Goodbye Unicorns

By EL George and Erin Lee

“Goodbye, unicorns.”

“What?”

My heart dropped.

“What?” was a stupid question. I knew exactly what she meant.

Still, it was hardly the kind of thing I expected to hear a seven-year-old girl mumble as she headed out her bedroom door for what would probably be the last time. To an onlooker, it might make sense. Her room was, in fact, a pink and purple web of horned horses she’d spent more than half her life believing in. But I knew the rest of the story. And her words told me this was worse than a kid finding out about Santa.

‘Goodbye unicorns’ wasn’t happening.

Not on my watch.

The true story of a little girl looking to find a new faith in the world after losing her mother to the drug epidemic, Goodbye Unicorns is a story of love, loss, rebuilding, and what it takes to restore magic for a kid has no reason to believe it exists…

Could you have faith again?

BASED ON A TRUE STORY

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crazy Ink
• Release date: Apr 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386536369

Book preview

For all those who believe in magic, even when things are at their worst.

Mostly forThe Unicorn Girl.

Warning:

This book deals with difficult topics such as drug abuse, overdoses, sexual abuse, death, grief, and infertility. If these topics are triggering to you, this may not be the book for you. For those who are interested in real life stories about substance abuse, foster care, and the good and bad sides of the human services field, grab a box of tissues...

I know you are sure to fall in love with The Unicorn Girl the same way I did.

-  EL George

PROLOGUE

Goodbye, Unicorns.

Goodbye, unicorns.

What?

My heart dropped.

What? It was a stupid question. I knew exactly what she meant. Unicorns were the only things that had protected her from her stepdad.

Still, it was hardly the kind of thing I expected to hear a seven-year-old girl mumble as she headed out her bedroom door for what would probably be the last time. To an onlooker, it might make sense. Her room was, in fact, a pink and purple web of horned horses she’d spent more than half her life believing in. But I knew the rest of the story. And her words told me this was worse than a kid finding out about Santa.

Goodbye unicorns wasn’t happening.

Not on my watch.

***

To understand how it came to be that I would spend the better part of three years helping a kid overcome every type of abuse imaginable suffered by the age of five, I need to go back.

My name is Emily Simpson. I work as an at-risk home-based family therapist for the state of New Hampshire. Through my work at DCYF—the Department of Children, Youth and Families—it’s my job to take on court-appointed cases of alleged abuse. It begins with a referral, usually anonymous or from a child’s school, and moves on to an investigation. After an intake specialist has assessed the situation, it’s that specialist’s job to determine whether or not the situation merits the family court involvement — usually, it does.

After the state files a complaint with the court, biological and custodial parents are given time to find an attorney and to petition against the charges. Or, as they most often do, they can agree to consent to work with the department to remedy whatever situation deemed unsuitable or unsafe for a child. Sometimes, this process means removing kids from the home right away and placing them in foster placement. Other times, with close supervision, one or both parents are able to keep the children in the home.

It’s my job, once a judge has decided where the child will be safest while adults work things out, to work with the family for something called reunification. A family has twelve months to complete goals on a treatment plan we set up together. After that twelve-month period, it’s my job to make a recommendation to a judge about permanent placement in the child’s best interest and/or to ask for an extension.

Denise was on her third extension and making good progress when everything fell apart. Denise, the mother of The Unicorn Girl, was one of those rare clients I actually believed would get her act together in hopes of saving her ability to parent her daughter. She’d divorced her child molesting husband, finally believed her daughter, and had nine months into recovery for the second time. But I was wrong, like I often was. Only this time, I was dead wrong. And it made me question everything—my life, my job, and even my faith. I wasn’t alone. A seven-year-old girl was feeling the same, partly my own fault, and entirely my responsibility then...

It would be my job to help her understand exactly what went wrong and, more importantly, to believe again. Only, I had no idea how and lacked the faith to fully trust in myself.

We both needed a miracle.

CHAPTER ONE

Goodbye Unicorns

Anika tiptoed through the living room, careful not to disturb her mother. She hadn’t heard her come in last night and she knew better than to wake her. Momma wasn’t a morning person. She pulled her Hello Kitty unicorn bathrobe over her favorite unicorn nightgown, wondering if Momma had forgotten to pay the heat man again. Shivering, she blew warm bursts of air into her hands as she headed toward the galley kitchen.

Pulling open the refrigerator, she was relieved to see a thin line of milk left in the crusty gallon Momma’s special friend had brought last week along with Momma’s lighters. There wasn’t much else in the fridge: Two cans of Bud Light Lime—Momma’s favorite shade of green—two pieces of orange cheese which she grabbed with one hand, and half a stick of butter. Scrunching her nose, the little girl grabbed the milk and used her knee to close the fridge door as she put the cheese and milk on the edge of the counter.

There wasn’t much room. The counter was littered with dishes and empty bottles that brought in flies Momma called magical. Momma refused to recycle and had always told her to be imaginative. In summers, the bottles would be good for catching fireflies. But it wasn’t anywhere near summer.

She shrugged. Dragging a rickety wooden chair from the edge of the living room where Momma had set up the lucky poker table to look like a proper table for the lady, the little girl dragged the chair to the refrigerator. Pulling herself up with the counter