In Hot Water

As if what we knew wasn't enough, more info is being revealed about my niece's father (just no way I'm going to refer to him as any kind of brother, in-law or otherwise). My niece is now seeing a counselor to help her deal with what has happened to her. I'm getting this information second hand, but it's from a very reliable source. She is responding better than we ever expected. This doctor must really know what she's doing. In just a few sessions she has manages to get my niece to reveal that in addition to the other crap her father did to her, she has also been locked up in a dark, cold crawlspace under the house (it doesn't have a basement as most people would think of it) for periods of time and in addition to the cold water treatment mentioned a while ago, she was also given the same treatment with very hot water. That's more than any of us have been able to get out of her...ever.

The rage builds and builds for anyone who actually cares about this little girl. And the rage still burns in my niece. I saw a full-fledged - well - temper tantrum, but that hardly begins to describe what she does. You can never really be sure what might set her off, but when things don't go her way, particularly after she has had a visitation with her father, she loses control. Unfortunately, the target of her rage is often the grandmother she lives with now. But my niece will try to hit, kick, scratch, bite, try to break her grandmother's glasses and basically inflict as much damage as she can. I'm no psychiatrist, but the difference between that and when she's her normal self is the closest thing I've seen to split personalities. Her screaming is piercing (though not as bad as it was when she was a baby, that was unbelievable) and these fits can last a long time. When we were there, she also took off her clothes and I didn't see it, but she apparently also has taken to banging her head on furniture/walls etc.

For the first time, I was actually scared of what she might do during one of these fits. My son goes to daycare, so when he hears another child crying, he doesn't get too alarmed, because someone is always crying at daycare. So, while my niece was having this fit, my son was playing with one of her toys on an end table. She hadn't been at all concerned about what he was playing with before the fit started. But during this one, she suddenly noticed that he had her toy. She broke away from her grandmother and ran over to my son. I saw her head rise over his shoulder, then fall quickly. I thought for sure she had bitten him and braced for the scream of pain, but was relieved when she ran away with the toy and he wasn't crying and hadn't been hurt. Then later, after she calmed down, she wanted to give kisses goodbye and she came over to me and went to give me a kiss on the cheek. From the corner of my eye, I saw her mouth open wide, and when her lips touched my cheek I flinched because I thought for sure she was going to bite me. But that was just her new kissing technique, and she and I were fine.

It's just so absolutely maddening to know that this is all that creep's fault and that he probably won't have to lose anything in his life because of it. Oh, he may very well lose his child, but he obviously doesn't care about her, and judging by the way he shoved her off onto anyone who would take her, would be glad to be rid of her. The only reason I think he is putting up any kind of fight is to save face, of which he's doing a terrible job. His lies seem to be ganging up on him now, and this counselor my niece is seeing is certain that my niece is suffering from the classic symptoms of an abused child.

I hope there is not more to come in this regard, but we'll see.

Dave