Chapter 14

Several months later in the waning days of an Edmonton summer, Danni sat in the living room of the house she had bought with her payment from Rudy. Although she really didn’t want anything to do with the money, in the end she took it and told herself it was only to give Sarina a good life. From outside the open window she could hear the girl’s voice mingling with those of her new found friends. They were riding their bikes up and down the street and their sounds of laughter were soothing to Danni.

It meant everything was fine with the girl. At last she was coming out of her shell, having fun and acting like the little girl should. Although she was still quite shy and not very talkative, it seemed she had managed to put the Columbian ordeal behind her. Danni thought that she also had experienced some growth. She no longer felt as guilty about taking Sarina away from her homeland. Instead, she believed the girl was much better off in Canada. They both liked it here. It was a nice, peaceful country and Edmonton was such a great place to live, Danni decided they would stay.

To that end, Danni had taken Sarina to a nearby school and enrolled her in the fall term. Since she could provide very little information about her previous schooling, the teachers had given her some books to read and some tests to check her basic knowledge. They discovered that although her reading was a little behind someone of her age, it wasn’t bad. The teacher explained that it was most likely because the girl hadn’t the early start that kindergarten gives pre-schoolers. As a result they had started her in grade one but Danni was proud that she was doing very well in that grade. Just like she figured, the girl was smart,