“This is your fault! This is all your fault! You did this! You did this! You did this!”
Jane let go of Arthur’s arm and he watched her walk toward the switch next to the door. She turned on the light.
Warm rays of artificial light graced the room, only to emphasize the absolute horror that plagued it. In this light the dead man’s excuse for a face seemed even bloodier and the scent of his beaten flesh first began to torment the nose Arthur didn’t have.
He watched as Jane walked over to the large woman beating on Ellie. She placed a single hand on her furious shoulder.
“Stop.”
The woman stopped all movement. She yelled no more terrible things. In fact, she seemed frozen solid.
Jane pulled the large woman away from Ellie and put her on the bed.
“Sit.”
And the woman sat down.
Jane walked over to Ellie and knelt down next to her. Gently she wiped the tears and the blood from the girl’s face.
“So this is where it happened, Ellie?”
The girl sobbed.
“This is where your terrible guilt was born?”
The girl nodded frantically. “I caused this. It was all my fault. I could have… I should have….”
“No,” Jane Elring said resolutely. “This stops now.”
Jane rose and took Ellie’s hand. Gently she pulled the girl up from the ground and guided her toward the bed. Toward the terrible woman that had beaten her so mercilessly.
“Sit down, Ellie.”
Ellie sat down on the bed.
Jane turned toward the large woman and said, “Speak.”
“You did this! He was MY man! Mine! You caused this! This is your fault! This is all your fault!”
Arthur watched as the woman droned on and on, blaming the sad and terrified Ellie for things he had no way of knowing about. No girl, however, deserved such terrible treatment. That much he knew for certain.
“Do you hear that, Arthur?” Jane asked him her question as she looked at the corner where his body was not standing.
Ellie asked, “Arthur is here? Why?! Why did you bring him here?! I don’t want him to see this!”
Jane gently rubbed the young girl’s shoulder, then repeated her question. “Are you hearing this, Arthur? What this woman is saying to Ellie?”
Arthur was sure his voice would be rusty under the pressure of his awful confusion. However, he spoke with absolute clarity. “I hear it.”
“And what do you think? Could any fourteen-year-old girl be responsible for this mess?”
Arthur looked across the room. The dead and disfigured man coloring the floor an awful red. The large woman that raged on and on about how everything was Ellie’s fault.
“No. No girl could ever be this terrible. And certainly not Ellie, because Ellie is a wonderful person.”
Jane looked at Ellie. “Do you hear that? You’re a wonderful person.”
The girl shook her head. “No I’m not! I’m horrible and worthless! I’m a… I’m a whore!”
Ellie’s words echoed through the room and made Arthur sick to his stomach. How could he respond to that? What could he say to make her see the beauty he saw in her?
Jane gently took Ellie’s chin and steered her eyes toward the large woman that still sat raging on the bed. Those pale blue eyes were terrified, but Jane did not allow her to look away.
Then Jane picked the large woman up from the bed and lifted her into the air. The woman continued to rage her horrible messages like a broken record.
“Do you see how light she is, Ellie? It’s like she’s only made of air.”
Ellie was shocked at Jane’s amazing strength.
“How can you pick her up like that?!”
“It’s easy,” Jane said, “because she doesn’t matter. She’s hot air, Ellie.”
Jane put the large woman down on the bed and widened her arms. As she did so, the large woman grew even bigger. Her deep voice now boomed through the room.
“See? You can make her really big….”
Jane squeezed her hands together. The large woman followed suit and became as small as a mouse. Now all they heard was a laughable high-pitched voice screaming angry insults.
“…Or you can make her really small!”
Jane picked the woman up and put her in the middle of her hand. She held it up for Ellie’s fascinated pale blue eyes to see.
“Ellie…. Roger Wheeley was a terrible man who did awful things to you. That wasn’t your fault; it was his. Your mother was sick, very sick, and she took her illness out on you. That wasn’t your fault, either.”
Jane turned toward the bloody corpse that lay next to the bed and waved her empty hand into the air. As she did so, the man’s body disappeared.
“You can let it all go, Ellie. It doesn’t have to stay this way. Hold out your hand!”
Ellie did as she was instructed and Jane put the tiny, raging woman in the girl’s open hand.
“You can let go of her too, if you want. It’s your choice. She doesn’t have to be big or heavy. She can be very tiny. She can even be nothing at all.”
Jane turned toward Arthur and asked, “What do you think, Arthur? Should Ellie let go of all this terrible stuff?”
Arthur didn’t even have to think about it. “Yes. Because, as I said, Ellie is a wonderful person and she deserves so much better than this!”
Tears ran down Ellie’s tanned cheeks as she confessed, “I don’t know how to let it go. I hear it all the time inside my head. I keep seeing it. I keep feeling it.”
Jane placed her hand on the young girl’s head as she said, “All you have to do is say the word. Just say ‘Poof!’ and I’ll make her disappear. She’ll be gone and she’ll never come back to haunt you.”
Again Jane turned toward Arthur. “What do you say, Arthur?”
Arthur said, “Poof!”
Jane looked at Ellie and asked, “You hear that? I think he said ‘poof’….”
Ellie nodded. “He did.”
The young girl held her pale blue eyes fixed on the tiny woman in her hand, screaming her insults in the silliest voice the girl had ever heard.
“This is all she is?” Ellie asked without looking up at Jane.
“This is all she is.”
Then Ellie folded her hand into a solid fist and crushed the tiny woman with all her strength. “Poof!” When the young girl opened her hand again, the woman was gone.
Satisfied, Jane walked over to Arthur and took hold of his arm. Her smile was warm and genuine and Arthur knew that whatever she had tried to accomplish was done.
Jane said, “Ellie, we will be going now. You’ll wake up very soon. You’ll be better, you’ll be safe, and you’ll be loved.”
Ellie rose from her bed and nodded. “Okay! I will! I will wake up soon! Will you all be there?”
Jane said, “We’ll be there. We’ll be waiting for you!”
With that, the young investigator turned toward Arthur and said, “The way out is a lot more pleasant than the way in. Just close your eyes.”
Arthur said, “I have no eyes to close.”
Jane grinned as she replied, “Close them anyway, Mr. Toaves!”
Arthur did as she said and immediately the blackness overtook his senses. Again a dizziness filled his head and soon he felt himself floating off into a distant, dark sky.
He felt safe now because he had seen what Jane Elring did for Ellie. He had witnessed her kindness and knew that it would extend to him all the same. Quietly, peacefully, he floated up through Ellie’s mind.
When Arthur opened his eyes he found himself back in the hospital room. Immediately he rose from his plastic chair and studied Ellie’s face up close. Her eyes had opened and they were very peaceful. Happy, even.
Then he looked over to Jane, who sat coughing madly across from him. Her bodyguard had folded himself over her and held her shoulders.