T H E    G I R L 

It became a habit to keep her face hidden under a hood. 

Everything was white, from the floor to the furniture to the ceiling – it was all clad in white.

The girl winced as soon as she caught sight of the room, temporarily forgetting her throbbing scalp. The man had thrown her onto a plump cushion that made her jump at the feeling of her bum sinking into the object. She eyed the cushion and then poked it once then twice before she skimmed her hand over the velvet coated cushion. The man turned his back on her, rummaging inside a white basket piled with white clothes. Once the man had pulled one white attire from the many in the basket he turned back to see the girl solely putting her attention on the cushion while one hand massaged her scalp.

You’d think the man ought to feel shame when he would raise his hand and inflict harm to a girl that was no more than eleven years old but all he felt was burden, why’d he have to be tasked on taking care of this brat? It would’ve been better if he was tasked to guard at least a woman above fifteen, he could’ve had his fun then. He looked back at the girl and clucked his tongue as he knew even if he asked the girl to use what he had scavenged from the basket she wouldn’t wear it correctly. He pulled her by the shoulders to make her face him; her dirt-stained face looked up at him, all her features tense and anticipating pain. He sighed – that was a bit of his humanity leaking out – he wondered if he had chosen another path would he have a girl as young as her look at him as something else than an abusive monster?

Her eyes snapped shut when he raised his other hand, only to feel a soft fluffy fabric hit her in the face; a towel “You gotta wash up first, that dress won’t do you any good if you rub dirt on ‘em.” He pointed in an insouciant manner as if the girl was not a big part of his job but she stayed unresponsive for too long and it urged his hands to sock a punch at her “What’d ya doing? Hurry up!” Her whole body trembled but she willed herself to put her foot forward, then the other, and soon her knees bumped the side of the tub. She peered inside, amazed at the amount of crystal-clear water with petals of pink, white and yellow floating on the surface. The fragrance that drifted off the water smelled alike the lady she had previously encountered.

The corner of her lips curved down.

The boy was alone with that woman while here she was being asked to bathe in such luxury that probably wouldn’t come a second time in her life. She turned her head slowly, shrinking back from the man’s stare but she managed to croak out her inquiry “What’ll happen to him?” The man groaned and gruffly answered “Put a sock in it and wash up.” The girl urged herself to stare back at the man, adamant on getting answers; the man took that as a challenge. He took one step forward closer to which the girl reflexively took a step backwards “You wanna know ‘bout that boy?” She nodded meekly but stood her ground “Then,” he pulled her by the collar of her shirt “ya do as I say and I’ll tell you. Wash up lassie.” His tone was final, signaling that no more words will erupt from his mouth.

Reluctantly she pulled the shirt over her head and warily dipped her toes into the water first, the dirt on her skin detached itself and turned into swirls of light brown dancing around her toes before dispersing                                  and the water became clear once more. Then came her other toe and she finally slid into the bathtub, immediately enveloped by the lukewarm water that turned murky. The man sighed at the now murky water and without any warning pulled the rubber plug that clogged the drain “Don’t move from ya spot.” With that said he his heels and disappeared out the door and the girl obediently waited, watching the last ounce of water becoming a whirlpool before completely disappearing into the drain.

As soon as the tub was cold and the girl shivered from the missing warmth, the man returned with hose and scrub. Attaching the hose to the mouth of the tap connected to the tub and giving the scrub for the girl to hold, he turned the handles of the tap and water came gushing out of the hose. He didn’t bother fixing the temperature and he sprayed the water at the girl, completely washing off the dirt. The girl winced as the water was too hot and soon red patches emerged on her skin but was ignored by the man who had mercilessly kept on spraying so the girl clenched her teeth and endured it before finally adapting to the temperature. Her whole body was beet red from the water but the man didn’t spare any minute and snatched the scrub from the girl, dipping it into a separate small bucket underneath the tub and scrunching up the scrub to produce foam. He scrubbed the girl relentlessly, making her already red skin a darker shade now. Once he was done with both her body and hair, he the tap once more and targeted the hose at the girl, the soap gliding down her body.

“Dry up.” Timidly she took the towel and dabbed her body, wincing every time the towel made contact with her abused skin. She dried herself thoroughly, even in between her toes and behind her ears. As soon as she was done the man ordered her to raise her hand up and she did as ordered, then the man slid the silk toga into her arms and paused to see whether she looked proper for the event. The fabric hung loosely off her shoulders and the dress reached above her knees.  The man went back to the white basket he’d got the dress from and took out a white cloak that was decorated with intricate gold designs. He tossed it to the girl to wear and moved on to a box the size of his torso and opened it, rummaging for quite a while before he grabbed a headpiece much alike to the Greek crown, the laurel wreath, and a golden necklace that held a cylinder-cut quartz stone. He put on the accessories he grabbed a hold off and put it on her.

Stepping back to see his work, he nodded and seemed satisfied before he pulled the cloak’s white hood and pulled it down to cover half of the girl’s face – only leaving her lips to the open “This is as pretty as you can get lassie,” he wasn’t lying when he said so. Her ink-black hair cascaded down until below her chest, a stark contrast against her all-white attire, while her facial features showed a promising future. The man was certain that she’d be a real beauty once she grew up. Her orbs were the color of sapphires – a shade that was an uncommon pair to black hair – while her lashes were long and naturally curled up. Her nose was a small button nose which was not too big and not too small, just the right size, while her lips, small and plump, hid a pair of rabbit teeth that were undoubtedly more adoring than hideous although you can’t call her teeth pearly whites as she did not have the chance to brush her teeth in years. All clean and dressed up, the girl resembled that of a doll and the man thought it was high time for her to hit the market.

He sized her up once last time and was about to order her to follow him out when her voice beat him to the chase “You,” her voice quivered in fear but she willed herself to steady her voice “you promised to tell me what’ll happen to him.” She meekly looked up at the man, expecting him to lash out at her for daring to question him even though he did promise to answer her inquiry earlier on but he shocked her when he let laughter boom throughout the room “Oh ya won’t need me to answer when you are gonna see for yourself lassie.”

He wouldn’t have laughed carelessly like he did if he knew what was awaiting him in the room the boy resided in but as they say, ignorance is bliss.