A Journey for Rebecca

“Ms. Clark, please don’t say anything to Rachel about what I tell you,” Emma said. “She has told me a little, and it’s like I’m the only friend she has. She has only shared with me in the last three or four months. It’s taken me this long to earn her trust.”

“I understand, and I promise not to say a word. I just need some insight on how to help her if I possibly can.”

Emma sighed. “Rachel has had a very tough life. I don’t know what happened to her parents, but she was raised first by one family member and then another. When she graduated from high school, she wanted to go to college, and the only way she could do that was to work and pay her own way.” Taking a deep breath, Emma looked at Rebecca with tears in her eyes before continuing. “One night after class, some guys jumped her, and they raped her. From what she said, they roughed her up and left her for dead. I don’t know any other details other than that she became pregnant from that ordeal and had Sarah.”

Rebecca shook her head sadly.

“Rachel has also mentioned working in a day care,” Emma went on. “The owner let Rachel and Sarah live at the day care at night while Rachel worked there during the day. That way she could work and look after Sarah. But the owner became sick and had to close the day care. From what I have gathered, Rachel worked there for several years—I’m not sure how many.” Emma paused to think of anything else.

“Ms. Clark,” she said when she remembered something. “Do you remember back about two months ago when those apartments over on Finley Street caught fire and burned completely down? Everything was a total loss. Well, Rachel and Sarah were living there. Rachel was here at work, and Sarah had not made it home from school when the fire broke out.”

Not sure of some things, Rebecca asked, “Who watches Sarah while Rachel is at work?”

“No one,” Emma answered. “Sarah is about six or seven. When she gets off the bus, she lets herself in and stays inside till Rachel gets home.”

“Oh, Emma, this is so sad,” Rebecca said. “I can’t imagine going home to an empty house at that age. Who watches her in the summer while Rachel is at work?”

“I really don’t know,” Emma answered. “I take it she is there all day by herself till Rachel gets home.”

Placing her hands over her chest, Rebecca said, “This just breaks my heart. Does she not have neighbors or someone who could watch her while she is gone?”

“There was an elderly lady who lived next door to them, and I think she always made sure Sarah made it safely in the house when she came home after school,” Emma explained. “But again, this is something Rachel doesn’t talk about often.”

“Where are they living now?”

“Well, a few days after the fire, I asked her where they were living, and she said out of her car. She didn’t have a checking account, and what money she had saved got burned up in the fire, so she was waiting till payday to try to find a place.