Story
Dr. Schneider looked up from his chart to watch Clarissa as she attempted once again to work along the wall from one end of the room to the other. She was making remarkable progress, he thought. In the weeks since she had begun to show voluntary motor skills, she had shown a marked progress every time he saw her. The damage inflicted on her system had been so much that like a child, she would have to be taught everything anew. She was learning to walk (without aids) and a couple of the nurses have been teaching her to write. Just yesterday she had successfully written her whole name on her own. These were all good signs, however there was one hiccup: Clarissa still hadn't spoken a word. Scans of her throat showed that barring some slight swelling noted upon admission, which had cleared now, her vocal apparatus was fine but Clarissa wasn't speaking at all. She didn't even make sounds, not even when coaxed. This was the one point that troubled him. The longer, he thought, that she went without speaking, the harder it will be for her to ever speak at all.
As Hope wiped the sauce from her daughter's face she couldn't help the shiver that went through her. They knew the whole story now. The arrested boy had confessed everything. It had been premeditated. They'd planned everything. They'd tricked her daughter into coming with them. They'd raped her. All three of them. And then they'd tossed her body in a land fill, leaving her for dead. But her daughter hadn't died. No, her daughter had survived. Her little fighter.
She knew that the doctors worried about Clarissa's lack of speech. They didn't say it but she saw the look that crossed their faces whenever they asked if she'd spoken yet. Hope didn't mind much. He daughter was alive and she was beyond grateful. She didn't need any more miracles.
A knock on the door had both parents turning. It was the lawyers. Hope and Donald exchanged a look and Hope nodded. Donald left the room to meet and converse with the lawyers. Hope knew what it was about. She and her husband had discussed it extensively and had made their decision. The lawyers wanted them to press charges. To go after the delinquents responsible for hurting their daughter, to go against the chairman... and had their daughter not survived, Hope knew that she would have. She still wanted to really. But she and her husband had made a decision. They were leaving the village behind as soon as their daughter was better. They were going to go start a new life elsewhere. The parents' of the boys involved had pooled together and were taking care of all of Clarissa's medical bills as an apology and plea in one. Hope didn't care about their apology because she knew it was actually a bribe, and the only reason she'd agreed to let them pay was because her daughter would have died without the specialists in the city hospital and she and her husband would have never been able to afford even a consultation fee.
But this was the end. She would never be able to live around these people again. And she didn't want her daughter to have to suffer it either. So they would be leaving and pressing no charges. And that is what her husband had gone to tell the lawyers now.
That belief was exactly why she couldn't believe the words that Donald was saying to her now. She made all the arguments:
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What would you do in their shoes? Fight or retreat? Take in the factors as much as you can and please let me know what you truly think. I'm curious.
- J.
The Story of Beauty: Clarissa's tale (Part II)
PART ONE HEREDr. Schneider looked up from his chart to watch Clarissa as she attempted once again to work along the wall from one end of the room to the other. She was making remarkable progress, he thought. In the weeks since she had begun to show voluntary motor skills, she had shown a marked progress every time he saw her. The damage inflicted on her system had been so much that like a child, she would have to be taught everything anew. She was learning to walk (without aids) and a couple of the nurses have been teaching her to write. Just yesterday she had successfully written her whole name on her own. These were all good signs, however there was one hiccup: Clarissa still hadn't spoken a word. Scans of her throat showed that barring some slight swelling noted upon admission, which had cleared now, her vocal apparatus was fine but Clarissa wasn't speaking at all. She didn't even make sounds, not even when coaxed. This was the one point that troubled him. The longer, he thought, that she went without speaking, the harder it will be for her to ever speak at all.
Hope and Donald watched as their daughter ate her dinner. They'd been here for over two months now and her improvement has been a balm to her parents who never left her side.--- --- --- ---
As Hope wiped the sauce from her daughter's face she couldn't help the shiver that went through her. They knew the whole story now. The arrested boy had confessed everything. It had been premeditated. They'd planned everything. They'd tricked her daughter into coming with them. They'd raped her. All three of them. And then they'd tossed her body in a land fill, leaving her for dead. But her daughter hadn't died. No, her daughter had survived. Her little fighter.
She knew that the doctors worried about Clarissa's lack of speech. They didn't say it but she saw the look that crossed their faces whenever they asked if she'd spoken yet. Hope didn't mind much. He daughter was alive and she was beyond grateful. She didn't need any more miracles.
A knock on the door had both parents turning. It was the lawyers. Hope and Donald exchanged a look and Hope nodded. Donald left the room to meet and converse with the lawyers. Hope knew what it was about. She and her husband had discussed it extensively and had made their decision. The lawyers wanted them to press charges. To go after the delinquents responsible for hurting their daughter, to go against the chairman... and had their daughter not survived, Hope knew that she would have. She still wanted to really. But she and her husband had made a decision. They were leaving the village behind as soon as their daughter was better. They were going to go start a new life elsewhere. The parents' of the boys involved had pooled together and were taking care of all of Clarissa's medical bills as an apology and plea in one. Hope didn't care about their apology because she knew it was actually a bribe, and the only reason she'd agreed to let them pay was because her daughter would have died without the specialists in the city hospital and she and her husband would have never been able to afford even a consultation fee.
But this was the end. She would never be able to live around these people again. And she didn't want her daughter to have to suffer it either. So they would be leaving and pressing no charges. And that is what her husband had gone to tell the lawyers now.
Talia has been a lawyer in this town for ten years now. She had seen her fair share of rape cases and not all the victims had been lucky enough to live to tell the story. But in the last 6 months, the number of cases had nearly tripled in their frequency so she and 12 other female lawyers had come together to form an association of sorts to defend helpless women from abusive men, who sometimes happened to be their husbands. Talia and her friends had had no idea just how hard it would be though. The women, those who survived the trauma, either didn't want to press charges or downright denied that there was a problem at all. Some were passive and others were scared, but Talia and her friends didn't lose faith. And then Talia had heard about Clarissa. She'd raced over to handle her case and had been with the family every step of the way. She'd sensed their hesitance in the beginning but was winning them over now. She truly believed that.--- --- --- ---
That belief was exactly why she couldn't believe the words that Donald was saying to her now. She made all the arguments:
"Moving doesn't help... It could happen anywhere.."She kept making them, but Donald only sighed. It all went over his head. He was tired. He only wanted his family. He asked if she had any children of her own. She replied in the negative and he told her that when she did, she would understand the decision that he had had to make now. With that he smiled faintly at her, thanked her for everything, walked back into this daughter's hospital room and quietly shut the door behind him.
"It could happen to some other girl who might not be so fortunate.."
"They had a full confession from one of the boys and though he had later retracted his confession and now all three boys were denying the accusations made against them, there was still DNA and forensic evidence..."
"They could WIN this!"
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What would you do in their shoes? Fight or retreat? Take in the factors as much as you can and please let me know what you truly think. I'm curious.
- J.
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