Page 5 of Fought and Freed

“How about you tell me a little about yourself, Maddy?” Dr. Hayes requested.

Maddy let out a deep breath. “I was dropped off in front of an orphanage two days after I was born. When I was twelve, I was moved to a bigger orphanage. It was also a place for teenagers who just came out of juvie and didn’t have a home to go to.”

Dr. Hayes nodded in understanding. “So, it was a rough place to live.”

“Oh, you could say that.” Maddy hugged the pillow tighter. “I hated it, and I stayed away as much as possible. There wasn’t much to do in our town—most of it closed down once the coal dried up—but there was a bakery I liked to visit.

Maddy laughed at the memory. “I used to stop and watch the old lady who owned the place bake through the front window. One day, I was walking the street after school when she pulled me inside and gave me a job. She helped me see that it was possible to leave town and make something of myself.”

Dr. Hayes referenced a file. “I see here that you worked two jobs, one of them at night. The orphanage let you work that late?”

Uncomfortable with the question, Maddy stood and walked behind the couch to peer out of the window. “The people who ran the place didn’t care about us at all. The security guards were the worst. All I had to do was give him a…”

When she struggled with the words, Dr. Hayes’s voice softened. “You don’t have to say it. I get the gist.”

Maddy hugged herself. “I always did well in school, so it was easy to earn a full scholarship to Lockhaven University. It was my escape from that life until Mike found me again.”

2

MADDY

Maddy’s second session with Dr. Hayes was a tough one for her.

“Tell me more about your time at Wings of Refuge?”

Dammit! She didn’t want to talk about that part of her life.

“Why? It’s the past, and that’s where I want it to stay.” She gripped the pillow tightly to her chest.

“Your time there defined who you are.” Sympathy filled his face, but his eyes held determination. “If you want this program to work, we need to talk about the root of how you came to be here.”

Maddy took a few minutes to gather her thoughts. "It was Hell. On my first night there, I got jumped. What twelve-year-old can defend herself from a sixteen-year-old? I tried to keep to myself, but even that didn’t work. During one of my beatings, a guy stopped it. Ryan."

Maddy smiled when she spoke of Ryan. “He was my protector in there and taught me how to fight. How to protect myself. He became like a brother to me.”

She continued on with her story, telling Dr. Hayes about how she and Ryan had all these dreams, and how, for the first time, she’d started looking forward to life.

Dr. Hayes leaned forward in his chair. “Is Ryan still in your life?”

Her smile fell, and she shook her head. “He aged out before me and was put on the streets. The head bitch of the orphanage at the time couldn’t wait to shove the newspaper article into my face about a gang break-in gone wrong and how they found the body of one Ryan Corvino.”

“How did that make you feel, Maddy?”

She looked away from the sympathy in his gaze. “How do you think that made me feel? Ryan was dead! I knew that story was bullshit, though. He’d never break into a house or join a gang. He hated gangs.”

She looked at her wrists where faint white scars bisected both. “I spiraled after that and tried to end my life, but Ryan’s voice in my head stopped me. If I’d cut any deeper that day, I wouldn’t be here.”

* * *

The night before Maddy’s third session with Dr. Hayes, anxiety kept her from getting any sleep as she tossed and turned.

When she arrived at his office, instead of sitting down, she walked straight to the window.

Dr. Hayes didn’t seem to mind. “Where are we in the story of Maddy?”

She hugged herself. “We’re up to Mike.”

His chair creaked as he settled in. “Begin whenever you’re ready.”

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