Erin then asked, "How have you been doing since the flight? You were the flight attendant in first class. I was sitting between an elderly woman and an older man. You got me some wine just before the crash happened."
Dana remembered her, but not as she currently appeared. She thought, "Wow. The Caretakers really gave her a makeover."
Dana looked away for a moment. When she looked at Erin again, she wiped tears from her eyes and said with a quivering voice filled with emotion, "The aliens made this place sound like it was Heaven, but frankly the last two-weeks have mostly been Hell."
Dana went on to describe her experiences how she had tried her best, but it had never been good enough for the Irishman, even lasting as long as she did in the arena. She went on to say she probably would have broken down sooner if it hadn't been for Beth, Jorge and especially Dennis.
Erin got up and moved to sit beside her. With a hand, she placed Dana's head on her shoulder and hugged her. Erin said, "It sounds like it has been hell. If you would like, I can help you feel better," she then asked, "Would you like for me to help?"
Dana sat up and wiped her eyes again and asked, "What are you going to?"
"As a Prize," Erin said, "I can't remove harmful memories, but I can suppress them so they no longer cause you pain or prevent you from becoming who you're supposed to be. The Caretakes can heal and improve our physical bodies, but our emotional wounds and broken spirits enter Eden with us. The prizes are the Caretakes solution to the problem. I would never impose on your privacy. I think I can help you if you give me permission." She finished by asking, "Would you like that?"
With a look of pain and deep sadness, Dana nodded her head and said through another bout of tears, "My spirit is broken and my emotional gas tank is running on fumes. If you can heal that, I would FOREVER be in your debt."
Erin flashed another lovely smile, reached out a hand to wipe away the tears streaming down Dana's cheek and said, "It's my pleasure to help, in any way I can!"
She crossed her leg and sat Indian-style and patted her lap. She then instructed Dana to lay on her back and lay her head in her lap. She asked her to close her eyes and breath deeply in through her nose and out through her mouth. She spoke soothingly to her and began lightly massaging her temples and lightly rubbing her forehead and cheeks. This was followed by lightly touching the lobe of her ears. She moved her hands back to Dana's temples and slid them to the back of her head.
With her eyes closed, Erin began seeing a kaleidoscope of images flashing before her eyes. When she found the right spot, she lightly present with her index fingers. She felt Dana briefly tense and breath a sharp gasp. Erin saw an explosion of white light and it felt like she was flying. The sensation of her first counseling was exhilarating beyond belief.
- - - -
In a flash, Erin was standing in the living room of an apartment or small house. Trash littered the floor and a man in a Marine Corps uniform and a young woman were arguing. A baby girl was sitting on the floor. Erin knew this was baby Dana. A stuffed animal was by her side and she was playing with letter blocks. The woman was arguing with the man in uniform about his drinking. The man in a flash lashed out and struck the woman. The force of the blow drove her back against the wall and she slumped to the floor. The man began kicking and stomping her as she screamed for someone to help.
Erin felt a chill course through her body and she recognized it as Dana's fear. The six-month-old's eyes were wide and she began crying. The man kicked at her with his foot and as he did so, Erin felt as if she had been struck by lightning as the fear was no coupled with pain. She heard the infant's thoughts, "Daddy don't hurt mommy! I'll do better, just don't hurt mommy!"
Dana's father had killed her mother. The poor little girl was passed from one dysfunctional relative's family to another and with each transfer, Erin felt colder. She suffered emotional and verbal abuse in each family and was finally removed from all of them at age five and placed in the foster care system.
The poor girl was them passed from one family to another, as happens with many children in the system. She was ridiculed in school and by other children in the home she was placed with. She discovered that by touching her developing clitoris it would comfort her during the times of severe stress she suffered. Often when the foster parents saw her, they called what she was doing dirty and that she was a little pervert. Many times, she was punished by these foster parents, just for trying to find relief from the stress she was suffering from.
