Trying To Walk In Beauty

My cousin and I felt asleep right away that evening because we were exhausted from making and selling frybread all morning and afternoon long. We were trying to make some spending money for the upcoming week. I was lying facing away from my cousin on the make-shift bedding that we made out of a pile of blankets topped with a sheet right before falling off to sleep. Somewhere in the middle of the night, I woke up to strange crying sounds coming from behind me. My cousin was pleading with someone to stop touching her. She was crying softly, supposedly not to wake me up. She kept saying, “Don’t. Don’t.” in between sobs. She was begging this person not to touch her. I remember laying really still while shivering with terror on the inside, praying silently for this person to stop what he was doing to my cousin, for the sun to rise so this monster can crawl back into the darkness from which he came and hoping this person didn’t move onto me next. I laid there motionless as my thoughts were being slammed with feelings of helplessness, fear and confusion. The sun finally rose and the monster disappeared and my cousin and I walked back to the dorm in silence. I had so many questions for her but I didn’t know how to approach her with them.