Excerpt

Chapter One

The air was still damp and crisp, as it had been the evening before. Small hands dug in the mud among the soggy leaves from rain and dew that had come overnight.

The sobbing two-year old dug her fingers deeper into the ground. Pain under her fingernails was sharp. Yet it was hardly noticeable because of the pain in her heart.

Little Lisa dug feverishly and in a panic. If only she could change what she had witnessed the night before.

Somehow Little Lisa had broken away from the crowd of people who were still sleeping on the ground, not far from this scene. She had been held captive by them, and yet tore away from their camp so early in the morning.

Lisa's thoughts went back to the night before when the knife came down upon her baby brother. Blood had been spilled and he lay silent. She searched for him now where she had seen them bury him. Wasn't this the spot she had gazed at the evening before, when she determined to bring him back and to erase the terrible memory? She would rescue and bring him back to life somehow.

No matter how deeply she dug, the body was not there. The truth was that the body had been moved and Lisa did not know where. The hope of changing what she had seen was now gone and it was her fault. If she had died instead, the infant would not have had to be killed. Isn't that what they had told her? She gave up crying and digging.

Now Little Lisa had to forget what happened and "Bad Girl" took her place. Little Lisa was now gone and could go back to childhood as though this had not taken place. "Bad Girl" took the memory away with her and Little Lisa completely forgot about what had caused her pain. She went back and joined the group, woke up again and showed no emotional sign of having been away.

However, her clothes were wet and a few leaves still clung to her legs. Her fingernails were swollen and stained with mud. The adults would not notice this for they hardly noticed Lisa was there until it was time to torture her body and mind again.

To Little Lisa, this was just another thing to forget and she ignored any physical signs, too, that she had been away. It would be many years before this memory would resurface and her pain felt again.