Chapter 6 - The Room With the Bunny Chair
The Child Advocacy Center didn't look like any office I'd been to before. It was a one-story brick building on a county road past the elementary school, with a sign that said Harlan County in faded blue letters and a little garden out front that was already put to sleep for winter. Mom parked her SUV and left it running for a second too long. Daniel had driven his own truck and was already waiting by the front door with his hands in his pockets.
Inside, it smelled like coffee and clean carpet. The lady at the desk knew my name. She didn't look at the bruise on my arm when Mom helped me take off my coat. Daniel knelt down to my height, just like in the kitchen, and squeezed the edge of my sleeve. Not my hand, my sleeve, so I could pull away if I wanted.
"You get to keep bunny the whole time," he said quietly. "I'm right out here in the lobby, okay? Right on that couch by the fish tank."
I nodded and held bunny tighter against my chest. Mom's hand was on my back, and it was pressing hard between my shoulder blades, like she was trying to hold me still.
A woman came out from a hallway. She was younger than Mom, with her hair in a ponytail and a soft gray cardigan. She smiled at me first, not at Mom.
"Hi Sophia, I'm Ms. Jenna," she said. "We have a cozy room back here with a little chair that's just your size. Would you like to see it? You can bring your bunny, of course."
The interview room wasn't what I expected. There was a small table, two kid chairs, and one big chair covered in bunny fabric. The walls were pale yellow. There was a camera in the corner with a red light, and a big stuffed bear on the shelf, but Ms. Jenna didn't point to any of it. She sat down across from me and folded her hands.
She didn't ask me about Daddy right away. She asked what my favorite color was, what grade I was in, what bunny's name was. I told her bunny didn't have a name, it was just bunny. She said that made sense, because he looked like a bunny who listened really well.
Then she said, "Tell me why you're here today."
My throat got tight. I pressed my face into bunny's ear for a second. She waited. She didn't fill the silence.
I told her about the kitchen, about Uncle Daniel kneeling down. I told her about the secret game. My voice was small and I kept stopping.
Ms. Jenna nodded and said, "Tell me more about that."
When I didn't know how to say it, she brought over a doll with soft cloth skin. She set it on the table between us.
"Can you show me on the doll where the game hurt?" she asked.
I picked up the doll. My hands were shaking a little. I touched the doll's left forearm, right where my own was sore, then the doll's right knee and down its shin. The same places. I didn't have to pull up my dress, I just pointed. Ms. Jenna watched my fingers and said thank you for showing her so clearly. She didn't touch me at all.
After that, a nurse came in. Her name was Nurse Patel and she had a clipboard with the outline of a girl's body on it. She smiled and asked if it was okay to look at my arm and leg and take some pictures to help keep me safe. I said yes. Mom wasn't in the room — she was watching on a TV in another room, Ms. Jenna had explained — but bunny stayed on my lap.
Nurse Patel was gentle. She measured the marks on my left forearm with a little plastic ruler and then the ones on my right knee and shin. The camera made a soft click. She drew purple and blue shapes on the body map exactly where mine were.
"Hmm," she said quietly, more to herself than to me, as she wrote. She looked at me kindly. "These marks, Sophia, the shape and where they are... this isn't how a little girl looks after a fall on the playground. Falls leave scrapes on the palms and the front of both knees. This pattern is different."
She put a warm blanket around my shoulders after. It smelled like laundry detergent.
Through the small window in the door, I could see down the hall where Mom was in the observation room. Ms. Jenna had left the door open a crack. Mom was sitting next to a lady with a headset, watching the screen where I was. I could see Mom's shoulders start to shake. She put both hands over her mouth, and then she stood up fast.
"I need a break," I heard her say, her voice cracked. "I need to— can we stop for a minute? Please."
Ms. Jenna stepped out and spoke to her softly. Daniel stood up from the lobby couch and didn't come closer, he just stayed where Mom could see him. I couldn't hear everything, but I saw Mom nod and wipe her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater.
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When Ms. Jenna came back in, she told me I'd done a really brave job and that the recording was done. She told me the doctors and the people who help families would talk to Mom and Daniel together about a safety plan, and that part of that plan meant Daddy couldn't be around me for now. No contact until the people in charge said it was safe.
I was still holding bunny. Its nose was damp where I'd been pressing my face into it. I hadn't let go once.
