Dr. George died, remember we went to his
funeral?” Trini remember that. The people were all sad, even though they had
so much food.
“Yes. But where’s Dr. George?” Trini looked out the window, expecting the
gentle old man to come out of the building to carry her on his shoulders.
“Trini, when someone dies, we don’t
see them anymore.” Momma looked at Trini with concern in her eyes. “We won’t see Dr. George anymore.”
Trini felt sad. She held Momma’s hand tightly as they walked
into the dirty building. It was much
cleaner inside. “Mrs. Stephens?” A young doctor approached them.
“Miss Stephens.” Momma corrected
him. She always corrected them when they
said that.
The doctor glanced meaningfully at
Trini then looked back at Momma, “Oh.
Okay, Miss Stephens… Doctor Sevarius wanted me to have you go into the
exam room right away and get little Trinity changed.” He led them away.
Trini felt weird. Momma took her sweatshirt; she never did that
except when she went to see Dr. George.
Maybe the new Doctor had candy, but he could never be like Dr.
George. Trini’s black wings fluttered a
little as she tried to make them not be sore.
Wearing the shirt for so long made them sore. Her back was so hot, so she fanned it with
her wings. When she heard the door
behind her opening she caped her wings quickly and turned with frightened eyes
to watch the stranger come in. She
wasn’t supposed to let strangers see her wings, Momma would be so mad!
“No, it’s okay Trini. He needs to look at them.” Momma soothed her, but something about the
strange Doctor’s eyes when he saw Trini made her cringe. She just knew that he was a bad man.
Momma fastened Trini’s seat belt and
got into the car. The Doctor had taken
pictures of the inside of Trini with something called an x-ray. He told her that when they were ready, Trini
could come back and see them. He also
touched her wings and stared at her back.
Trini didn’t like him touching her, because he wasn’t gentle.
“Lets get some McDonalds. Would you like that?” Momma smiled at Trini. “You were such a good girl, I’m proud of
you.” Trini’s eyes beamed. They were going to McDonalds!
It was colder at night, so the
sweatshirt wasn’t so bad to wear. Trini
held Momma’s hand and skipped into the McDonald’s. She was grinning from ear to ear. She ate half of her hamburger before she
started to beg to go out and play on the toys.
Momma smiled and let her. She
played for a long time on the slide and in the balls. She loved the balls.
Momma put her in the car and Trini stared at the couple in
the next car. They were kissing…
gross. She made a face, and Momma saw
that when she got in the car. Momma
smiled. “Some day you won’t think that’s
so gross.” Momma looked at the guy and
girl fondly. “No, not so gross.”
Trini was running and laughing. She loved nights, at night she could go
outside and play. She didn’t need to
wear the shirt and could flap and flap, trying to fly. She was going to fly to the moon and bring
Momma home a rock. Momma would like that,
and then maybe she wouldn’t look so sad.
Momma looked so sad, but she was letting Trini play way later than
normal. Trini was getting tired and her
wings were sore. She never got to play
this much. She actually had to ask to go
in. That was a first.
They
drove up to the old ugly warehouse a week later. Trini didn’t want to be there, the man was
bad. Momma took out the bag before she
went to get Trini out of the car.
“Honey. You’ll be fine. You just need to stay here for a little
while, and then everything with be fine.”
Trini could hear that Momma was trying not to cry. She’d been crying a lot lately. Maybe she was sad about Dr. George.
Trini reached out her hand and
petted Momma’s. “It’s okay Momma.” She consoled.
It didn’t work, Momma started to cry.
Trini started to panic when Momma
left. Momma left her here, alone, with
the bad man! “It’s just a couple of
weeks, don’t look so sad.” The bad man
Doctor told her.
Trini stared out the window. She felt so sad. She was watching the Robin hop across the
yard looking for food. When it stretched
out its wings and flew away when Sammy, the cat came out her heart hurt. She would never fly, would never see the
moon.
“Trini, you need to take your
medicine.” Momma came into the bedroom with the nasty tasting medicine. It was supposed to stop her from hurting, but
it didn’t work. Her back hurt really
bad. Her chest and back were wrapped in
bandages. Trini hated to look in the
mirror, because they were gone. Her
pretty wings were gone. She wanted them
back. “Trini you can’t mope about this
all summer.” Momma sounded mad. She took her medicine and stared out the
window, out into the empty yard.
“Trini? It’s almost your
birthday. What do you want for your
birthday?” Momma asked.
“I want my wings. I want them back.” Trini turned her tear filled face to
Momma. Momma looked shocked and just
walked out of the room. Trini could hear
her crying in her bedroom, but Trini didn’t care. Momma had left her with those bad
Doctors. Those Doctors had hurt her and
Momma had left her there!
Trini got so many shirts for her
birthday. She could wear regular shirts
now, Momma tried to say that like it was a good thing. Trini knew better. Momma started talking about school, and how
much Trini was going to like it. How she
was going to make all sorts of friends, how she was going to fit in, and be
normal.