seeking solace - 100 theme

The girl walked through the library once again, wandering around the children’s section. I see her almost every other day. She wanders around the kids books and eventually picks one and sits down in one of the little green chairs to read. She curls up in a little ball, safe in her own world of dragons, knights, wizards and alternate worlds. I watch her walk in; her parents dump her here often. She walks in dejected and sometimes begs them to let her come with them. They always shake their heads and say no. I walk up to her and promise to take care of her, more a promise to the child then to the parents. She walks with me for a while, holding my hand. I almost cry at her beautiful innocence. I tell her I need to get back to work. If she needs me she can come to the front desk and sit with me for a while. She nods her head and lets me go. I wish her so much happiness. But it seems all she needs are her books. She loves those books with all her heart like I wish her parents would. It seems all the child needs to be free is to crawl into one of those green little chairs and read her books. When she needs to leave she comes up to me and puts a pile of books on the counter for me to help her check out, she puts them all in the little red wagon her parents bring for her. As she leaves she looks back at the little green chairs and smiles up at me. I wish I could find the solace and comfort the little girl with the purple gumboots and little red wagon finds here...