The Sign
“And next on the ten o’clock news, a nine-year-old girl’s body was found in the Stanton area, apparently the victim of a brutal rape and murder.”
Rachel sighed and shook her head sadly and asked her husband to turn the channel. Sometimes she wished that she had never been born into such a cruel and nasty world. Just then, her daughter began wailing. She looked over to her husband but he just grunted and put the TV on ESPN.
Rachel walked into the room and lifted Michelle out of the bassinet. After trying to soothe her to no avail, she decided to swaddle her daughter and take her outside.
She quietly stepped through the sliding back door. There was a chill to the night air so she snuggled Michelle closer to her chest. She sat on the porch swing and within minutes of swinging, Michelle was fast asleep. Rachel sighed with relief.
She recalled the story on the news and looked down at Michelle, who in sleeping had an almost angelic appearance. She was so small and fragile; the world was so mean and cruel. Suddenly she had a flashback to her loss of innocence as a naïve ten-year-old who had trusted that stranger in the park behind her house. A sense of panic arose in her. How would she protect this gift, this precious child of hers?
She had grown up untrusting and wary of the men around her after that horrible day. She never thought she would ever find a good guy that she could trust until she had met her husband. He was so genuine and caring; she trusted and loved him with all of her heart. She smiled at the thought of him and looked at her daughter. She hoped that Michelle could find such a good man.
Just then, a star shot across the sky. As childish as it seemed, she wished upon that star. She closed her eyes and with all of her heart and soul, she wished that there was a way to mark the bad people–men and women. She wished that whenever a person had committed a heinous crime such as rape or murder, that a sign or symbol would appear on their skin to mark them as the beasts they were. That way Michelle would be able to separate the good people from the bad.
After the star was long gone, she smiled and thought about how great it would be if it were as simple as looking at someone’s hand to know if they were to be feared and to be kept away from. “What an impossible wish,” she thought to herself.
The wind began to pick up, so she reluctantly got up and stepped into the house. She laid Michelle into her bed and was about to return to the living room when she heard the bathroom water running and her husband cussing. He never cursed, so she knew something must be wrong and she rushed to him.
“What’s wrong?” She asked with concern.
“It’s growing! It won’t come off, IT WON’T COME OFF!” he said frantically.
“What won’t come off?” she asked with confusion.
“This!” He raised his trembling hand. Upon it there was what appeared to be a raised pulsating star.
