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Ten year old Katie was lying in her bed listening to her mother arguing with her boyfriend Charlie in the kitchen. Only moments before, Charlie carried a screaming Katie from the kitchen, and tossed her across her bedroom onto her bed. As she landed, she whacked her arm and shoulder against the wall and now it was throbbing. She heard Charlie say that Kate would have to be sent to her father in Connecticut, because he just couldn't stand being around her any longer.

"All I did was to tell Charlie I hated guns and that I don't trust people who had guns" Katie sobbed to herself.

Katie's daddy always told her to say what was on her mind, it was the only way people would know what she wanted or needed. Now she was banished to her room for the night, and Mommy was fighting with Charlie again. She felt guilty and responsible for this latest argument between her mommy and her boyfriend. Yet, the extensive gun collection made Kate fearful and anxious. She hoped by telling Charlie how she felt, he would get rid of them.

It seemed that lately Charlie was always angry at her, and her brother and sister. He had been so nice to all of them back in Connecticut, but that all changed now. Mom said things would be great in Arizona with the four of them and her boyfriend. Instead, there was a lot of yelling and spankings, and no more stories being read at bedtime like Daddy used to do. Also, when the bad dreams came, she wasn't allowed to crawl into bed with Mommy like she used to do. Actually it was Daddy who used to let her crawl into bed, and Daddy who would carry her back to her own bed and read to her from her favorite Dr. Seuss book, "Oh the Places You'll Go" until she fell asleep. It was Daddy who waited at the bus stop, and went to all the parent-teacher conferences, and did homework with her. It was Daddy who told her she could be anything she wanted to, as long as she wanted it badly enough. Now, Daddy was a long way away and she only talked to him on Sunday nights, and always with Mommy standing right next to her. Mom would be listening to make sure she didn't tell Daddy too much, especially about Charlie. Daddy always called her his little "Katie-did, while Charlie called her "stupid girl." As the tears rolled down Katie's cheeks, she turned to look out the window at the full moon. She wished she was on the moon, in fact she wished she was anywhere but where she was.

Katie went into her clothes closet and shut the door after asking her younger sister Ruth not

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