Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Dead End (02/06/14)
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TITLE: An Open Road | Previous Challenge Entry
By lynn gipson
02/11/14 -
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What he did to her then should happen to no child, regardless age. She was sexually assaulted by a 200 pound man.
Her attacker was an uncle named Jack. Jack was a forty-year old retarded man. Her mother, aunt, and grandmother had left Bailey with him while they went shopping.
When the people who had so carelessly left her with an unfit baby sitter came home, they found Bailey crying and in a heap on the floor. Jack was hiding in another room like the child he was.
Bailey's great-aunt, Sarah, who was Jack's guardian, yelled for him to get into the car, and the two left immediately. Two months later Sarah placed Jack in an institution.
As for Bailey, she was not taken to a doctor, but instead treated with home remedies by her grandmother, and with time her physical ailments healed. Her emotional scars took a while longer. Fifty-four years to be exact.
After the attack had taken place, Bailey was lovingly cared for, but the it was never mentioned again. No one told her it wasn't her fault. No one asked about her feelings on the matter. People didn't talk about such things in those days. It seemed as if the atrocity never occurred. The only place it seemed to stay alive was in Bailey's soul.
So for fifty-four years Bailey carried this trauma, and she ran. She ran fast and hard from life. She remembered enough of the episode to give her panic attacks. She recalled it in dreams of running and being caught by a very large man, and she would have fleeting images of what had been done to her.
The event instilled great terror in her life to come. There was not a time she didn't feel anxious. The men she subconsciously chose in life were those that made her feel afraid. She carried guilt by the tons. She believed the incident was in some way her fault.
She never spoke of this tragedy with anyone until she was fifty-eight years old. Her anxiety was such that she sought help from a mental health facility. Finally, one day in group therapy it all came out, and it was like a dam breaking with water bursting forth. She sobbed until there were no tears left to cry.
Soon after the therapy confession, Bailey surrendered her life to Jesus Christ, and fear became of thing of the past. Her Savior took all that away when He forgave her for her sins. After a lifetime of self-destructive living, Bailey came to realize she was not at fault for what had happened fifty-four years earlier.
Christ did that for her. She was no longer that child in a corner with no way out. She was Bailey; happy, free, and at long last, on life's open road.
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I thought of all of the children who are sexually abused and it made me so sad.
The ending was beautifully peaceful as the MC embraced Christ and felt "free" at last. Christ's all encompassing love can bring peace and joy into anyone's heart who is willing to surrender to Him.
Thank you for this compelling story.
God bless~
Two small things. One, I believe there's an extra word here "After the attack had taken place, Bailey was lovingly cared for, but the it was never mentioned again. "
Two, I think you mean "became a thing of the past" in this sentence.
"Soon after the therapy confession, Bailey surrendered her life to Jesus Christ, and fear became of thing of the past."
So often, parents and other caregivers choose to never speak of the situation again, but it doesn't make it go away, and the pain stays with that child. Children need to be able to talk about this in a safe environment, and they need to know that it's not their fault.
I think that this story would be even more powerful if you "showed" some of Bailey's pain after the episode. Maybe you could describe a panic attack when someone startled her, so we could catch a glimpse of some of the fear she lived with.
This story shows God's healing power, even after 54 years! Victims of sexual abuse need to hear that they can experience this freedom too. Thank you for sharing this story!
You did a good job of telling the story and of revealing the dead-end the child felt.
Thank God He is greater than all the evils machinated against the innocent.