The Hand in the Snow

I watched as Chauncey sniffed at a mound of snow covered leaves and began to dig at them with a vigor. “Hey boy. What you digging at?” Just as my question ended, I saw something that shocked me. A small hand.

“Chauncey stop! Get back!” I yanked hard on his leash to pull him back. My temples were pounding and I felt nauseated. How could there be a child out here beneath a pile of snow covered leaves? My mouth felt cotton dry.

Not sure what to do, I stood frozen in place with my breath making small puffs of white as I hyperventilated. Chauncey sat at my feet looking up at me with his head cocked. If he wanted reassurances from me, I wasn’t in shape to offer them. We were at least a mile from the house and no other house would be any closer. My cellphone had no reception.

“Oh my god. Oh my god.” I couldn’t get my mind to function rationally. Should I dig in the pile and unearth the person? It was likely a small child judging by the size of the hand. But what would I see? Would he or she just look like they were sleeping? Or would they be some horrific sight that I could never unsee? A vision that would burn into my brain never to be erased. Something that would haunt me in both my waking hours and my dreams? But did it have to be grisly for that to happen? How could I ever forget this moment? What would I call this day going forward? “The day I found the dead kid?”

Looking around the leaf pile, I saw lots of little foot prints in a chaotic pattern. My mind summoned visions of a frightened child fighting for it’s life, trying to run to safety but failing to escape his or her captor. My stomach lurched and I gagged up my breakfast. There was no way I could face what lay beneath those leaves.

My breath was puffing harder and harder. As I stared at the little hand, it suddenly dawned on me that someone had been here to put the child there. How long ago? Are they gone? Or are they watching me? What will happen to me? I was physically shaking now, my knees buckling, I dropped to the ground. Chauncey began licking me in the face. All I could think to do was grab him and hug him tightly while I tried to gather my wits.

Think Ivy, think. I needed to get back to the house. Maybe I’d get cellphone service before I got there but I needed to call for help. As I struggled to get to my feet, I felt a thump hit me in the back and snow exploded into my hair. Someone had hit me with a snowball.

“Gotcha!” I couldn’t tell how old the person by the voice but I knew it was male. And then there was a blood curdling scream of a girl.

“Leave me alone! Stop it!”

“I’ll do it if I want to!” It was the same male voice. Perhaps an older teen by the break in his voice.

Spurred to action to save the little girl, I managed to get to my feet and started to run in the direction I had heard her. They were just over a rise on the path. Just as I walked past the leaf pile, something wrapped around my ankle. Thinking it was brush of some sort, I looked down to see it was the tiny hand grabbed onto the ankle of my boot.

A sound escaped me that even I didn’t know I was capable of. The leaf pile burst apart and child of about eleven rared back laughing. “Oh my god, lady. You should have seen your face!” His ruddy cherub face was screwed up in laughter causing his eyes to crinkle.

“You little fucker! That is so not fucking funny! You should be ashamed of yourself!” I found myself battering him around his head and shoulders with my hands.

“Hey, lady, quit!”

I felt a barrage of snowballs pelting me and the whoops of a hoard of kids as they descended on me. I was slammed face first into the snow and took several hard kicks to my ribs on both sides. Someone jumped on my back and grabbed me by my hair and began slamming my head into the ground. My brow split on a stump. My teeth went through my lip. Someone stripped off a glove and cranked my little finger back until it broke. I know I screamed with the pain but I couldn’t hear myself over the clamor of the gang of little demons that were assaulting me.

“There bitch! That’ll teach you. Don’t FUCK with us EVER!” It was the male voice again. He kicked me one last time so hard in the ribs I was certain it cracked. Then the crunching of a pack of feet in the snow walking away.

As I lay in the snow too brutalized to move, the male spoke to another, “Good hiding place Joey. We would never have found you. Claire, your turn to be it. You better hide good.”

~~~~

I never saw any of my abusers’ faces except the one that belonged to the hand in the snow.

First published on Simily.co here