Narrative

Bad Girl

Before my mommy went away, my life was fun, and I looked forward to getting out of bed each morning. My daddy would always take me ice skating in the winter, and to the beach in the summer, we were inseparable. I had so much fun with my mommy too, it was our thing to go shopping, and we would spend hours upon hours shopping till we dropped, and I mean literally. Everyone looked upon us as the perfect family, my mother being a doctor, and my father being a businessman. I did dance and gymnastics, and I loved them both very much. We actually were the perfect family, that is until my mommy went away to fight in the war leaving my daddy and I home. We were very upset that mommy was leaving, but we didn’t think that we would have any problems. Boy did we think wrong. First things started off fine, daddy and I still did everything together, until he started getting calls and sometimes visits from a man, or maybe different men, late at night. I didn’t know who they were, and I still don’t, but I do know that they were definitely bad news.

As I sat there with tear stains on my face, listening to my daddy screaming, I thought to myself, he’s really gonna do it this time, he is really gonna kill me. I could feel myself shaking and it was getting harder and harder to breathe, because I was so scared. I heard him stomping down the stairs, I curled up into a tighter ball, squeezing my stuffed do ggie Pepper, praying to God, that it wasn’t going to be this time, and everything was going to be alright. I was tucked in between the furnace and the dryer. Although I didn’t like it very much because it smelled like pee and was very dusty, it was the only place in the house that I felt safe. It’s where I go to hide whenever my daddy gets crazy because he had too much to drink. He has never found me before, I hope he just gives up and goes to bed. Suddenly the shouting stopped, and he was standing right over me, I think my heart skipped a couple beats. He grabbed my leg and pulled me out, I tried to resist, but I couldn’t, he was too strong. He raised his hand to beat me. “Please! Don’t! I am sorry, I won’t do it ever again, just don’t beat me anymore!” I pleaded. Even though I don’t even know what I had done. I was trying my hardest to stay strong, and not start crying again, daddy hates crying, and I wouldn’t wanna upset him anymore than I already have. “So this is where you have been hiding all of these times? Well I guess I’ll just half to get rid of this crap, so you can’t ever hide there again. Well that is, if you make it past all of the hard work that you are going to get!” Daddy yelled. “Now go and get me that beer!” I started to walk away with my head down, but he stuck out his foot and tripped me. I fell and hit the ground hard, I could taste blood in my mouth, but I didn’t make a sound, I couldn’t. I tried to get up, but he grabbed me and kicked me down again, this time I fell directly on my face, and my nose started to bleed. I could no longer hold it, the tears just started streaming down my face. “Oh don’t you start crying on me Sally! You know that I hate crying, you worthless piece of crap. Crying is not going to get you anywhere in life, you gotta be strong.” I sat there trying to stop the bleeding, and trying to find something to say, without crying harder. I finally managed to choke out, “I’m Sorry.” “You’re always saying sorry, well this time, sorry is not going to cut it, where is that little stuffed dog of yours?” “No daddy please no, you know how much Pepper means to me, you can’t take him away from me.” “ Well maybe this will teach you to listen to me, the first time I ask you, and instead of doing your homework all of the time you should be doing more chores around the house.” With that he spat on me, threw Pepper into the trash and stalked away. I quickly got up and wiped away the tears and blood, I knew that if I didn’t move fast enough I would get another beating for sure. I got Pepper out of the trash can and went to go get my daddy what he wanted. He ordered me to clean the bathroom, take out the trash, mow the lawn, feed him, and do all of the dishes. In that time period I was not allowed to eat or drink anything. I got to work right away, I started off mowing the lawn, and then came in to clean the bathroom. Daddy had me clean the toilet, the sinks, the floor, the tub, and anything else he could possibly find in the bathroom. Daddy came in when I was scrubbing the floor, I got butterflies in my stomach. Not the good butterflies that I get when I see my crush, but the kind that make me wanna puke. Immediately daddy started yelling at me. First he screamed at me for being in the bathroom when he needed to go, and then he started yelling at me that I was taking too long, and I wasn’t doing a good job. “You have 20 minutes to finish all of your chores, and everything must be spotless. If everything is not spotless and done in 20 minutes, you will go without dinner tonight! Is that understood?” “But daddy! That’s impossible, it takes 20 minutes just to-” “IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?” “Yes daddy,” I sighed. I finished up the bathroom in under five minutes beating my record, took out the trash, and got straight to work on cooking dinner for daddy. Being around all the food, made me really hungry, but it made me even more thirsty, my mouth started to water, and I could tell that I was dehydrated. Maybe if I took one little sip of water, it wouldn’t hurt. I got a glass out and filled it up for daddy, I didn’t take a sip yet, I had to wait until he had his food. As soon as the food was ready I took it to the den where daddy was watching the basketball game on t.v. He snatched the plate greedily out of my hand, and turned back to the game. I came back into the kitchen to fetch his water, I looked around and I took a sip. It tasted so refreshing and I couldn’t stop, so I took another sip, and another sip, and another sip. Suddenly my dad was behind me and before I knew it my head hit the table and I fell. “How many times do I have to tell you not to eat or drink while you’re doing your chores?” “I’m sorry daddy, I just felt really sick, and I couldn’t help myself, I need water.” “I’m Sally and I am just the sweetest little girl and I need water, or else I might die!!” At that I could feel my eyes tearing up, I tried my hardest to hold it in, but I couldn’t and the tears started to flow. “SALLY THOMPSON YOU WIPE THOSE TEARS OFF OF YOUR UGLY LITTLE FACE! