It was evening in Colorado, but Alexia was still wide awake. Her grandparents were gone to bed and her mother was making coco for the two of them. Normally Alexia should be in bed by now and the way her mother had been acting so nice, too nice, alarmed the four year old.
Zoey turned around and put the two hot cups of coco on the table.
“Mommy, what is going on?” Alexia asked serious.
Zoey sipped from her coco. Then she looked up.
“You know that uncle Emmanuel was on the news this morning” she said.
“Yeah, but they called him Castiel” Alexia recalled the morning news.
“That’s because his real name is Castiel” Zoey explained. “Anyways, he’s in really deep trouble and he needs our help”
“What did he do?” Alexia asked.
“Some people are saying that he hurt you” Zoey said difficult.
“You mean like hitting me?” Alexia asked. Zoey shook her head. “Oh, sexually, you mean”
“If Castiel really hurt you you have to tell me and I’ll make sure he never sees the light of day again” Zoey promised fierce. “But if he didn’t, we have to help him. We can’t let him go to jail for something he didn’t do. If he’s innocent you’re the only one who can help him. You have to testify in his favor”
Alexia needed some time to absorb that information.
“He never lay a finger on me” she eventually said. “I’ll do it”