Chapter 8 - EMMA’S KENNEL
Emma did not want to talk about the kennel.
So we did not force her.
Her therapist, Dr. Renee Coleman, used drawings.
At first Emma drew houses.
Then fences.
Then animals.
One afternoon, she drew a dog beside a girl.
Not inside the kennel.
Outside.
Dr. Coleman asked:
“Where are they going?”
Emma said:
“Away.”
“Where?”
“To Dad’s.”
That was progress.
Months later, she finally told me more.
Wade used the kennel as punishment because she once called Carol a liar.
That was the offense.
Not stealing.
Not violence.
Truth.
She had heard Carol tell someone I never sent money.
Emma said:
“My dad does send money.”
Wade told her to stop disrespecting Grandma.
She refused.
So he locked her in.
With the German Shepherd.
The dog never attacked her.
In fact, Emma said:
“He was scared too.”
That detail broke something in me.
Two frightened beings locked together as punishment.
I asked what happened afterward.
“Uncle Wade said if I told you, you’d stop sending money and it would be my fault Noah had no food.”
There it was.
Silence enforced through responsibility.
Emma had been carrying the family’s finances in her head at ten years old.
I hugged her.
“You were never responsible for our money.”
She cried.
May you like
“Ever.”
---
