Go to Stories, Novels, and Other Such Stuff From Big V
- Add a comment
- Go to How Many Times Do I Have To Tell You? Part C (1065 Words)
They turned a blind eye to all domestic violence. I don't understand how your dad had no clue about this or did but felt helpless.
posted by
Annicita
on December 11, 2022 at 9:35 AM
| link to this | reply
Re: Sea_Gypsy - Explanations & Background Info
Thank you for the comment and suggestions. I'll try to work a description of my mom in shortly. For the record, she was about 5'6", about 130#. She was small, but she was a frightening figure to me for most of my youth. I think it was her utterly terrifying demeanor that scared me the most. The day I left home at the age of 15, she was coming downstairs to my room, threatening to beat me again.
She was carrying a belt and had every intention of beating me with it when I suddenly realized, I DON'T HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THIS ANYMORE! She burst into my room where I was studying for my Advanced Biology finals and brought her arm up to whip me when I punched her in the stomach and backed her into the corner of my room, took away the belt, and pushed her up against the wall.
I got real close to her face and I told her, "If you touch me one more time, I will kill you. Do you understand me? I WILL KILL YOU! If you don't believe that, take another swing at me and see what happens." I threw her out of my room, grabbed as much of my stuff as I could and put it in the back of the 1966 GMC pickup, and left. I didn't go back there for four years. I had a job and a driver's license that allowed me to drive at 15 because of working on the farm (I don't think they do that anymore). I rented a room in a cheap hotel in a neighboring town and I finished high school and started college on my own.
*********
I was "forced" to take my glasses off when I was working in the barn or outside. I could see relatively well from a distance, but the closer something was to me, the blurrier it got. If you read "My Long Road Back," a story that is directly tied to this one, I wrote that when I was attacked, I stood perfectly still. I had my glasses on that day, and when I was hit in the head, they went flying off... but as I watched the video of the attack, I caught them in mid-air and held them at my side while the beating continued.
It took me a long time to realize why I did that, but it was the attack that finally allowed me to let go of the abuse history and forgive her in 1987. I just never apologized to her until 2015, a few months before she passed away.
I'm posting this story as a Vella project, and the Vella is currently about 3500 words ahead of my postings here. I posted a 3200-word "Let's step away from the story so I can explain a few things" segment. I posted the first of probably four segments of that chapter here this morning. It contains the reason my father never stepped in to stop any of this and some other commentary. Vella also allows me to add words of explanation of what just happened.
Thank you all for your input here. This story is important to me if for no other reason than that it allows me to "get it out of my system."
posted by
BigV
on November 20, 2022 at 8:21 AM
| link to this | reply
I was thinking along the lines of Kabu, but in this state there was no Children's Services until the '70s. You must have suffered so much. A child here would have gone to Juvi before then under those same circumstances! Horror of horrors.
Only a couple of questions for the sake of the story: a) did you wear your glasses all the time and if so, what happened to them during the beatings - were they ever broken, cause that would be cause for another beating, I would guess; b) were you big for your age or a small kid in the 7th grade when this happened; c) I'm curious about the physical description of your mother, especially in regard to her size - was she a large woman to inflict her wrath on you in the 7th grade and I assume past that; and d) just an aside for the readers who might wonder, what kind of football game was it that you had wanted to attend - was it a high school game, a JV game, a Jr. High/Middle School game?
No crit at all. Well done. Looking forward to reading more, though I'm sure it's painful to write.
posted by
Sea_Gypsy
on November 19, 2022 at 2:51 PM
| link to this | reply
Re: Kabu
I'm going to address that in tomorrow's segment.
This is an extremely complicated situation. My next post will help pull some of this mess up
posted by
BigV
on November 19, 2022 at 2:15 PM
| link to this | reply
it seems to me with such prolonged beatings she would do more than just create bruises. and scrapes. There must have been times when those beatings did deeper damage to a child's body. I would like to know how often and what haoppened is she broke a limb or something.
At the hospital, a woman came in with ther baby daughter covered in bruises and and a broken leg. The hospital contacted children's services immediately and she had to confess throwing her baby down the stairs.She lost custody of her child and was sent to lock down councelling.
posted by
Kabu
on November 19, 2022 at 2:08 PM
| link to this | reply