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Trista sat with Daisy three nights later, watching Paw Patrol. It was the first time she had spent an entire evening on her own with a child and it was a lot more fun than she could have ever imagined. Daisy was comfortable, easy-going, and had even started several small streams of conversation with her. They had Mac & Cheese for dinner, and she had wrangled her into pajamas, all following the plan that Hunter had left for her.
Now, as Daisy’s tiny head fell to her lap on the couch, she leaned over to put a blanket across her small shoulders. The little body is so dependent on her for everything she needed.
“Trista?”
“Yes, sweetie.”
“Hunter said I could go back to school, and we will meet with my teacher tomorrow,” she said as she sat back up.
“That sounds like a brilliant idea. Do you like school?”
She shrugged her bony shoulder, but her down-turned eyes told Trista there was more to it than she was saying.
“Have you gone to school before?” She asked, suddenly realizing that the situations Daisy had been found in didn’t precisely show good care. She wasn’t confident her parents would have done that much, even for her.
“MeeMaw made me go to kindergarten. She walked me every day,” she said, exhaling so deeply her tiny shoulders slumped forward significantly.
“That sounds great,” Trista said, not sure who MeeMaw was, but just encouraging Daisy to speak as they had instructed her. Before taking this on, she and Belle had discussed her entire last session about how best to deal with a traumatized child, like Daisy. Let them talk, don’t push them, and just be positive were the cliff notes of what she had learned.
“She died,” Daisy said as her face fell.
“Oh, sweetie,” Trista said. “I’m so sorry, that must have been tough.”
She nodded.
“Darryl and Mommy said I was dumb,” she whispered. “They said no one wanted to be friends with me because I was a dummy.”
“Daisy, I think Darryl and your Mommy maybe were scared,” Trista responded, though silently, she hoped she never crossed Darryl and Daisy’s mom because she would have some choice words for them. “Sometimes, even we adults get scared, and we make terrible choices. I think you will be able to catch up in school, and soon have lots of friends.”
“I don’t have any pretty clothes to wear, though.”
“I thought Hunter got you some new things,” Trista said, slightly confused. Daisy had on new pajamas and had jeans, shorts, and t-shirts in the drawers down the hall when she looked.
“Do you think I could get a flower dress? MeeMaw always got me the prettiest dresses.”
Trista felt the tears well up. It was the first request Daisy made of her directly. The fact that she wanted a flower dress that reminded her of her MeeMaw didn’t seem like a huge request. She could do it herself but didn’t want to overstep.
“Tell you what,” Trista said, sure to keep a smile in place. “When Hunter gets home, I will be sure and tell him we need to find you some pretty dresses. Does that sound like a plan?”
Daisy drifted up, wrapped her arms around Trista, and squeezed, “thank you,” she whispered in her ear.
“You’re welcome, sweetie,” she said, returning the embrace.
Daisy promptly got off the couch and plodded down to her room. After she got her tucked in and read her a Clifford the Big Red Dog book, she headed to the living room and pulled out her laptop. She was busy outlining her new novel and building a list of characters. She had spoken to Margaret, who loved the idea of a book with Living River Ranch as inspiration. She elicited an agreement from Trista that any characters she might wish to include that didn’t want to take part would not be included.
She had already spoken with Stormi, Belle, Greyson, Ray, Amy, Margaret, and Noah. Of course, Mathew Katzen would need to be included; he was the guardian angel of Living River and excited to take part. Margaret had provided her the added permission as Mathew’s guardian. With each day, Trista was getting more excited about the project. Spending time, hearing stories, and pulling this entire project together was giving her a focus she hadn’t possessed in a long time.
She didn’t know when it happened, but sometime much later, she fell asleep across the couch. When Hunter returned in the early morning hours, she sat up from the laptop keyboard where her head lay. He just looked down at her with a big goofy grin, “that doesn’t look comfortable.”
“It might not be, but it was one of my favorite nights in a long time,” she said with a slight shrug of her shoulders.