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO CRY? YOU KNOW THAT I ABSOLUTELY HATE CRYING! Go up to your room right now, your missing dinner, go to bed! Tomorrow morning you are going to have to finish your chores, but right now...GO TO BED!!!!” I went to bed without a fight, I knew better than to fight back when he was in that kind of a mood. At least I got some water before I went to bed. I fell asleep almost as soon as I hit the pillow, only to wake up a couple of hours later to my dad yelling at somebody on the phone. I listened to him yell for what seemed like hours, and finally I heard him yell a couple of nasty words and slam the phone down, swearing under his breath. When I didn’t hear him for awhile, I decided to go see if he was okay. When I got downstairs, I saw a bunch of beer bottles thrown across the whole floor. I immediately regretted coming down, but knew that my daddy might be in trouble, so I kept going. I searched the whole bottom floor, and finally when I walked out to the deck I found him. He was smoking a cigarette, and looked the most drunk that I had ever seen him. “Daddy uh are you okay? I heard you yelling, and I figured something was wrong, so I came to check to make sure everything was okay.” “Well little Sally, isn’t that just so sweet of you thinking about your old man like that? But because you asked...no not everything is okay, in fact, NOTHING is okay.” “Oh, daddy what’s wrong? Can I help you with anything?” “Of course you can’t! Your just a useless six year old! Go back to bed.” With that daddy turned around and kept smoking. “Okay daddy, good night.” I started to walk away, and as I was going inside I turned around and whispered I love you. “WHAT WAS THAT YOU JUST SAID?” I turned around to answer and saw that daddy was holding a gun, I panicked and ran inside. I heard daddy running after me, and I thought to myself why was I running? If I got shot and died, I wouldn’t have to suffer through the pain that daddy put me through, as much as I loved him, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could take the abuse. Maybe hell would be better, since that’s where I would be going, because that’s what daddy told me. At this point I was just running in circles and dodging bullets, I was starting to get very tired and could tell daddy was gaining on me. I tripped over something, heard one final gunshot, and felt an immediate sharp pain. I hit the ground and everything went black. When I woke up, things were blurry, and I didn’t know where I was. As my eyes started to clear up I realized that I was in a hospital, and everything hit me all at once. There was a shooting pain in my right leg that would not go away, I felt my thigh, only to realize that it was all bandaged up from the gun shot wound. All I remembered was being shot, and now waking up at the hospital, I didn’t even know what day it was. I tried to call a doctor over, but somehow I had lost my voice, and nothing came out. After trying to talk for a few minutes without any luck, I gave up, and quickly dozed off. “Sally...Sally, honey your okay now, it’s alright, you were just having a bad dream.” I looked up to see a nurse leaning over me smiling, how could she be smiling at a time like this, there is nothing in the world that could make me happy. After all I am going to have to go home back to my daddy. Even though I was very confused and in pain, I forced a smile, and tried talking again, finally something came out. “What happened to me? I need to get home so I can finish all my chores, otherwise daddy will be very angry with me, and I don’t wanna get be...I mean I don’t wanna lose my allowance for the week again.” That was close, I thought. Daddy told me I can’t ever tell anybody what he does to me, he said that it’s our little secret. Having a secret makes me feel closer with my daddy, I think it is the one thing, that saves me. He always tells me that I am a very bad girl, and that’s why he beats me, but he said if anybody ever asks why I have cuts or bruises, he told me to say that I am very clumsy, and I fall all the time. I am so glad I caught myself before I told the nurse everything. If I had told her just one little thing, Daddy would beat me for sure. “Sweetie, don’t worry, your alright now, your not ever going home to see your daddy again.” “What? Why not? Did I do something really bad this time, and he’s not letting me back in the house?” “No, of course not, you haven’t done anything wrong, it’s your daddy that’s been bad.” “It is? He is never bad though! What did he do?” “Oh sweetheart, your father...well he is not a very nice man. He has done many awful things to you, even though you may not realize that it’s bad, but it is completely unacceptable, and that is why your father has been sent to jail.” Jail? How could this be? I thought that I was bad, but my daddy? “But I am the bad one! I should be the one in jail, not my daddy! He didn’t do anything wrong!” “Sweetheart you are here because of your father. He is the one that has shot you.” “What? No, my daddy may beat me, but he would never ever shoot me.” I could tell that I was about to start crying, but I tried to hold the tears back, if the nurse didn’t like crying, she might beat me. The nurse must have sensed that I was holding back tears because her expression grew sad. “It’s okay to cry honey, this is something very hard that you have been dealing with, and no kid should ever have to go through something like that. You did though and you are here now, your safe. We are gonna find you a nice home with a loving family. It’s over Sally, everything is going be alright, it’s over. I think that was the first time in my whole life that I ever believed somebody, and it felt good. I was going to go home to a family that truly loved me. It was finally over, and I have my whole life ahead of me. I lay back in my bed relieved, when I noticed that we weren’t the only ones in the room, there was a woman, who looked strangely familiar. “Hi sweet girl, she’s right it’s over, and I am never leaving you again, I promise you.” “Mommy? Is that you?” “Yeah baby it is, I am here for you now.” I saw my mommy walking towards me, and I thought to myself that this could not be true. My own mommy who I hadn’t seen in over three years, was walking towards me. We embraced in a long hug. “I love you Mommy, I am so glad your home.” “Me too baby, me too.”