∗ 23﹕ sender straightens an article of receiver’s clothes . from fiorella
NANNY TOLD HER, ONCE, that she had flinched away from touch, the first few weeks of her life. Her parents hadn't held her, had barely touched her at all, until Nanny had arrived. Starved for touch, Nanny had called her infant-self, and yet frightened by it at the same time.
Sometimes, she thinks she has not much progressed beyond that deprived babe : some small part of her fears that every gesture in her direction, every brush of skin, could be meant to harm her.
Fiorella's gentle hands on her, adjusting a uniform collar gone crooked, are a surprise. But she does her best to hold herself still, to keep from cringing away at the contact. She is still unused to touch.
❝ You don't need to do that, you know. ❞
✦ › @encntada















