Not completely edited *

__________________________________________________________________________

I couldn’t sit still.

My leg bounced up and down as I sat in the Callaway living room, nervously chewing on my bottom lip. All negative thoughts were invading my brain as we waited apprehensively for Maia to come back or for Noah to come back with news on Maia. Right now, all I could think about was the neighbor’s Rottweiler chasing after the tiny girl.

Paige would call me loco for what I was about to admit. I actually missed the tiny devil. All I wanted to hear were the string of complaints and infuriating comments that came from her big mouth. At least when I did hear it, I knew she was safely by my side and nowhere in danger’s arms.

My attitude towards Maia may seem like I hated her, but I never felt any sense of hatred towards her. She infuriated me, but that didn’t mean I loathed her. In fact, I was beginning to believe that we were becoming friends. She and her bratty ways somehow made a special place in my heart.

The more I watched Natalia pace back and forth, the more she made me nervous. She was muttering things under her breath and I couldn’t pick up on it. I didn’t dare interrupt her train of thought or try to comfort her because I knew she needed this time alone. In addition, it was sort of hard to calm somebody down when I was freaking out myself.

When Noah entered the room, I sat up and Natalia stopped pacing around to look at him expectantly.

“She won’t talk to me,” He exhaled loudly. His shoulders slumped tiredly as he rubbed the back of his neck. “She’s in her tree house crying.”

“I’ll go talk to her,” Natalia finally said and went to storm out of the room.

I quickly got up from my seat on the couch and stood in front of Natalia with my hands in front of me. “It’s okay, Natalia. Just try to calm down. I’ll try to talk to Maia.”

Natalia wasn’t in the condition to talk sense into her children. She was stressing more than Noah and I put together. If anything, she’d probably freak out Maia more. And a more freaked out Maia means a more stressed out Natalia.

“She’s my daughter,” Natalia sighed with a frown. “Emma, I’m sorry you had to see whatever you saw tonight. I don’t want you to get mixed up in our family affairs.”

“Please, just let me try talking to her once,” I pleaded. “I promise I’ll get her to come back inside.”

Natalia looked wary, fidgeting in spot. I eyed Noah for help, but he continued to watch our exchange without a word.

“Emma, just go home and enjoy the rest of your Friday night. Thank you for trying to help, but this isn’t your place and – “

“Mom,” Noah interjected. He stood in front of Natalia and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Just trust Emma. Just let her try once. You need to calm down first.”

Natalia glanced at me and after a few seconds, nodded her head. “Fine. One time.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I obeyed.

I didn’t waste any time. I made my way through the back door of the house and into the large yard with perfect green grass that glistened under the moonlight. It wasn’t hard to spot the tree house in the dark.

It was a large wooden, circular tree house that wrapped around the trunk of a tree. Unlike most tree houses that were built high off the ground, the tree house was settled on the flat surface of soil. It was also big enough for me to walk through without having to crouch down.

I knocked on the wooden door twice and said, “Maia, can I come in?”

“Go away,” she snapped. Her sniffles were muffled by the wood that separated the both of us. “Just leave me alone.”

“Please, I just want to talk to you for a bit.”

“I don’t want to talk!”

I exhaled loudly and leaned against the entrance. “I’m not leaving until you talk to me.”

“Good. You could stay out there in the cold,” Maia responded harshly.

“Now, that’s not very nice,” I stated with a slight frown on my face. “I mean, I didn’t do anything to make you angry and you’re releasing all of your anger on me. I thought you hated that?”

After a couple of seconds of silence, Maia muttered, “Just go away. I don’t want to talk to you.”

I was stumped. I racked my brain for ideas that would lure her out of there or to have her invite me in. Minutes later, I made my decision on the perfect idea. I couldn’t help but smirk as I knocked three times on the door.

“Maia?

Do you want to build a snowman?

Come on, let’s go out, and play.

I never see you anymore

Please come out the door

It’s like you’ve gone away,” I sang, remembering that we watched Frozen a week ago and we couldn’t stop singing the movie’s soundtrack. My smile grew wide when I heard Maia giggle, but she quickly covered it up with a cough.

“We used to be best buddies

And now, we’re not

I wish you would tell why

Do you want to build a snowman?

It doesn’t have to be a snowman

(Go Away, Anna!)

Okay, Bye,” I continued singing.

“Emma, go away!” Maia groaned, but without as much cruelty as earlier.

“Aw, Maia, you came in a little too late,” I teased.

When Maia didn’t say anything, I carried on with my plan. I knocked on the door three times and decided to sing the last verse.

“Please I know you’re in there

People are asking where you’ve been

They say have courage, and I’m trying to

I’m right out here for you, just let me in,” I sang, but chose not to sing the last verse because it wasn’t relative to our current situation. When Maia stayed silent, I banged my fist on the door. “Come on, Maia, let me in or I’m going to sing the song over and over again. No? Okay. Here I go again.”

I was ecstatic when Maia opened the door slightly and looked at me with an impassive expression.  “That was horrible,” she lied, shaking her head. “You need vocal lessons.”

Ignoring the urge to argue that I already did take vocal lessons, I walked into the Callaway tree house.

