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She can't speak.
At first she thought that no one had ever taught her the alphabet or the meaning of individual words. Her whole life so far had been spent in orphanages and with foster parents, who always gave up on taking care of the little girl for some reason, coming up with really dumb excuses for abandoning her. She could not believe that for a long time there was no one who could take care of little Isha and give her something called a real home. That's why she decided to do this, even if she had to fight the whole damn adoption system and even if she had to snatch the kid by force - she was ready for that.
The fight was not necessary. All it took was some time, patience and a lot of duplicates of every document, without which she couldn't even take the girl for a walk.
They met by chance. Isha ran into her when she was running away from her then adoptive parents, grim and stern people who almost had to take her by force to their gloomy and gray home. The kid held on to her tightly... she didn't want to let her go... she didn't want her to disappear.
Jinx had never felt the need for a kid. She didn't need a kid in her chaotic life, full of traveling, running errands, dealing with the past, reigning in the present, not thinking too much about the future... The job she had always dreamed of was all that kept her from living a normal life. There was also Vi, her older sister. The person she trusted more than anything. And there was her father...
She met Isha for the second time when she saw her completely by chance in the playground in front of the orphanage. The girl was sitting alone while the children were playing together. It had been a long time since she had seen such a sad view...
Making the decision was not an easy one, and the idea itself seemed crazy, even for her. She didn't tell anyone about her intentions because of fear that someone might try to dissuade her from doing so. She thought this over, made up her mind, and decided to do everything to get the kid out of the clutches of the system... to give her what no one could - a safe home.
Jinx always thought the baby needed a lot of things. Special plastic dishes and tricks with her favorite cartoon characters, a colorful room with a small bed and stars that glow in the dark or a basket of toys that mostly lay in every nook and cranny of the living room, but Isha proved her wrong. The girl loved to imitate her - eating from a glass plate, drinking from a ceramic cup (which she struggled to pick up), sleeping next to Jinx, snoring quietly and playing only with her bunny, which she got on the first day of her new life.
There were entirely new colors in their lives...
✧✧
Isha sat at the kitchen table, creating another of her artistic creations, though the space on the fridge had long been lacking. She'll have to ask Jinx for extra space to make her drawings clearly visible... maybe next to the paintings on the wall she did while Sevika was taking care of her. Her auntie allowed her to do a lot, although it was often not easy to convince her. Isha had a gift for persuasion.
“I think we should invest in magnetic walls to accommodate all these drawings,” Jinx said softly, suddenly leaning over the girl's shoulder. Isha looked at her and smiled, hearing about the idea. This could solve some of their problems. “Who are you drawing here? That's you,” she pointed to a small figure with a band with bunny ears. Isha nodded in agreement. “And this one?”
The girl pointed at her.
“Me... and Vi?”
Isha denied quickly.
“Me... aaand Caitlyn?” Jinx smiled.
Isha shook her head more quickly, almost puffing herself up.
“Okay, just kidding. It's obvious that here you are, I'm holding your hand, and Sevika is protecting us from... the black monster from the closet,” the young woman said, looking from another perspective to understand her daughter's drawing. “You are really talented, maybe even more so than me, kiddo.”
The girl smiled broadly, hearing the praise, and took another sheet of paper.
Jinx said nothing, just grabbed her latest creation and pinned it in the middle of the fridge, knowing that Sevika would see it when she came here next weekend.
Suddenly, the doorbell sounded, and the young woman smiled, knowing perfectly well what it meant. Isha raised her head, looking uncertain.
“Go, kid,” she said, sitting down at the table. She didn't bother to clean up the mess, which she mostly called artistic chaos. This is what their apartment looked like on a daily basis - full of crayons, markers and paints that lay in various places, and most often took up a lot of space during meal times. They both accepted this state of affairs.
Isha ran to the door and stopped for a moment when she spotted Silco in the hallway. She squealed happily, suddenly throwing herself in his direction. Her arms wrapped around his legs, preventing him from walking.
“Hello, my little bunny,” he said, looking down at her. He put down the box he held in his hand for a moment and took her in his arms. “You've grown since we saw each other a few days ago,” he commented, handing her the small box.
Isha shook the small object, and what was inside moved, hitting the paper walls. She looked at him, as if to ask “what is it?”.
“Something special,” he said simply, walking with her to the kitchen.
“You're spoiling her again,” Jinx rolled her eyes.
“No more than usual,” he smiled at her. “Also nice to see you, daughter.”
The young woman sent him a smile, then stood up and hugged him for a moment. He adopted her when she thought she had lost everything. Over the years he dealt with her difficult character, loving her despite the mistakes she made and guiding her to achieve everything she had always dreamed of.
She fought her demons and nightmares, trying to cope with the trauma she endured. First she lost her parents when a drunk driver caused a DUI accident, then a cursed shooting, in a place where it shouldn't have happened. School should be a place to learn... not a place that becomes your grave.
Losing her friends and being separated from her sister was not what helped her live, but she managed to recover from even the deepest swamp, and Silco drew her close, protecting her and providing her with something she could call home. He helped her overcome her demons... and she managed the rest.
...or tried to do so, as the nightmares sometimes returned.
At least until Isha came into her life - a little girl who never needed words to tell her about the beautiful world around them.
“Did you buy her a bike?” Silco raised an eyebrow, sitting down at the table with little Isha, who refused to leave him even for a moment. “I thought I was the one from giving her expensive gifts.”
