Little Miss Kali

[Kali]

The knot in Kali’s chest eased as Roma spoke slowly, softly, not getting mad or asking lots of questions about why exactly Kali was asking. “So the kind of touching that makes you feel all tingly and hot and breathless and achy, that’s not a family kind of touch? Is there a reason why not? I guess it maybe makes sense why you wouldn’t want to touch a stranger like that in case you didn’t see them again or they were mean...well. Though. I think the only part of that that’d make me feel bad inside is if they were mean, and that’d make me feel bad no matter if they’d kissed me and made me feel good first. But why not family, when you know they’re not gonna be mean?”

And the longer they talked, the easier it got to peek up at Roma, to maybe even look her in the eye. Nobody else talked so frankly with her, so openly and honestly, and Kali was awfully curious. No it’s a secret, don’t worry about it, it won’t happen again, no I’ll tell you when you’re older, just actual answers that might maybe help her understand what was going on.

“What kinds of life changing things? I believe you, I’m just curious. And it’s nice to have somebody to talk to who’ll be honest and tell me things and doesn’t get all quiet and not answer instead. Is that ‘cause we’re friends, that we can talk about things other people maybe don’t want to talk about, or maybe feel like shouldn’t be talked about or should be secrets?”

Kirby and Lacey's
little whisper girl