"OK, Annette said that she and Tim can be here with the pickup truck in about 15 minutes." Angela said after getting off her cellphone.
"Fifteen minutes?" Lara asked. "I don't think I can wait that long. I'm sure the police will be here by then."
Angela stood for a moment silent, thinking.
Lara looked at her while Julia looked at Lara. Julia had to sit back down on the plastic chair while the two figured things out.
Angela pulled her cellphone back out and called Angela back.
"Hi, it's me again. Think you can meet me at the old dock instead?
"Yeah, that's the one."
"Right now."
"OK. Thanks. Bye."
"OK, let's go to the old dock right now. It's across the creek by a dry lake bed. That way we can go now."
Lara turned to look at Julia. Julia stared right back at her. Instantaneously, Lara bent over towards to Julia, placed both hands on her face, and planted a deep, open mouth kiss.
Angela opened her eyes in disbelief.
"You remember me!" Lara said. "I'm going to carry you everywhere I go.
"I will." Julia replied.
The two hugged.
"I love you, OK?" Julia said.
"Yeah, I love you too!" Lara replied.
"Don't forget about my aunt!" Julia begged letting go of Lara.
"OK, I won't!"
Angela led Lara out the back entrance of the house, across the lawn and down into the creek bed. They walked briskly across the smooth, rounded rocks, skipping over puddles of water and mud until they reached the other side.
The dry lake bed was only a few hundred feet away. It didn't look like a dry lake bed, but just a wider portion of the creek. Apparently decades ago, there had been a lake there that went dry due to a dam that was demolished. The old dock still remained, with a dirt road leading up to it.
Angela and Lara hid about twenty feet away behind a few trees and waited for Annette and Tim to bring the pickup truck.
Back at the Home for Abused Women, Dora re-entered the shower room.
"Where's Angela?" Dora asked Julia. "And where's Lara?"
"I don't know. Lara decided she wasn't going to stay anymore. I think Angela may have went after her.
"Come on." Dora said, reaching her hand out to help Julia back up.
Julia had been escorted into the infirmary by Dora. Miss Woodrow entered shortly after to tape up her ankle. Three more girls followed her in.
"Please remove your towel and lay down on the bed so I can look at your ankle." Miss Woodrow asked.
Julia reluctantly allowed the towel to drop, watching Dora and the three other girls. She slowly sat on the bed, turned her body, and laid down.
"So, tell me where did your friend go?" Miss Woodrow asked.
"She didn't want to stay."
Miss Woodrow inspected her ankle, pressing in various spots and carefully moving it around. Julia winced in pain.
"OK, where does she plan to go from here?"
"I don't know."
"I see you have several blisters on your feet. You two have obviously done a lot of walking." Miss Woodrow noted.
"Did Lara put her clothes on?" Miss Woodrow continued, looking up at Dora.
Dora shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know Ma'am. I didn't see her leave."
Miss Woodrow shook her head and began wrapping Julia's ankle with an Ace wrap. "That girl won't last long."
Julia looked troubled and turned her head to look at Dora, who looked back at her with apathy.
"So, how did you hurt your ankle?" Miss Woodrow asked.
Julia explained that she hurt herself walking on the rocks in the creek bed. From there, Miss Woodrow asked how she and Lara came to walk on the creek bed, and thereafter systematically asked more questions, backtracking until she gathered together a story of how they came to this house. But being without Lara and without any other familiar faces only made Julia very frightened and unwilling to give specifics.
Miss Woodrow looked up at Dora standing by the door, and then looked over at the bed. Dora responded by taking a few small steps towards the bed. The three other girls began moving slowly towards the bed as well.
Dora nodded her head, and the four of them closed in on Julia. Each of them grabbed Julia's wrists and ankles at the same time, pinning her to the bed.
"No!" Julia yelled, kicking her legs and rolling her body and back and forth.
"We won't hurt you Julia." Miss Woodrow explained. "Please remember that rape victims often don't remember being raped. It's very important we find out."
Miss Woodrow spoke in a matter of fact tone of voice. "We're just going to take a small examination, that's all."
"I wasn't raped!" Julia exclaimed shaking her head, bouncing her body trying to break free. "No!"
"You're only going to make it harder on yourself if you fight us!" Miss Woodrow said. "I can get some ropes and tie you down, or you can cooperate."
Julia stopped resisting and but continued to cry with a great deal of fear, hyperventilating and barely able to breath.
"That's more like it."
Miss Woodrow nodded her head at the two girls holding Julia's ankles. They pulled them back giving Miss Woodrow full access.
Julia panicked and wailed, shaking her head left and right.
Miss Woodrow leaned forward just inches from her labia, using her fingers to spread them apart.
Julia howled in fear, opening her mouth wide and rolling her eyes back into her head.
Miss Woodrow, meanwhile, took her time to inspect the outside of her vagina. looking for tears that might suggest rape.
Julia continued howling with streams of tears running down her face.
Reaching into a bag, Miss Woodrow pulled out a tube of lubricant along with a metal speculum.
Julia screamed from the feeling of cold steel entering her vagina, howling like an animal in fear. Miss Woodrow began spreading apart Julia's most personal space, exposing it for her own inspection.
Miss Woodrow peered inside with a tiny flashlight.
"Mmm, hmm." She said.
Julia caught her breath and descended into a deep, deep cry.
"When was your last flow, Julia?" Miss Woodrow asked in a rather dry, unemotional way.
Julia didn't answer, but continued to cry louder.
"Well, we're not going to get anything out of her!" Miss Woodrow spoke sarcastically
She reached back into her bag to retrieve a cotton swap and plastic tube. She inserted the swab and brushed it around and then placed it into the tube.
Miss Woodrow reached into her bag again and retrieved a plastic package, which she tore open and revealed an IUD and an insertion tool.
"Now, hold steady." Miss Woodrow said, resting one hand on Julia's inner thigh and the other hand carefully guiding the IUD tool inside her.
Julia was so heavily traumatized by the event that she couldn't hear anything or feel anything. She wasn't even aware of what Miss Woodrow was doing at this point. Her mind was preoccupied with the vision of her father yelling at her and spanking her after getting caught touching herself when she was twelve.
"You're going to go to Hell!" She remembered him yelling. "You're going to go to Hell!"
"OK." Miss Woodrow said, removing the speculum. "You can let her go."
Julia turned over on her side and brought her knees up to her, continuing to cry.
"Honey, we're just doing this for your own good. Dora, get her a fitted for a uniform along with undergarments.
"Yes Ma'am." Dora replied.
"Marianne, escort Julia to an open bed in Room 5, please."
"Yes Ma'am." Marianne replied.
Meanwhile at the dock, both Lara and Angela waited for Annette and Tim to arrive.
"They should be here by now." Angela spoke, looking at the time on her cellphone.
Lara looked out across the creek bed and felt troubled about Julia.
