chapter 7
EVERYONE WORRIED ABOUT Katy. She had been only nine years old when she and Jake endured an unimaginable night of terror. Jake and Morgan took her to the best counselors in Mississippi. She talked, they listened, and everybody felt like Katy was improving. Initially, the counselors all said she simply didn’t know how to process the information. They also spoke about her compartmentalizing the issues. Talking seemed to help Katy. To Jake, it seemed all the counselors did was listen and ask, “How did that make you feel?” But, since he was worried about his tiny daughter, he participated, and he would have sold a kidney to get her the best help. Their insurance soon quit picking up the tab, forcing him to sell a few old guns to help Morgan balance the budget at home.
Katy was remarkable in her ability to process all that had occurred. The professionals—the counselors and educators—ultimately attributed her resiliency to her knowledge of the fact that she was loved and also that her father would do whatever was necessary to protect her. The community helped by reaching out to the Crosbys, particularly Katy. Local churches and Sunday-school classes regularly placed the family on their prayer lists.
Jake and Morgan were extremely concerned about the long-term effects of what Katy had seen and heard. No one—especially a nine-year-old—should ever be that close to such evil. It wasn’t until three weeks after that harrowing night that Katy had started to fear being alone, and she would cry when her dad left the house. She had a few really bad nightmares, and once Jake had to pick her up from an overnight party at 2:00 a.m. Morgan and Jake grieved for the pain of their only child. Morgan never openly blamed Jake, but when Katy got really upset, he knew she was thinking it.
Morgan had spent countless hours searching the Internet, looking for the best therapists and treatments for Katy.
Jake vowed to do whatever the experts suggested. He worried about Katy, about Morgan, about everything…all the time. He was concerned about his marriage, and he was apprehensive about how he was going to pay for it all, since his income was falling along with the economy. Working as a stockbroker in a small town during a recession was proving to be brutal. Jake and Morgan both prayed. They didn’t know what else could be done.
On top of everything, this peeper had come along and threatened to erode every inch of their collective healing progress.