“You and Sevika,” Jinx laughed, winking in at him.
“SEVIKA?”
“She's more caring than you might think.”
“I could have predicted that,” she just sighed, then combed through the hair of the kid who was wriggling in his lap. “You can open it, my little bunny.”
Isha didn't wait a moment longer to see what was in the box. Inside were several butter cookies in the shape of carrots, which were very quickly pulled out onto the table. The girl looked at them with sparks in her eyes.
“Here you go, here are some tubes of icing in different colors, little artist,” he said, handing her the rest of the gift. He knew this would be something to occupy her for a moment so he could talk to his daughter. Isha quickly grabbed the pink icing and began playing with decorating the small cookies.
Silco sat her down on a chair, while he himself stood up and approached Jinx.
“You were right, raising a daughter is a real challenge,” she shrugged her shoulders, not taking her eyes off Isha, who was having a great time doing something completely new, discovering new skills. Nothing else in the world gave her as much joy as watching this little girl, whose life was full of discovering beauty.
“You are doing great, so you have nothing to worry about,” he told her, noticing that she had doubts. “I did great with you.”
She rolled her eyes with a smile. “Right. I'm perfect.”
“Not for everyone, but certainly for her, yes.”
Jinx tried to make sure Isha got everything she needed. It wasn't just about toys or clothes, which were often a gift when someone showed up at their house. Above all, she surrounded the girl with love and tenderness, wanting her to feel loved and important. They spent a lot of time together, since the young woman was given the opportunity to work remotely due to her current living situation, and only occasionally disappeared from the house for a few hours. Then she would engage someone from the family to take care of her daughter for that time.
Kindergarten was a distant thought. Isha was misunderstood by the world, and her past experiences still needed to be explained. Why didn't the children want to play with her? Why didn't everyone understand what she was trying to communicate to them without using words? Why did she feel like she didn't fit in?
Jinx was afraid that the girl would be rejected. She wasn't ready to send her out to explore the world and the happiness as well as pain that comes with it. It was not a good time...
“What about visits to the speech therapist?”
“She doesn't see any improvement and seems to have stopped believing that we can do anything about the situation,” Jinx explained to him when Silco broke the moment of silence.
She had worked as a mechanical engineer for years. She created new designs and built things to make people's daily lives easier, but she couldn't create anything that could help her little girl contact the world. This made her feel like she had failed. Even if it wasn't her fault.
“Besides... I don't think she'll want us to come again after I've won her over with what I think of her. I got a carried away. Just a bit,” she muttered, shrugging her shoulders.
“Of course. I will find you someone more competent,” he said, smiling.
“I don't know if it makes any difference...”
Silco looked at her, hoping she would elaborate.
“The test results confirm that something is wrong. Of course, speech exercises help, but they won't solve the problem... that's why I started teaching her sign language. So far it's going reluctantly, because I understand her perfectly well without all that, but... she'll need some better way to communicate,” she explained.
“Both of you will figure it out. She's young, she's a fast learner... and you know how determined she is. So are you. Give her time,” he said, placing a hand on the young woman's shoulder. “She'll be fine, Jinx.”
Isha looked at them, as if to get their attention, and when neither of them reacted, she hit the table with a crayon. Silco immediately turned and walked over to her, then looked over her shoulder.
“I always said you take after your mom's talent,” he said, combing her brown hair.
The girl smiled at him, then looked at Jinx.
“Mmmma!” she made the sound that always made Jinx smile softly. The syllable sounded indistinct, and no one could ever tell if she was trying to say “mama” or if she was uttering it completely unconsciously.
“Are you eating blue carrots, bunny?” She asked softly, looking at her daughter's decorated cookies, which a moment later disappeared into the girl's mouth. She jumped up in her chair, clearly pleased with the praise.
Jinx playfully placed the hood over her daughter's head, and the bunny ears fell over her shoulders. She loved putting on that hoodie and hopping around the room, laughing loudly. Jinx loved looking at her and soaking up that authentic joy. Everything else didn't matter then.
✧✧
Isha snuggled up to her mama's side, just as she did every evening when Jinx read her a bedtime book. She hugged her plush bunny, and although she was already tired, she still refused to go to bed. Finally, only when Silco promised to stay up to read one of her favorite stories did she yield and climb onto her mother's bed, waiting patiently for him to join her.
“A family of bunnies?” Silco raised an eyebrow as she handed him the book.
Isha nodded, not pulling away from her mom.
“It's her favorite,” Jinx explained sleepily.
“Another gift from Sevika?” He laughed, knowing that he would always compete with her again.
“No, it was from me,” she said quietly, pulling her daughter closer. “I also love to spoil her.”
Silco smiled and began to read, periodically showing the pictures to his girls. Jinx fell asleep first, tired from everything the day had brought, and her little Isha gazed sleepily at the colorful pages. Before she fell asleep, she raised her hands, forming them into a little heart and she looked at him.
“I love you too, little bunny,” he whispered, leaning over to kiss her on the temple. “Sweet dreams.”
Jinx smiled in her sleep, as if she were a child again and as if he was talking to her, chasing away all the demons that were waiting for her to stumble to get her. The closet monster was too afraid to come out to face Silco, and the nightmares were chased away when he read the story about the bunnies. They were safe, even when he left the room and turned off the light.