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had her dress balled up in his fist and was holding her up by it while her feet dangled in the air. When her mom came over and tried to reason with the man, he relaxed his grip for just a second and Evie got away.
     
His anger exploded, and Evie ran barefoot up the stairs, and then down the hall as she had in the beginning of all my dreams of her. She went to the dark bathroom to hide behind the hamper. Again we shook with fear as we saw the shadow come into the little bathroom. This time, however, before the man came into the room, I heard noises from outside of the room. I could hear what I knew was the sound of someone getting slapped hard and falling to the floor. I knew it was the woman from the kitchen. I could feel Evie as she was afraid for her mother and at the same time horrified for what might happen to her next. The man was coming toward the bathroom calling for Evie. Her mama would call out and plead with the man not to hurt her. He would curse and shove her away each time she approached him. He refused to be calmed down. Someone was going to pay for what had happened and that was that.
     
“Please, she’s just a baby and she didn’t mean to knock the can over.” The man seemed to become more furious when the woman pleaded with him. More than once he returned to her and I could hear another slapping sound and the woman’s cries of pain. I could feel Evie shaking in the floor of the closet, feel her fear. I knew this wasn’t the first time he had hurt her mama, but it was the first time he had come after Evie. The man snapped his belt to announce his intentions and yelled, “Evie, you come out here like a good girl and take your punishment. You want to be a good girl, don’t you?”
     
Evie and I both felt sick. We both swallowed hard to keep the sickness down. The fear was like nothing else I had ever experienced. Our bodies shook violently. I watched as the fragile little girl coward deeper into the tiny closet, trying desperately to vanish into the corner out of sight. Our hearts were pounding so hard it hurt our ears from the inside. It was hard to breath, and the tears that were clouding our eyes began to run down our cheeks.
     
The man returned again to the bathroom door and one last time snapped the belt loudly to announce his intended punishment. As the man placed his hand on the knob of the closet door, it felt as if Evie’s tense muscles released in defeat; and as the acceptance of what she could not stop swept over her, she felt the warm wet puddle begin to form beneath her.
     
    Just as Evie started to wet herself I jerked awake and realized I was about to do the same. I made a dash for the bathroom and managed not to soak my husband, but I did wake him.
     
    “You okay, Kat? You sick or something?”
     
    “No,” I moaned my dreaded confession as I wiped away the tears. “The dream is back. I just managed not to soak you this time.”
     
    Jason came to my side and placed his hand on my back. I knew it was hard for him to understand. I didn’t exactly understand it myself. He was trying to comfort me, and I loved him for it; but it was obvious he was not sure what the right thing to say was. He rubbed my back in support for a few seconds, but we were both feeling a little awkward, so I assured him I was fine and it was nothing to worry about. Once I gave him permission to go back to bed, he gave me a kiss on the top of my head and returned to bed. He lay down and in a matter of seconds drifted back to sleep with the ease of a baby.
     
    “Lucky,” I murmured and took my pad and pen from the bedside table. I went downstairs after looking in on Gracie with the intention of writing down all the details of my dream before I lost any of it. I sat there for an hour staring at the blank piece of paper. The words didn’t want to come to me. My brain was overloaded with questions, and I replayed the dream as if trying to force it to make sense. What exactly did all of it mean? Who was the