Today has been a teary-eyed day, joy mixed with sorrow, from getting up this morning unto now and will go on probably the rest of the day. My friends Justin and Crystal have been saving money toward a court battle to get Justin's 5 year old girl away from her mother, who has already alienated her child. The little girl showed up for weekend visitation with week-old serious bruises on her rear end and the outsides of both legs. She was hit with something the thickness of a broom handle. The girl said it was a "switch," but the size of the bruises was more like a club. I went to the house yesterday to see the Talladega race. They'd called earlier to say they were taking the girl to Protective Services. Somebody was on-call on Sunday. I was watching the race when they drove up. The girl ran to me when she opened the door, threw her arms around my neck and said, "I don't have to go back!" In her eyes, it was the best day of her life. Turns out biker-mom has taken in a new man to live with her. A month or so ago I rode with Crystal to take the girl back on a Sunday afternoon. Child cried all the way. Boyfriend was there to pick up little girl, a guy closing in on 40. A look at him and all my alarms went off. He glared at little girl like she was going to get it when they return to the house. I told Crystal I don't like the way he looked at her. I suddenly became afraid for her. One of those situations that I can't do anything to help the child I've learned to love, but prayer from the heart. It was a cry from the heart.
Crystal telling about the bruises on the phone, that they were on their way to Protective Services to report the incident, came to me as answer to prayer. I thought: that was fast! I didn't realize I was so important to her, which I found when she was sitting on my knee almost the whole time I was there, sitting like she was in a safe zone where she was protected. She was happy like I'd never seen her before. I'd seen her laugh and play, but not yet had I seen her joy. I wanted to say something to her like I was sorry she had to be hurt so bad, but it never felt appropriate. I'd told her I was happy for her and glad she didn't have to go back. That felt like good enough to express my true feeling with her. I was more happy for her than I was sorry about the incident. Without the incident, getting her away from mama would be an expensive court case people who work for a living can't afford. Now they don't need court. Justin said it's a "slam dunk." I've seen the child break into tears on a Sunday afternoon when it was time to go back to mama. I knew her situation there was not a good one for a little kid at all, I hoped they could get her, but I also do not know other people's karma, other people's needs. I don't know anything concerning a child whose mother I have only seen. I knew from her treatment of her child that she was indifferent to her baby and probably still thought of her as an unwanted pregnancy. The mother, herself, is a damaged child.
Justin told me it was the maddest he'd ever been in his life, and he's had plenty of his own bruises nobody could save him from. He has a fairly short fuse. And one thing I know, a man goes putting bruises on Justin's baby, that man will have a day of suffering in the near future. From the one time I saw him, I could see he could not take Justin out in a fight, but believes he can. The believing he can is what's going to bite him in the ass. The only thing I can say for certain, that guy's in trouble. I guarantee if they ever meet face to face, Justin will want somebody to pull him off the guy before he kills him. He's afraid he might not have the self-control to stop himself. The guy hit the wrong man's little girl. He will have his day and will be awhile recovering from it. I applaud Justin. I look forward to hearing about it. This is something a man has to take care of, himself. If I didn't have full confidence Justin can do what needs to be done, I'd be calculating my own move. I am someone who likes living in peace, likes to let karma take care of justice. I also believe in honoring our humanity. I understand crimes of passion. The American legal system does not, but it's so slipshod at justice, court being a poker game between lawyers, sometimes a man has to make his own justice. It is possible Justin may let it go and give it to karma to settle with the man that hits children to hurt them. Justin has the potential of releasing a lifetime of frustration on a child-abusing son of a bitch that hurt his baby.
Last Tuesday I dreamed before waking I saw Justin standing in the window glowing red from rage, frustration, helplessness. I told him about the dream. He said he had stopped by Tuesday morning and looked in the window, saw I wasn't up yet and went on. By the time I brought up the dream we'd been all the way through the telling of the incident. That glowing red rage is what he felt when he learned about the bruises. That image of him glowing red was the maddest I'd ever seen him. I wondered during the week if something had happened, thought about calling, but decided not to be thinking I'm having premonition dreams. I'm something of an anti-alarmist. I don't like to make conclusions over a dream's possible meaning. I just find it curious that next time I saw him, five days later, he was feeling that rage I saw in the dream. Little girl's joy was so profound, a lightness was about her. Her movements were spontaneous dance. The pupils of her eyes showed joy. She really had been rescued. Now she has a home, instead of a place where she was always in the way. Today I've been feeling fullness in the heart, my cup runneth over as tears from time to time, remembering everybody's air of celebration Sunday, happy for my baby-doll that she now has a life of openly being loved, or that she simply has a life.
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