The bleeding started first, while she undressed. She screwed up her eyes and pretended it wasn’t there. She got into the shower so she couldn’t notice it anymore. It would be nothing. And she tried to wash it away, but it splashed to the bottom of the shower, and it was so dirty. She’d never seen blood so tainted before. And then the pain ripped her belly apart. She was naked, curled in the bottom of the shower tray, when Mother found her. There was so much mess on the new white plastic. The stains would never come out completely. She was laid bare for Mother – filthy girl, covered in mess. What was to be done with her?
Her body was partly dressed, somehow, before the ambulance came. She laid on the stretcher, clutching the babygrow, and looked up at Mother. She didn’t know what she expec
