In Part 04, Sharlene legally starts the company she and her friends have been discussing. However, the success of the company may be totally on her shoulders. Not by running the company, but because her talent of recording strong and clean emotions so far appears to be unique. And many of those are generated by her experiences which she enjoys with her ongoing journey of touching.
A peek inside:
When she glances up a few minutes later, Angelisa notices that Reb is looking at Klara before she hesitantly steps closer. Since she’s heard some of her story from other people, she can’t imagine how Reb survived it. If there was anyone who was the prime victim of Hektor, at least as far as she knows, it was Reb. Angelisa tries to remember whether she’s even heard what Reb’s given name is.
“Excuse me?” They look up and see a young woman with a hard expression on her face hold out a large thick envelope to Klara while she says, “Here.”
Without taking the envelope, Klara asks, “Won’t you sit down?”
The young woman pauses then shrugs her shoulders and says, “I guess.”
When she sits down, Klara takes the envelope and asks, “What’s your name?”
“Reb.”
“I suppose it’s none of my business, but that’s an unusual name. Is it a shortened version of another name?”
She pauses for a moment, but since she senses nothing but honest interest, she shrugs her shoulders again and says, “My given name was Rebeka. When I was a young teen, my dad called me Rebel. After I left home, I went by Reb. I suppose it could be short for either of them.”
“What’s in the envelope?”
“A copy of my diary. When I heard about this meeting, I made a copy of it, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to give it to anyone. After Angelisa read her statement, I went to my dad’s vehicle and got it.”
Since she’s certain she’s facing another victim, Klara is extra gentle as she says, “This will take some time for me to read. Can you give me a brief overview of what it contains which might be significant to what we talked about today?”
After she hesitates for awhile, Rebeka barely nods her head, then relates the basic facts in a voice which is almost void of emotion, “It’s not in there, but when I was young, my mother died. I was crushed. I suppose Dad tried his best, but nothing was right afterwards and I started to rebel against the unfairness of the world and started hanging out with the rougher kids. Hektor raped me. When I told Dad, he threw me out of the house. I had nowhere to go, so I ‘joined’ Hektor’s gang to have food and shelter. Then I started writing. A lot of what Hektor and the gang did is in there with names, dates, and places. They teased me about being the gang’s historian, but Hektor thought it was cool to have his exploits written down.”
“I’m so sorry. Do you have a place to stay?”
“Yeah. After Dad heard what happened,” Rebeka glances at Sharlene, “he found me, said he was sorry he didn’t believe me before, and invited me back home. We’re not comfortable with each other, but I think he’s sincere.”
“Thank you for coming forward and sharing with us. I can’t say I understand what you went through, but I’ve talked to enough young ladies to know that it’s often very hard. If you want to talk about what happened with someone who does understand, go talk to Paula at the Country Store on the other side of town.”
“Aunt Paula?”
Klara nods her head as she answers, “Yes, Sharlene. Her story is very similar to Reb’s. When she heard about what Hektor had done, she offered to talk to others if it would help because she had found someone to talk to and that helped her.”
Rebeka is surprised and asks, “Paula at the Country Store had been raped and kicked out of the house by her dad?”
“Yes, and she’s willing to talk to anyone who wants to work through the pain. She’s not a psychologist, but she’s been there and survived.”
“I thought it was the end of the world.”
“So did she and in a way it was, because she was never able to have children.”
“Because of the rape?”
“Yes.”
