Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33811 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33811 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
As he helps me sit and guides me to my feet, I have a thought. “My father would never find me on the island.”
He winks. “That is a fact. Never. Even if he knew you went there, he would not be able to board the ferry to cross over to the island. I will make sure his name and picture are on the banned list. But I don’t know why he would ever think to look there anyway. You’ll be totally safe on the island.”
I’m naked and scared out of my mind in a strange apartment with a man I never dreamed would come to my rescue, but I stop walking and throw my arms around him and hug him tight. “Thank you, Daddy.”
He rubs my back and kisses the top of my head.
Chapter Five
After helping me into the tub, Daddy leaves me to go fix a bottle. There are toys in the tub. I haven’t had bath toys since I was very young. I feel lighter than I’ve felt in a long time. I know I’m ignoring my problems, stuffing them to the back of my mind, but I just want to be free to…play.
I’m giddy as I reach for a mermaid Barbie and take her for a swim. I had a Barbie like this when I was five. I wonder what happened to her. I had toys. Lots of them. I’m pretty sure my father threw most of them away. He certainly didn’t bring anything with us when we moved.
Granted, I was fourteen by then, but I still liked toys. I still liked to color and paint and play. I know I was immature for my age, but I didn’t have friends. All I had was myself, and I had to find ways to entertain myself, especially after my father burned my books.
At the time, I still had books all over my room, but it grew harder and harder for me to read them. When he caught me, he would snatch the book out of my hands and toss it in the trash. If I retrieved it, he would whip me.
My father said those books were filling my head with filth and fantasy. He said I needed to join the real world where women were expected to work around the house. Cook and clean. He said if I had idle time, I should spend it doing something useful like sewing instead of filling my head with trash.
I never believed him. He is a sick person with a warped mind. But that didn’t make my situation any less dire.
I’ve thought of running away a million billion times, but where would I go? I don’t know anyone. I don’t have skills. I knew in the end, he would track me down and haul me back to the cabin, and then he might beat me so hard that I wouldn’t survive. Staying was a survival skill all on its own.
“Hey, Little one.”
I look up when I hear Daddy’s voice. He’s smiling as he kneels on the tile next to the tub. “Can I wash you, Baby girl?”
I lift my Barbie out of the water and spin her around, stroking her hair while I think about his request. I’ve been playing the entire time he was gone. I haven’t even gotten my hair wet. I give a slight nod.
It’s kind of weird that I’m naked, and he can see my body, but I don’t feel scared anymore. He said he wouldn’t have sex with me, and he hasn’t, so I want to believe him. I also like it when he touches me. It makes me tingle.
Daddy grabs the little bucket the toys were in from the tub, fills it with water, and lifts it over my head. “Close your eyes, Little one. I’m going to get your hair wet.”
I squeeze my eyes closed and tip my head back. I like how he holds his other hand against my forehead so water doesn’t run into my eyes. And I really like it when he starts rubbing shampoo into my scalp. It smells good, and when I look at the bottle, I see it’s baby shampoo, the kind my mother used on me when I was very small. I remember the scent. I like it.
After he washes my hair and puts conditioner on it, he grabs a wash cloth, wets it, and pours baby soap on it. He starts with my arms, moves to my back, and then around to my front.
My breath hitches when he runs the cloth over my chest. That feels good, too. Sometimes when I’ve thought about Brian, when I was pretending he was my Daddy, I would get tingly and flushed. When he touches me for real, I get the same sensation.
He does my legs next and finally reaches between my thighs. He’s quick about washing my private parts, and I’m secretly disappointed because the brief contact of the cloth over my special place made my heart beat faster.