The young girl shook off the woman's hand and leant away, just out of the woman's reach. "No." Her head turned quickly from side to side, voice struggling to stay steady. "Daddy used to call me that."
In front of her, the woman stiffened in her crouched position, forehead crinkling as she processed what the girl had said, and what it meant. She could have asked, but she knew her niece well enough to know that would have made her more irritated. "Ok," she said finally. "What would you prefer to be called?"
The young girl simply looked at her aunt a few minutes while she thought. "Jess," she said finally and nodded, satisfied. "Just Jess."
"Ok, Jess."
"What about you?"
"Me?" The woman blinked. "Nothing's really changed, Jess. I'm still your Aunty Delaura."
"Aunty D?" Jess asked, rising to her feet to leave.
With a smile, Delaura stands and slips an arm round the young girl's shoulders. "Sure."
"Aunty D?"
"Yeah?" Delaura looked down at her niece, unsure whether she was just testing her aunt's response to her new nickname.
"You said nothing's changed," Jess continued. "But... That's not true. Everything's changed. Everything."
Delaura tried hard to hide her sigh. "Yeah," she said. "I guess it has in a way. What I meant was that I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere."
"I wish Mum and Dad were too."
"I know." Delaura's thoughts turned to her beautiful little sister, stolen from them, especially her little girl, far too early. "Me too."
"Will that other man go away, Aunty D?" Jess blinked her bright dark eyes at her aunt, as if this would convince her. As if she needed convincing. "He needs to. He needs to go away cause he made them go away."
Delaura nodded, opening her mouth to answer before stopping. "Yeah, but that's not up to us Jess..." she stopped just short of adding 'ie', a force of habit when she was feeling particularly protective or affectionate. "The thing we need to know is this; what goes around comes around."
"Huh?"
"Karma," Delaura explained.
"Karma?" Jess repeated questioningly, as if this would explain it.
"Well, the theory goes that if you do good, good will happen, and likewise, if you do bad, then bad will happen. Basically."
"Karma." Jess said again, as if to link her aunt's description with the word. "So because he did a bad thing, bad will happen to him?" Her eyes light up with hope as she glances at the taller woman for confirmation.
Delaura opened and closed her mouth a few times, unsure about actually saying the words out loud, even though while it wasn't a great thing to be saying, it was the truth. But then, which was the lesser evil? Which was better? Stewing over rage at what he'd done? Something that nothing could ever undo? Or, believing that the universe would have a way of righting things so to speak, and taking comfort in that?
"The universe will take care of it somehow, Jess," Delaura said finally, then repeated it, maybe more so to convince herself. She had to trust it. She had to. Otherwise, she was in serious danger of driving herself up the wall. "The universe will take care of it."
