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Taking a guess that the little girl was theWillow, I quickly called, "She’s in here"

Within seconds, an attractive older wo into the room "There you are! You had me worried to death!" she cried

Willow onlyback to ed around the desk and ca open when she casually climbed into my lap One of her hands ca down at her, I slanced at the worand in her eyes "I … I’m sorry I just haven’t seen her react to soave you a scare We were just getting to know each other"

The woman nodded "I had car trouble, so ere late for the Meet and Greet I was across the hall, talking to her teacher, and when I turned around, she was gone"

I held out the hand that wasn’t stroking Willow’s head "I’rand out her hand, Elizabeth said, "Coson is excited toto be with me for a while For the first ti in her hand "What’s this?" I asked, pointing to what appeared to be a tiny doll

Slowly, Willow opened her hand, and I saw that it was actually a sel "Oh, what a pretty doll"

My coht a sel Mo down at the doll, I tried i, dark hair, and ere both wearing a white dress With a sled cry ca her throat "She hasn’t spoken in four months--not to me, not to her father Not to anyone since her lanced at Willow and nervously shifted on her feet "Since her mother passed away"

I blinked my eyes in disbelief as a flood of painful h my mind The face of Charlie, my little brother, appeared before me I was seventeen when my parents were killed in a car crash one icy December day Charlie had been ten--the only survivor of the wreck The shock of losing our parents, along with being trapped in the car for hours, had rendered him catatonic for six months Even after we moved in withpeople in the world--Charlie didn’t recover For months he remained locked in a world of his own isolation And then one day he slowly started to co way too e

As I looked into Willow’s face, I couldn’t help thinking of Charlie If he hadn’t been surrounded by loving, caring people, I don’t knoould have happened to hie and I didn’t understand it, Willow had bonded with h too much, I hated to break the bond

I smiled at Willow "You know, I have one spot left indown to the office and seeing if you could be transferred to me?"

Willow’s dark eyes lit up hat looked like absolute pleasure She glanced over her shoulder at Elizabeth with a pleading expression After wiping the tears from her eyes, Elizabeth asked, "It won’t be too much trouble to do that?"

"Nope No problee it in the computer"

With a smile, Elizabeth said, "I think that would be a wonderful idea"

Since that day, Willow had stuck close to my side whenever she was at school As hard as I tried, I couldn’t seeet her to make friends with any of the other children Most of the little girls were put off by the fact she rarely talked So instead of jabbering along with the recess, and soym or to art I never forced her Instead, I just went aboutSoht have treated her differently and refused to give her any special attention But ic past madefurther with Elizabeth, I learned that Willow’s ht before her eyes She had then co hi only a fewto acclimate herself to her new life It would have been hard on an adult, but a five-year-old? It was alhts by one of o to the ht, let’s go work on the calendar"

That afternoon, after I escorted all the second-load kids out to the bus lanes, I caed into the attendance progra an apple-shaped notepad, I jotted down her address I didn’t even bother with trying Elizabeth’s contact inforht to the source If I couldn’t reach her father by phone, then perhaps I was just going to have to track hi and purse and headed to my car On the way, I typed the address intolate-Septe when I slid across the leather seat ofthe directions of the GPS’s monotone voice, I turned a few blocks and found h I hadn’t grown up here, Uncle Jimmy had made sure to always steer me clear of the area He’d inforone out of business in the late eighties, the area had rapidly declined Crime rates had risen with the unemployment, and it was now inhabited by transient workers and the localthat I had seen froun store and pawnshop, I glanced down at my phone to double-check that this was actually Willow’s address Then I grabbed the Post-it note out ofI couldn’t help feeling surprised that I was in the right place Peering through the windshield, I could see that a shop had been made out of part of the old cotton mill Next to it was the old mill’s office, which appeared to have been converted into some sort of roadhouse or bar