They Found Me (38/73)

 

Eventually I could hear the sounds of the police coming into the neighborhood. The sirens waking up the community. The lights of the cars illuminating through the bedroom window as they drove by on their way to my house. In the distance, I could hear my name being called. Dawn Marie, Dawn Marie! I did not know if I could trust my own mind. Was I really hearing my name or was it all in my head? I could not tell the difference. So scared as I came to terms with actually being brave enough to leave the house as I did. But the reality of the possible consequences if Jack found me was over powering my ability to think straight. My head was spinning from the collusion of my two paths of thought. So proud that I had run but so terrified that I did.

Bee could see that I was struggling and she gently placed her hand on my arm and reassured me that I would be safe with in the walls of her home. I can only imagine how she saw me …. A ten-year old girl frozen in fear. Clinging to her side as the voices got closer and closer to the house. My name was ringing down the very streets that I walked each day as I hide in the arms of a stranger. Bee told me that she would not let anyone into the house that was outside calling my name. Instead, she explained to me that she was going to call the police on the telephone and let them know that I was safe with her until they got the situation under control. She promised she would not open the door to anyone but a police officer. I believed her as I tightly held her hand and followed her into the kitchen so she could call the police.

After the phone call, Bee took me into the living room so that I could lay on the couch as she watched for the police to come to the door. Before we knew it, a few hours had passed as I drifted in and out sleep. I would not be able to keep my eyes closed long before my subconscious replayed a distorted version of the night’s events over in my dreams. I would awake each time screaming NO as my body thrashed on the couch. Each time Bee would comfort me as she watched out the window for the authorities. My own person guard to protect me as my mind struggled between dreams and reality.

A moment in my life that seems even to this day like something I saw once in a movie or TV show. A moment that I can still hardly believed happened. So many times, I have asked myself… how I had the strength to survive moments like these and have wondered if I truly did.

While I was in hiding, an Amber alert would be issued for a missing child by my description in my community. The message went out across the radio stations early that morning. My Father, Brandon would hear about my disappearance over the radio in his Morinville home. Upon doing so, he would contact my Uncle Tim and the two of them would set out  to come and find me. Terrified by the thoughts of what might have happened to me or were I might be.

Bee woke me when she saw that there were two police officers and two civilians coming up her driveway to her front door. The very door I had been frantically banging on many hours ago. I sat up and hesitantly looked out the window to see who was coming. A wave of relief immediately shot across my body. I could see that the two civilians were my Father and my Uncle Tim. I knew I was safe. They found me. As Bee opened the door and to let them all in I ran to my Father’s arms, buried my face in his chest, and began to cry.