Needle In A Haystack.

Trains.

Wooden mechanical trains with hinges that creaked as they bent at corners and looked like they would tip over if they went one more degree.

Wooden toy trains that had been the companions of many a single child, bearing loving bite and scuff marks of faithful companionship. Daisy shut her eyes real tight and tried to envision herself on the swings in the park on the next street. She loved going there. Back when mama was still ‘okay’, she used to take her there a lot. She would push Daisy real high on the swings, and she would giggle really loudly, reaching up her perfectly tanned little girl arms to the skies and pretending she could grab the few puffy clouds which floated around the vast blue seas. She particularly liked the plastic swings with the yellow designs, although mama used to say it wasn’t very practical.

The downstairs door slammed, jarring her back to her current reality. Against her own volition, Daisy whimpered and started to quiver real hard in her belly. She felt like she was going to throw up. That always happened when she got scared. She wiped her face, shut her eyes really tight and covered mouth with one of her hands. The other one clasped a carriage frame from one of her old trains really tightly and close to her chest. Footsteps. Daisy could hear them grow closer as she held her breath and shut her eyes really tight, doing everything she could to stop the shakes. But even as she valiantly fought a failing battle, a shadow fell across the space in the closet where she was lay curled into a ball. It was him. She could smell -even sense- him.

”Sweetheart?”

Silence.

”Sugarcup, you’re going to have to answer me. I know you’re in there. I can smell you”

Should I just go to him? It is true; he always finds me. Maybe he just wants to speak to m-

”You’ll only make me angry if you struggle and you don’t want that, do you?”

Silence. Scuffling. Creaking.

Daisy opened the door to see the familiar face of her uncle Kurt standing there looking down on her.

”Atta girl,” he said, “I knew you would be reasonable”

~~~~~~***~~~~~~

As her belly quivered even harder than ever, daisy could feel those damned tears coming again. She bit her lip and tried to look away, even as uncle Kurt took a knee and lifted her now-visibly quivering chin. “Awww, darling, don’t cry. Uncle K is here to make you all better”