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The Vanishing-Chapter Thirty Two
Steps Towards Healing
Chapter Thirty Two:
Rachel had changed, what happened to her changed who she was, it had broken her. I hated seeing my once strong sister, looking so scared, but she had been beaten into submission both literally and figuratively, and she didn’t trust us yet. All I could do was pray that one day she’d be able to trust us.
Both Esther and I tried to reach out to Rachel, to somehow bring my sister back to us. Sometimes we’d get glimpses of the sister we had once known, the sister we’d spent years praying to G-d to bring back, and he did, but only a part of her. It seemed like she had died in captivity.
I needed my sister back, I needed the sister I knew. But I knew things wouldn’t be the same. I could pray to G-d that she’d heal, that in time she’d stop being so scared of us.
I woke up some mornings to find Rachel on her bed, shaking, because another nightmare, another memory of what she had gone through, and it took her awhile to realize she was no longer there. It took a long time for her to trust. Considering all she’d been through, that was totally understandable.
Rachel’s absence changed everything for all of us. Our faith in humanity had been shattered, but we hadn’t lost our faith in G-d. That faith got us through the darkest times of…
