text: “Can I stay in the bath for just a little bit longer, Mommy?” Jenny asked her mom. She was playing with her favorite Barbie doll and did not want to stop just yet. Her mom looked at her daughter lovingly and said, “You’ve been in this bath for an hour and it’s time to get out.” “But I don’t wanna!” Jenny yelled. “Come on, we’ll have some ice cream in a little bit if you get out now.” Her mother replied. “ICE CREAM! I am done with the bath. Let’s get ice cream!” Jenny squealed with excitement as she stood up in the murky water. Her mom walked over to the tub and wrapped a towel around the five-year-old, as she eagerly tried to get of bath by herself. Janet, Jenny’s mom, towel-dried her hair, body, and then put a nightgown on her little girl. After getting dressed, Jenny looked up at her mom and asked, “What are we going to do now, Mommy?” “I figured we would watch some TV since your dad is out of town. *COPS* is about to come on.” “NO! I don’t wanna watch *COPS*. You always watch that show and it’s boring.” “Oh, come on child. I’ll put *COPS* on and then I will get you some ice cream.” “Ice cream! I forgot.” Jenny giggled as she ran to the couch and plopped down to wait for her favorite treat. Her mom walked to the kitchen as Jenny settled into the living room. She could hear her daughter singing along to the theme song of the show while she pulled a bowl out of the cupboard. Before she could retrieve the ice cream from the freezer, she heard a knock at the door, and little feet running into the kitchen. “Mommy! Someone is knocking at the door. Do you think Daddy is back already?” Jenny asked. “No, honey. That shouldn’t be your daddy because I talked to him not too long ago and he is still at your uncle’s in Kentucky.” Janet replied with a hint of concern in her voice. “Can I answer the door, mom?” “No, sweetie. I’ve got it. You go watch the show and I will see who is here.” Janet said as she put the kitchen towel on the counter and picked Jenny up in her arms. She placed her daughter on the couch and walked five feet to the front door of their house. Janet looked out of the small window to see who was knocking at such a late hour. She did not notice the man who was standing on their porch. “Can I help you?” Janet asked through the door. A frantic voice replied, “Help! My wife and I just got into an accident up the road and we need the police. Please let me use your phone so we can get an ambulance to her. She’s bleeding bad.” “I’ll call the police for you. Where was the accident?” She replied with a little more concern in her voice. “My wife wasn’t responding before I walked up here. I will need to talk to them. Please let me come in and use your phone.” The stranger begged. “I’m going to call now,” Janet stated as she hurried away from the door and found the portable phone. She walked back over to the front door, and little Jenny could hear the man yelling through the shut door. Jenny was quite confused about what was going on and she did not know why her mom was acting scared. “Is that person OK, mommy?” Jenny asked while watching her mom walk back to the barrier between them and the unknown man. “Everything is fine, Jenny. This man had a car accident and his wife is hurt. I’m going to call the police for him.” Her mom turned and smiled at her as she said this. Janet looked back at the front door and said to the unknown visitor, “I am dialing 9-1-1 right now. What do you want me to tell them?” “P-p-please let me t-t-talk to them. My wife is dying! You won’t s-s-say the right thing and they’ll take too long to get here! Just l-l-let me talk to them!” The man pleaded between sobs. Janet stared at the front door, then looked at the portable phone in her had. Throwing all but a little caution away, she put her foot at the base of the door and unlocked the chain lock and deadbolt. “I’m going to hand you the phone and you make your call.” She said in a loud and stern voice that the little girl recognized. Jenny was still on the couch and did not understand why her mom was acting so strangely and talking to the stranger like he was in trouble. The TV caught the little girl’s attention with a commercial and she quit paying attention to what her mom was doing. A moment later, Jenny heard a loud crash and looked over to her mom. Two men were in the house now, one a small man and the other was quite larger than him. They had Jenny’s mother by the neck against the wall. The big man had a large knife in his hands and was yelling at the small man to get Jenny. “You almost fucked everything up. Now get that little bitch over there and we can get this over with!” “You want me to get the little girl?” The small man replied with a small amount of confusion in his tone. Jenny watched her mother as all of this was happening. She saw the knife by her mom’s throat and did not want anything to happen to her. She just knew that she had to help her mom because her mom always helped her when she fell off her bike and scraped her knees. Suddenly, like a lightbulb flashing over her small head, she remembered that her dad kept a big hammer in the kitchen cabinet by the floor. Jenny always got in trouble for trying to pick up the hammer, so she knew exactly where to get it. She was going to get these mean people away from her mom. Without hesitation, Jenny ran into the kitchen cabinet and opened it. She could hear one of the men yell, “Get that bitch!” as she took off. She knew that she didn’t have much time to save her mom. Jenny franticly opened the kitchen cabinet and the big hammer was gone. She was frozen in fear because she didn’t know what to do now. “Run, Jenny. Run!” She heard her mom yell from the living room. A commotion followed that order, and Jenny ran. She ran right out of the back door into the darkness of the night. She didn’t know where to go so she hid behind the tree in the backyard and held her hand over her mouth. She watched as her mom ran outside and around the front of the house. Something inside the girl told her to stay still and don’t move even though she wanted to chase her mom. She watched the smaller man come running after her mom and yelling, “Get back here!” Jenny stayed behind the tree and made sure that she was hidden because the really scary man was going to come next. As that thought crossed her mind, the big man was stumbling out of the back door. Jenny sucked in her breath and held it. All she could think was that she didn’t want to die. “Where are you?” He lulled to the darkness. “If you’re out here you better come out now!” Jenny could see the man close up now. He was crouched down with his hands on his thighs as if he were taking a break. His black hair was longer than her daddy’s, and