She had an indominable willpower and it seemed she had to fight for everything she got. As a teen and young adult, she drifted from one verbally and emotionally abusive relationship to another. One relationship left her pregnant and the little boy became the life ring she was desperately grasping for.
She got a job as a flight attendant and she juggled having a career and being a single mom. She made some good friend with the apartment building she lived in and they watched young Jase when she was on flight rotation. Her beauty made her the target for many pilots and co-pilots on the make. Because of her inability to have a stable relationship and her inability to connect with people, she felt a constant loneliness.
One coworker, Beth, encouraged her to attend a martial arts class. Dana found that she was quite good at taekwondo and it also helped to improve her self-image. She advanced to black belt and even competed in several tournaments. Jase became fascinated with obstacle course competitions and loved the TV show, Survivor and he got Dana hooked on them as well. Although Dana was very fit for being in her forties, she didn't have enough confidence to try it herself.
Another co-worker Dixie Liu, a petite Chinese firebrand had urged her to see the world when they were on layovers. Her, Dixie and Beth (and other attendants) would hang out together, but Dana always felt uncomfortable and was reserved with others. She didn't realize that her abusive past had made it all but impossible for her to have any type of healthy relationship, with others. Her life fell into a very lonely routine, bordering on alcoholism. Most nights she would have several drinks by herself - she told herself she would never become an drunk like her father - and then she would masturbate in her darkened bedroom (or the hotel room she stayed in during trips) and then cry herself to sleep.
Erin felt as if she would freeze, it was so cold. She wondered if this was what loneliness felt like.
She then saw images from the last two-weeks. Because of her previous abuse, the verbal jabs and emotional abuse immediately took her back to her abusive childhood. As Dana fought against it, anger rose within her. Erin felt the cold replaced by a burning heat. The feeling of burning subsided briefly, when she met Dennis Foster.
If ever someone needed a Cinderella story, this was it. Erin centered herself, spread her arms, pushed off the ground and then took flight in Dana's memories back to her beginning. When she arrived there, she set to work.
Dana became the youngest child of stern but very loving and caring father. He was a Marine, who was fortunate enough to be stationed in southern California for most of his long career. Dana had the same light blonde hair and looks as her mother. She had three older brothers. They had gotten married very young and quickly started a family. As the boys got older, the mother had longed for a daughter. They made several attempts to conceive and after two miscarriages, the third time was the charm. Nine-months later little Dana was born into the world.
Dana's father had to leave on occasional deployments and in her infantile mind she wondered where da-da was and would become sad, mirroring the emotions of ma-ma. Things would change; however, because she then remembered being in a big crowd of people. Ma-ma was holding her and then she saw da-da and she was happy again.
In her memories, Dana would now remember losing her mother at a very young age to a terrible sickness called cancer. Her father was grief stricken at the loss of the love of his life, but he vowed to do the best job he could being a single parent. Her father pulled strings to get an assignment at the Marine Corps 'boot camp' outside of San Diego, so that he could raise his four children.
Dana was truly her father's little girl. Although she had a few pink outfits, red and gold were her colors. Her favorite stuffed animal was Chesty, her bull dog that dad had given her. He worshipped the ground she walked on and he called her, "His little Bull Dog." She remembered playing drill instructor games. She would wear her dad's Drill Instructor hat and hold the riding crop he used and 'inspect' her company of stuffed animals and dolls.
As she grew older, she was very bright and very athletic. Her brothers who sometimes were her worst tormenters when they were kids, became her staunchest defenders. When she entered middle school, she sat them down and said she appreciated them being there, but she asked them to back off some, so that she could have a normal life.
She was very active in cheerleading, but also in sports, where she competed in track and field. In high school, she also joined Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC). Her dream was to become a Marine just like her dad. When she graduated high school, she won a full scholarship to the only college she applied to - USC - because their colors were red and gold. Her father hadn't thought that was a very wise decision, but she told him he had to admit that it had worked.
