Beautiful sunshine. Warm air. Happiness. CRASH! Something hits me in the back. Not something . . . someone. So unexpected, and yet why am I always surprised? Why don't I see it coming?
She whirls me around and begins to pummel me in the ribs with her fists. She is SO angry, and as always, I have no idea what I've done. She punches me in the ribs -- counting as her fists crash into my tiny body. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Why 8? Is her anger spent or is there some specific reason for that number?
She grabs me by the arm and drags me toward the chicken coop. She has threatened this before, but I didn't think she'd really do it? (Why not. Why don't I believe her threats by now? She generally follows through on them. Will she really drown me someday?)
She throws me in the chicken coop and tells me I have to stay for 5 hours. I am 5 years old. Is it 1 hour for every year of my existence?
"Cover your eyes, or the chickens will peck them out!" she yells as the door crashes shut.
I am alone. Why am I always alone?
for more stories go to RemembeRED Flash Memoir
A painfully clear memory, expressed VERY well! I especially appreciated the inner dialogue that does such a good job of showing the disconnect - for self-preservation - and the attempt to understand something that seems random. It's hard to critique, when all you want to do is gather up the child and protect them!
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note...want the yarn in your picture. So many pretty colors and textures!
I echo the comment above. The disconnect and the trying to understand the randomness (the number 8 being specific for something?) is what made this so powerful. Wonderful writing on something that is so ugly.
ReplyDeleteIt is awful to think that such a thing could happen to a child!
ReplyDeleteWTF. i want to pummel the person that did this to you. FIVE YEARS OLD?!????
ReplyDeletePainfully Vivid.
ReplyDeleteSOB!
ReplyDeleteYou captured the terror and the unexpectedness of it wonderfully.
I feel that I should send you a virtual ((hug))
Experiencing your disconnect, the childlike need to understand and awful acceptance of the circumstances, the why behind the cruelty, filtered through the eyes of the adult, it's so painful.
ReplyDeleteThank you for baring such a piece of yourself.
Wow. The horror of those chickens, the throwaway line of "covering your eyes." Horrifying.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the disconnect is exactly what connects us so powerfully to the narrator.
A powerful piece.