Nathan's Storiess

"No mama, please don’t do this to me it was an accident! I didn’t mean to do it," Derrick screamed louder then he could ever remember in his short life. His mom was carrying him up off the ground by his little arm swinging him around like a kid who didn’t know how to work a yo-yo. He was trying his hardest to grab any object that came his way without any success, hoping that if he were to get a hold of something he could hit his mom with it and get away.

They both continued their way down a small hallway, around a tight corner, and stood in front of a bathroom that, from his point of view, was never used the way the other bathroom was used; this bathroom was HIS bathroom. You are never allowed to use the bathroom close to our bedroom, you understand that Derrick? He would always remember his mom giving him that lecture with her shaking finger. Your bathroom is on the other side of the trailer, and trust me, it’s much nicer than your fathers and mine. True you don’t have a mirror and all, but I’m sure you wouldn’t like looking at yourself, you know, with all those cuts and bruises all over your face. The glass from the broken mirror still lay on the floor with a couple of pieces covered with a reddish color. He was told to clean up the mess after his dad got mad at him and threw his son’s head against it, and after being told several times that day to clean it up and not doing so, Derrick latter that day paid for it. There was a smell of urine that was lightly detectable just outside the door. When Mrs. Finn opened it, the smell shot at her with full force, and when she accidentally let go to cover her nose, her son fell from her tight grasp and onto the floor with a loud thump.

"I’m free. I’m free from the monster’s grasp," he said to himself as he quickly picked himself up and started to run in the opposite direction of his mother.

"Get back here Derrick! You’re in enough trouble as it is! Get back here!" Her screaming voice rang in his ears and it hurt; it hurt badly. Tears were starting to fall from his eyes but not because of the screaming beast. He knew deep down inside that running was only going to make things worse, not better. He wasn’t going to get away, but thinking that he was and trying to do so, made him feel a little bit tougher and a little bit braver. He had to be tough and brave. With the awful things that his parents did to him, he definitely had to be tough. The brave part came in when he would be locked in the bathroom along with the dark. He was still scared of the dark, especially when that’s all he saw for days on end.

Mrs. Finn picked up speed and kept her eye on the scared pray that ran away from her. "Do you think you’re going to get away? Do you think you’re going to get out of being punished when I get my hands on you? You’re sadly mistaken if you think so son!"

Derrick was running out of space to run. The trailer was only so long and there wasn’t any stairs to run up and hide on the second floor, but he did see his room just ahead and decided that’s where he’ll go and hide. "Ouch! Stupid fucking chair!"

He turned his head to see why his mom would say that and saw a chair fly through the air and out a window with a loud crash along with the sound of snapping wood.

When he got to his room, he turned to look back and saw her running towards the door. With a loud scream, he grabbed the door, locked it, and slammed it shut. He heard a loud scream from the other side of his door and jumped back away from it.

"Open the door! Open it Derrick! You closed the door on my fingers!" She sounded like she was in a lot of pain but he thought it was all a trick, but it did sound real. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he heard his mother cry the way she was at this moment in time. In fact, maybe he never did hear her cry.

"You’re lying. You just want to get in here and hurt me. I’m not going to let you in!"

"Derrick, open the door you little piece of shit," she was louder this time and growing short on patience. Calling out wasn’t doing any good as far as she could tell. So instead, she lifted her leg and started kicking the door as hard and fast as she could. Kicking the door hurt more but she couldn’t care less. The rage that was flowing though her body this far into the chase dulled the pain somewhat. She just kept telling herself that the pain would diminish when she got free and got the chance to watch her son suffer more pain than she was going through.

With his heart racing and sweat dripping down his forehead, Derrick crawled underneath his bed where something bit him. He let out a low "ouch" and looked down at the floor. What ever it was he picked it up and crawled out from underneath his bed. In his hand he held a steak knife that he never knew was there. All at once while he forgot about his mom and was looking at the long knife, a loud crash came through his room and his mom stood there with her broken fingers by her side. Derrick stuck the knife behind him before she could see it, and stood with his arms behind his back.

"You see this Derrick? Do you?

"Yes," he said with a voice in which you could tell he was scared.

"Do you know what they are?"

"Yes."

"Well, I think I need your help because I don’t know what they could possibly be." He didn’t say anything, so he was asked the question again. "So Derrick, what are they?"

