Margot leaned closer to examine the stake. Her smile grew.
The child should be called Gretel, with such clues.
Then again, Margot was no evil stepmom. Or at least, not evil … The two of them couldn’t help not being biologically related.
Not any more than the girl could help being wild.
The social worker believed the latter a hindrance. Understandable, perhaps, given how many placements the child had lost. The system found it inconvenient to have a lass with more wilderness than tameness, who needed space and took it. Knowing Grenadine’s history, how could they not see why she’d tolerate no leash?
“This child will run away,” the social worker had warned when Margot said she’ll have her. “You’re so rural, you’d have no help keeping her contained.”
Margot had no plan to do so.
The child was free. The sticker meant that she’d be home by dinner.
For Crispina’s Crimson’s Creative Challenge
Na'ama Yehuda 
Nothing like an understanding foster mom (adoptive mom?) to help a child grown into the person she is meant to be! How wonderful is this post?
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Yay! And … yes … we all need to be allowed to be who we are, even as we’re kept safe and guided into how to be in the world … And this is especially true for those who have had difficult beginnings that might’ve shaped how they manage and how they survive being in this world. All too often the very ways a child managed to devise in order to survive, become things the child is being judged for and punished for doing, which only perpetuates the need to employ survival mechanisms … For all of us, but especially for children who’d had difficult beginnings, being seen and heard and ‘held’ are all so so so important. As are prioritizing what is necessary to ask of a child, and what is only for our ease … not theirs … Margot hopefully ‘gets’ that … 😉
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I just know that Margot gets it. I’ve zero doubt that this match is THE match 🙂
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🙂 Me think so, too! 🙂
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Fantastic story Na’ama.
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Thank you, Sadje! 🙂
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Wonderful story. I always hated the idea of ‘taming’ a person.
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Ah, yes, I agree. While there are some requirements for living in society and getting along with others, all too often children – especially those who are already struggling – are facing ‘taming approaches’ that are meant to make them easier for OTHERS to handle, often while ignoring the very reason (or needs) that the child has, or the spirit that sustains them. I’m all for kind wildness.
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A lovely uplifting tale. The last line does as much as whole chapters in many a book
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🙂 I’m so glad you liked it! Sometimes we need a bit of lovely, too! 🙂 Thank you!
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I would have to answer that social worker: And what’s wrong with running wild. It takes a certain personality to be contained. Give me freedom!
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Amen, amen! 🙂
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