LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER THREE

      SHE HELD OUT her hand for him to see a grouping of the tiniest marks. They hurted her, she told him. “My ouchie.” In reality the wound was from the common stinging nettle, a very uncomfortable plant with which to make contact. But it was nothing that required medical attention, which made Alain wonder why she was here.

      “And you came to me all by yourself?” he asked, quite touched by the girl. Her big brown eyes were sad, and huge fat tears welled up in them.

      “‘Cause you’re the doctor. Aunt Gertrude told me to come over here, that you could fix it for me.”

      He was flattered and angry at the same time. Lilly, as she called herself, couldn’t have been more than six, maybe not even that old, and a child that age had no business wandering around the bayou all by herself. “Well, your Aunt Gertrude was right about that. I can.” A nice stream of hot water usually did the trick, or a generous coating of calamine lotion.

      “Dandelion works,” Maggie offered as she entered the exam room, carrying a glass of juice for the child.

      Alain shook his head. “Nothing herbal …”

      “Just saying,” she quipped as she handed Lilly the apple juice.

      He nodded as he led Lilly over to the sink and held her hand under the water while she was distracted, drinking her juice. “So no one’s with her?” he asked, trying to sound matter-of-fact.

      “Not a soul. Miss Lilly Anna Montrose was a big girl today and came all the way here from Grandmaison by herself.”

      Grandmaison, a good two-mile walk. Now he was downright mad, angry enough to spit nails at someone. “Well, then, I’d say Miss Lilly was one brave little girl today. That was a mighty long walk for her to take all by herself.”

      “People around here are independent,” Maggie said, but not in defense of Lilly’s aunt, who’d sent her off alone. “They start that independence young in some cases.”

      “Too young,” he said, looking at the hand where the nettles had stung the child.

      “Can’t say that I disagree. I was as surprised as you when she showed up here a little while ago. Oh, and she also brought payment.” Maggie held it up. It was a quarter.

      “Is that your money?” Alain asked the girl.

      She nodded. “I’ve been saving up. Aunt Gertrude told me I had to use it to pay for my ‘pointment. Is it enough? ‘Cause I have two more at home.”

      “As it turns out, that’s exactly what I charge for fixing a nettle sting.”

      She handed the empty glass back to Maggie. “Thank you,” she said. “That was very good.”

      “Would you like some more?” Maggie asked.

      The little girl nodded shyly. “All we ever get to drink is water. Sometimes tea, if we can afford it.”

      “Look, Lilly, I need to go get some special medicine to put on your hand. Would you mind sitting up on the table until I come back?”

      “Okay,” she said, then smiled. “It doesn’t hurt so much now. Maybe it was the apple juice.”

      “Then I think we should give you some apple juice to take home with you, in case it starts hurting later on. Do we have enough to send some with Miss Lilly?” he asked Maggie.

      “Full supply of it, Doctor,” she said, stepping back as Alain lifted the child up onto the exam table.

      “We’ll be right back,” he said to Lilly, then followed Maggie into the hall. “She’s malnourished, unkempt, I doubt she’s ever seen a dentist or a doctor and God only knows what kind of parasites or other bugs she’s infested with. And a two-mile walk?”

      “I need to figure out what to do about her,” Maggie said. “Because if her aunt’s house is like what I’m expecting …”

      “Then we can’t put that child back in there. Do you know her aunt, by any chance?”

      Maggie shook her head. “But I know a child social services worker and I think I’ll give her a call before we decide what we need to do about Lilly.”

      “What I need to do is not send her back into a home where an adult would allow her to come here by herself.”

      “Don’t jump the gun, Alain. We haven’t even seen that house, and we sure don’t know the circumstances …”

      “Yeah, well, I can only guess!” he snapped. “I saw those conditions in Afghanistan, where children were robbed of their youth, like Lilly is. So much poverty, so many health problems …” His eyes went distant for a moment. “Landmine victims … just children. You can’t even begin to imagine …”

      Maggie laid a comforting hand on his arm. “No, I can’t,” she said softly. “And I’m sorry you had to see such atrocities.”

      “Seeing them is one thing, but living them is another.” Said in bitter despair. “And not being able to do anything to fix it.”

      “I can’t say that I even have a clue what you’re talking about. My life, for the most part, has been pretty sheltered. Never any hardships, never any threats.”

      “Then you were lucky. Because a lot of the world out there is ugly. Like I think Lilly’s world is probably ugly, too. Look, she needs a bath, Maggie. And a good head scrubbing as I’m pretty sure she’s got lice. Could you do that for me and give her a good going over to see what else we can find?”

      “And clean clothes,” Maggie said, knowing there were no little-girl clothes at Eula’s House. “I’ll call my dad and see if he can bring something out for her. Shoes, too. I’m betting there are still some things left over from one of our childhoods stashed away in the attic.”

      “He’d do that?”

      “My dad is a real softie when it comes to little girls. He always threatened to trade a few of us in on boys, but I think he liked sitting at the head of an all-female kingdom, being adored by his flock.”

      She truly liked Alain’s sympathies. More than that, she was surprised how easily they were jostled to the surface. He seemed more like a man who held everything in, yet

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