A little boy hides under a table,.

He is pulling down the tablecloth to hide his site of refuge.

His name is called over and over by his step mother and father.

He smells his stepmothers perfume and he feels warm inside and smiles.

She had treated him with love and kindness and she always smelled so nice.

She had a new baby with his father but she always managed to have time for hugs and she always needed his help to make cookies from scratch.

His real mother never had time for hugs or baking anything because one of her friends would usually be visiting his mother and they needed time alone in her bedroom.

He knew that they were in there smoking crack.

The counselor at school told the boy that his clothes smelled funny.

She asked more questions about what his Mom did in the house.

The lady asked a bunch of questions and then more people came to his mother's house and asked her questions about what drugs she used.

They looked in his room at his mattress on the floor and the dirty clothes all piled up. in the small room.

The little boy smelled his shirt his step mom had bought him.

It smelled clean and kind of like his pretty step mom.

He couldn't really remember his real mom and dad when they were married.

After the people left his mom's house she got really mad.

She threw the little boy down on the kitchen floor and kicked him until she was tired.

The boy laid on the floor until it was dark outside and he could hear his brother coming through the door.

His older brother came to his side.

" Did Mom do this?"

The little boy shook his bruised and beaten face.

The oldest boy went straight to his mothers room. and the screaming began.

The lies began the very next day.

The little boy's mother went to the police with a story she had designed to draw the suspicion off of her.

The school was on her about his absences lately so he couldn't stay home until the bruises went away.

Some mornings he didn't go to school because he was too tired from being kept up all night by one of mom's all night parties.

Mom told the police that some thugs she could name roughed her boy up at the bus stop,.

The police took her report and the nightmare began.

The thugs began to rein a hell down on the little boys family that did not end until his mother pleaded that his father take all three boys for their safety.

He loved his fathers house, the smells, the warmth and the love he always felt from this father, step mother and step brother, even the new baby girl.

He started a new school with kids that didn't know his clothes smelled like drugs and his real mom sometimes came to pick him up from school in pajamas and all the teachers talked about her.

His Father took him to buy new clothes and he had his own bed.

He never wanted to go anywhere else with his real mom.

His real mom came into the room and drug him out from under the table by his tiny arm.

The little boy's father and step mother almost pounced on her at the same time.

After lots of crying and shaking the little boy was placed in a car that was overloaded with people.

The Father and step mother waved through bitter tears.

They knew they would never see him again.

I wish the story had a happy ending but unfortunately it does not.

The little boy is now a teenager and his mother still abuses him.

He has tried to commit suicide, he cuts his arms and generally suffers from deep depression.

He is seen daily by people that would shudder at this story if they knew.

However they pass him by because his hair is long and in his face and his jeans are sagging and he has plugs in his ears listening to music to block out the world.

Child abuse is just a word to this kid.

He isn't a child anymore and his life could of been different.

Learn more about this author, Michelle Grismer.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

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