it was messy. She saw his eyes searching the darkness for her as he took two steps forward. “I’m not gonna hurt ya.” He lied. “We just need to talk to your mom for a little bit.” The way he said this scared Jenny because she thought he saw her. She slinked around the back of the tree and prayed she would become part of the tree. Silence ensued. Jenny could no longer see the man and she was trying to listen for him to leave. “FUCK THIS!” He screamed so loud it made Jenny jump. She heard his footsteps go back into the house and she peeked around the tree. No one was in the backyard with her anymore. She found the courage to run. She ran toward the front of the house where the side, chain-link gate was locked with a heavy steel chain. She started to climb the gate as she thought, “Well I don’t think I’ll get in trouble for climbing the fence this time. I hope not at least.” She jumped off the fence and was on the other side. She could see her mom now, running and banging on each door of their neighborhood. Her mom was yelling, “Please help us! They’re trying to kill us!” “Mommy!” Jenny yelled at her mom. “Run, Jenny! Find help but don’t let them get you!” Her mom screamed without looking at Jenny. The little girl ran to their next-door neighbor’s house and started banging on the locked storm door. She knew their neighbor was a sweet, old lady that could not fight the mean men. Jenny knew this but needed the phone to call 9-1-1 like they had taught her in kindergarten. The old lady never answered the door and Jenny felt defeated. Janet came running up to Jenny and was almost completely out of breath. “Did she answer the door?” She asked. “No! I don’t know what to do.” Jenny sobbed. “Sadie! You better answer this door. There are men trying to kill me and Jenny!” Janet exclaimed as she was pounding on their neighbor’s front door. “Where did the bad man go?” Jenny asked as she looked around in the dark. “He went back in the house. We need to get help before they come back outside.” A light broke up the darkness on their street. It was a van coming down the road. Janet ran as fast as she could to stop the van with her body. Jenny followed her as she was sure this was the help that they were waiting for. The van slowed down, and Jenny could see the van was full of people. Janet was banging on their windows begging for them to help. The van never stopped and continued on down the street as if Jenny and Janet were just ghosts that they could not see. When the van was out of sight, a loud voice boomed from behind them, “We got what we came for so now it’s time to take care of you finally.” It was the big man. He no longer had the knife in his hand, but he came running toward Janet with haste. Jenny stepped backward and started to cry. She could not fight this man and she wished her daddy was there to help. The man took her mom by the throat again and started to choke her. Janet was fighting back but the man was a lot stronger than she was. “Get off of her!” A miraculous voice yelled from the night. Jenny looked around to see who had said that. All of a sudden, a porch light came on and Jenny saw a woman standing outside with her phone in her hand. “I said get off of her! I have the police on the line right now.” The woman yelled again. The man released Janet from his clutches, and she fell to the pavement. At that very moment, the smaller man appeared at the front door with a confused look on his face. The big man bellowed at him, “Go get the shit! The cops are coming for these sluts.” Janet picked herself up off the ground, grabbed Jenny’s arm, and they ran to the neighbor. “Help!” Janet and Jenny cried in unison. “What is going on? Is that your husband?” The neighbor asked as she walked to meet them in the street. “No! I don’t know who it is. They broke into the house and had a knife to my throat. They went after Jenny!” Janet broke down as she recounted what had happened. The neighbor helped Janet and Jenny into her house to make sure that they were safe. Janet finished telling her what happened, and the phone rang. “Hello?” The neighbor-lady asked. “Oh, they’re right here. The robbers were still in the house, so I brought them inside mine.” Then a pause. “OK, I’ll let them know. Thank you so much.” She hung up the phone and looked at Janet. “The police are inside your house investigating what happened. They want to speak with you.” Janet nodded at the neighbor with a small, grateful smile. “And you, young lady. They will want to talk to you too and it’s going to be alright. You are awfully brave for only being in kindergarten and you helped your mom a lot tonight. You know that right?” “The big hammer wasn’t in the cabinet.” That’s all Jenny could muster from being called brave. “Hey! That’s OK because you are both safe now. Your mom is very lucky to have such a brave little girl.” The neighbor replied with a soft smile. “Thank you. Did you call my daddy too?” Jenny still had tears in her eyes when she asked this. “No, I don’t know where your daddy is to call. The police will be able to help you call him, OK?” “OK.” Janet and Jenny walked outside and saw the whole block was full of red and blue lights. This hurt Jenny’s eyes as she walked back home. With each step, Jenny would look around to see if she saw the bad men again. Jenny walked inside the house with her mother and saw that all of her toys were thrown around the living room. There was a police officer speaking to her mom and Jenny stayed silent in the background. A tall, skinny African-American officer walked over to Jenny. He bent down so he would be close to her height and said, “How are you, little lady?” “I’m scared,” Jenny said weakly. “I know you are and that is normal. Your mom told me how if it weren’t for you then the bad men may have hurt her really bad.” He worked up a smile when he said this. “I just didn’t want my mommy to get dead. I thought the big hammer was in the kitchen.” She replied. “She is talking about the sledgehammer that her father kept in the kitchen until she kept pulling it out.” Janet interrupted to explain. “I see.” The officer said as he wrote into his small notepad. He looked back at Jenny, “Can you tell me what happened?” “Are they gone now? I’m scared.” Jenny replied. “They are gone. I promise that we won’t let them try and hurt you, or your mom, again. OK? I just need to know what happened so I can make sure we put them in jail.” He smiled at Jenny and that made her feel much better. Jenny sighed and said, “Me and Mommy had just got done cleaning up all of my toys, but the mean men knocked them all over again. Mommy put me in the bath, and we were going to watch *COPS* but then the bad people knocked on the door...”.