I was momentarily awed by how big it looked compared to the outside. Different patterned carpets adorned the flooring. Two lamps dimly lit the circular room. Pictures and posters hung on the tree trunk that was at the center. Playing cards and different board games collected dust on a small table by the single window.

Maia sat down with her back against the trunk of the tree, hugging her knees to her chest. She sniffled as she rocked back and forth.

I exhaled loudly and sat down beside her. I wasn’t used to giving advice to kids as young as Maia. I was only used to giving advice to people around my age because they were mature enough to handle my opinions.

However, I began to question Maia’s youth. She was only seven-years-old, but wanted to be independent and knew things kids her age didn’t even know. She went through situations she was too young for and she clearly fought battles that weren’t easy to sail by. She grew up fast and I knew that whatever I had to say, she was mature enough to understand.

“I think you should go back in there. They’re worried about you. You separating yourself from them is breaking your family apart even more,” I finally said when I found the right words to say.

“I don’t care,” Maia snapped, crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly.

“You should care. They’re your family.”

“So what?”

“You shouldn’t leave your family.”

“Tell me why it’s okay for everyone to leave me but I can’t leave anyone?” Maia asked, her voice quavering. Soon, tears streamed down her face as she sobbed. “Nick’s dead. Mom and dad are always at meetings. They’re hardly home. They can’t even take me to the park. We don’t even go to church on Sundays anymore. The babysitters before you were sissies. All twenty of them quit a week or less into the job because none of them liked me. You’re the one who stuck the longest, but I bet you’re going to quit soon because who likes me? The only person there is Noah, but only when he can be, which is hardly any time. Everyone hates me!”

My heart tightened at Maia’s confession. No seven-year-old should have to go through that kind of pain. They shouldn’t even be thinking of that. I wrapped her up in my arms. She sobbed into my shoulder, soaking my navy shirt.

“Maia, nobody hates you,” I reassured, combing her hair with my fingers. “Don’t ever think that. Everyone loves you.”

“Yeah, right,” she bawled into my shoulder. “I know you hate me!”

“No, I don’t. I swear I don’t.”

“But you’re going to leave like the rest of them,” She said, sounding sure.

“I won’t. I’ll always be here.”

“Pinky promise?” Maia asked hopefully, sticking out her pinky.

Nodding with a smile, I wrapped my pinky around hers. “I pinky promise I will never leave you.”

After a long discussion about forgiving others and her family situation, I managed to convince her that everything will be fine and that her family was simply lost because Nick had passed away. I told her a tiny bit of my life story in which she apologized for although it wasn’t her fault. We stayed out in the tree house for almost an hour. Maia had fallen asleep in my arms after she asked me to sing her a song because she openly admitted she loved my voice.

When I walked into the living room with Maia asleep in my arms, Natalia rushed towards us with a flood of relief. Noah jumped up from his seat on the couch and made his way over to me. He took Maia in his arms to relieve me from my struggling.

“Oh my gosh, Thank God she’s okay,” Natalia cried, kissing her daughter continuously on her forehead. Maia stirred in her sleep. Natalia looked at me with genuine appreciation plastered all over her face. “Thank you so much, Emma. We owe you the world.”

“No problem, Natalia,” I responded with a tired smile. “She was just a little angry. Other than that, she told me to tell you guys she was wrong for screaming at you guys that way.”

“Oh, my daughter, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Natalia said, smoothing Maia’s hair back.

Noah didn’t say a word, but he did look at me with an unreadable expression in his steel blue eyes. He carried Maia up the stairs after Natalia finally let go of her daughter and decided to clean the mess in the kitchen.

After assisting Natalia with the kitchen and checking up on Maia once more, I decided to head home after a very hectic day.  My car was usually parked in the garage because their carport was so huge. Before I could make it to my car, loud grunting and punching sounds grabbed my attention.

Noah was angrily punching a punching bag that hung from the ceiling of the garage. His eyebrows were knitted together in rage with every blow to the bag. It occurred to me that he was letting his anger out by beating up an inanimate object and himself. From here, I could see that his knuckles were red due to the lack of boxing gloves and the amount of impact he was putting on them.

I don’t know exactly what possessed me, but I dropped my purse on the hood of the car and found myself standing beside Noah a few seconds later.

“What?” He mumbled. He dropped his hands to his sides and looked down at me, breathing rapidly.

“You’re hurting yourself,” I stated the obvious, motioning towards his red hands.

“I know.”

He turned to face the bag again, but I grabbed his hand before he could throw anymore punches. His hand was warm in mine, causing an unknown riot of butterflies to flutter in my belly. My face flushed in embarrassment as he looked down at me curiously. I rubbed his knuckles softly and whispered lamely, “You need to stop or else you’re going to have major callous on your hands that would feel like sandpaper every time you touch your face.”

Noah’s single eyebrow hitched upwards, but his face remained blank. “Okay?”

“Let’s go,” I smiled at him and returned his hand to his side. “I know a better way and less harming way to get your mind off everything.”

“I’ll just stay,” Noah deadpanned. “I’ll probably head up in a bit.”

“No, c’mon! Trust me, it’ll be fun!” I pleaded with a pout.

“I’m not feeling up – “

“I’m not taking no for an answer,” I finalized and smirked when he rolled his blue eyes.