Protected

Stephanie M. Storey-Morant

Patty paced her bedroom floor. She wanted to go outside. She wanted to play outdoors with the other children in her neighborhood. All the other children could go outside to play after they did their homework, but not Patty. She couldn’t go outside because her mother wasn’t home. Patty was a latch-key kid. This meant that when she got out of school, she had to go home, to an empty house.  She had to use her key to get in the house, and lock the door behind her. Daily Patty would open the door, go in, lock it, do her homework and then heat up the meal her Mom had left her in the microwave. Afterwards she could watch TV, if her room was clean. Today, Patty sat at her bedroom window looking out as her friends rode their bikes. The phone rang, it was Patty’s mother, calling to see if she had made it home safely. “Hello?”  “Hi honey, what are you doing?” “Just sitting at the window watching Mary and Kim ride their bikes.” “Have you finished your homework?”  “Yes, I’m all done.” “Did you clean your room, like I asked you to?”  “Yes, I did that too.” “Mom, can I go outside?”  “No honey. I’m not there, stay inside where it’s safe.”  “Mom, I’ll be careful. I’ll just sit on the front steps. I’ll even come back in before 5:00.” “No honey, stay inside where it’s safe. There are too many bad things going on out there, and you are only protected under our prayers if you stay in the house. If you go out,  the devil will trick you, and all kinds of harm can come unto you.” Patty thought about what her mother was saying but felt her mother always used the protection of prayer as an excuse to keep her from enjoying life.  “But Mom, it’s boring. I wanna go outside to play like the rest of the kids.”  “Not today, honey, maybe I’ll have Ms. Brown look out for you tomorrow.” “I wanna go outside!” “Honey, stay inside. We’ll talk about this when I get home.” Patty hangs up the phone. “I hate being in here all alone.  How is it safer in here? What if a fire was to break out? What if someone was to break in, trying to kidnap me? Mommy would be so sorry.”  Patty ran downstairs. She put on her shoes, grabbed a jacket, and ran outside. She walked out to the sidewalk and waved at Kim.  Kim rode her bike over to Patty. “Hi, Patty, what are you doing out here, is your Mom home?”  “Uh, no but I talked to her, and she said I could come out, as long as I stay in front of my house, and I’m back in by 5:00.” “Are you sure your Mom said that? She never lets you come out, when she’s not home.” “Well I really begged and she said I could come out this one time.” Kim looked at Patty strangely, she knew Patty was lying but she didn’t say anything, because she knew how she would feel if she couldn’t come outside.  Kim talked a little longer, then rode away.  Patty sat on her front steps. Soon she got bored. “It’s not fun out here. I thought I was missing something.”  She walked to the end of her street, turned the corner, and stopped at the playground.  As she played on the sliding board, a strange man walked up to her and asked if she had seen his daughter’s glasses. Patty told him No, and went to slide again. As she came to the end of the slide, the man asked again. “Have you seen my daughter’s glasses, anywhere?”  “No sir, I haven’t.”  “Could you help me look for them, my daughter is in the car, crying?  She’s scared she’ll get in trouble with her mother, because this is the third pair of glasses she has lost.”  “Sir, I can’t help you.  I need to be going.”  “OK, but could you talk to my daughter, maybe you can get her to stop crying while I look a little longer for the glasses. Maybe if she sees another child is helping she’ll feel better.”  Patty thought about it for a while.  She looked at the car, down the street, but couldn’t see a child.  She looked at the man, who pretended to be looking for the glasses. Patty thought about how scared the child must be. She thought about how she would feel if it were her. She looked at the man again, and started walking toward the car. As she got closer, she remembered the lesson her mother taught her about talking to strangers. She decided she should go back home, since she didn’t know the man. But before she could turn around to head home, the man’s hands covered her mouth. He grabbed Patty around the waist and opened the back door of his car. Patty kicked and screamed until the man let her go. Then she ran as fast as she could towards home, hoping the man wouldn’t follow Patty was so scared she didn’t look back. When Patty reached her yard, she looked around and could see the car coming down the street. She ran into her yard. The man got out and ran behind Patty. When Patty got to the side door she reached for her keys, but they weren’t there.  She had locked the door, but left her key inside. Tears rolled down Patty’s face. Her heart began beating fast. What could she do now? This must be the devil her Mom always warned her about. She ran into the back yard and hid behind some bushes. She heard the man’s footsteps and started crying, as she stooped lower behind the bushes, hoping he didn’t see her.  She closed her eyes and began praying. “Lord, please deliver me from all evil.” When her eyes opened, the man was gone. Patty came from behind the bush and looked to the sky.  “Prayer really works. Mommy was right about God.”  A smile came upon Patty’s face until she remembered, she was still locked out.  She thought about what she would do, and how she could tell her mother what happened after she was told to stay in the house. How could she get into the house, when she didn’t have a key?  Patty wished she had obeyed her mother. But it was too late. The devil had won this time.  He had convinced her to disobey his mother. Patty was sad. She knew she had let her mother and God down. She sat on the porch and waited for her mother to come home. Soon Ms. Brown from next door, peeked out the window and saw Patty, sitting on the porch. She came over and asked Patty why she was outside, when her mother was not home. Patty dropped her head and started crying. Ms. Brown asked what was wrong and Patty told her what happened to her earlier that day, and that she had locked her key inside and her mother wouldn’t be home for another two hours. Ms. Brown took Patty into her house, fed her and let her watch TV until her mother got home.  By the time Patty’s mother got home, Patty had fallen asleep on Ms. Brown’s couch. When Patty’s mother got inside the house, she called for Patty, but there was no answer. She ran thru the house, screaming Patty’s name, but couldn’t find her. Then she began to panic. She ran outside and screamed Patty’s name some more. When Ms. Brown heard her, she came outside and waved at Patty’s mother telling her to come over. Once inside she saw Patty asleep on the couch. She dropped to Patty’s side in gladness. She woke up Patty and took her home. Patty told her mother everything that had happened, as she started crying. Her mother looked Patty in the eye, and cried with her.  She was sad because she had left Patty home alone so many days without thinking about how lonely and scared Patty must have felt. When they finished crying, they said a prayer together and went to bed. The next day. Patty’s mother signed her up, for an after-school church program. Here Patty would truly be protected, by God’s love, His children and His Word.