"They’re your fingers." Derrick’s hand gripped onto the knife tighter, getting ready for anything. His mom was so spontaneous; he never knew what she was going to do next, and he was sure she didn’t know what she’d do either.

"Oh, these are my fingers," she said in a sarcastic way. She held up her hand, which had gotten stuck in-between the door so her son could get a better look. They didn’t look like fingers anymore. All her fingers were broken with her ring and middle finger dislocated from her hand. "Look at what you did to me Derrick. I can’t feel my hand anymore!"

"No," Derrick said with his head tilted to the ground. He couldn’t stand the sight of his mother’s hand. It made him feel sick. Her fingers reminded him of what his face sometimes looked liked after his dad had gotten through beating him with his hard balled up fists.

With a loud scream she charged at him with both of her arms stuck out at him with total rage in her eyes. Derrick looked up and saw that his mom was coming towards him, and forgetting about the knife that he had hidden behind his back, lifted his arms across his face in hope that in someway it would protect him. His mother didn’t have a change to see the knife because as he pulled up his arms she was already on top of him. As his mom leaned in to tackle him to the ground, the knife only found its way across her stomach and right fore arm. With her mind on other matters, she didn’t even know that she had been given a five-inch long cut across her stomach and a two-inch cut across her arm.

"Get over here you little bitch!" Mrs. Finn grabbed Derrick by his arms and held him up in the air and shacking him violently. It sent the knife falling to his bedroom floor, which found its resting position up against the side of his bed "What were you thinking running away from me like that!" She stopped shaking her son and noticed that he was crying. "Stop crying you little baby. Save those tears for someone who cares."

Then it all started again, the same way it was going ten minutes earlier. She carried him by one arm but this time she didn’t care for holding him up off the floor. Instead he was being dragged across the carpet getting rug burns all over his legs.

The smell of urine was still there lingering in the area of his bathroom. It was a little better than the first time they were here but not by much. Derrick’s mother reached into the bathroom and felt for the light switch. It was a little off to the side more so than most light switches, but still she found it. When her finger (from her good hand of course) made contact and pushed upward on it, the light from over head brightened the room, but to Derrick it still felt as cold and dark as it always does.

"This is going to hurt you more than it’s going to hurt me," Mrs. Finn exclaimed as she continued to pull Derrick into the bathroom. She set him in front of the toilet and opened his legs so that they went completely around the base of it. She turned around and a little above her head was a pair of handcuffs that always seemed to be waiting for his arrival. If you looked hard enough at the cuffs, you would notice some dried on blood from the times Derrick tried to slip out of them from numerous accounts. And seeing that trying to do so wouldn’t work he gave up on the whole idea. As he learned today, it was better to go along with what was given to him then to try and get out of it. More trouble would follow him if he did so. The handcuffs were then slapped and tightened around his wrists that were also stretched around the bottom of the toilet.

"Mama, please don’t do this to me again!" His voice echoed throughout the room and the toilet bowl making him sound like a robot.

"Do you think I like doing this to you? Do you think I like it when you break my dishes that my hard-earned money buys? It makes me so angry that you don’t care what I and your father do for this family."

"I told you that I was sorry. It was an accident! I was trying to make you proud and wash the dishes for you."

"Well, son, you didn’t do good enough." She turned around and started to unzip and take off her pants when she stopped to her son trying to scoot around to the side of the toilet. "What do you think you are doing?"

"Mama, please don’t do that either. It makes me so sick." He looked up at his mom and could tell by the look in her face that she didn’t care and went back to taking off her pants. His mother sat down and emptied herself to make this punishment worse for him. He could hear the mess falling into the water like if he were right next to a hundred dripping sinks. The smell that came soon after made him faint easily.

While Derrick still lay there unconscious, she got up and reached for some toilet paper to wipe herself with. After doing so four or five times she took her son’s face and wiped it all over it. She took a piece that was still covered with shit and shoved it into his mouth. She put her pants back on and hurried over to the cabinet and pulled out some duck tape. Back at her son’s side, she took the tape and rapped it around his mouth several times making sure that it was taped good and tight. Afterwards, she placed him face down and taped his neck to the rim of the seat. "I do this out of love son. You need to learn that you don’t fuck around with me," she said this as she felt a pain in her hand and noticed that she was beginning to feel once again with it.

She got up, dropped the roll of tape on the ground, and started for the door when she heard her son mumbling from behind. She turned around and saw that he was once again conscious, seeing what his mother had done to him while he was out. He tried moving his head with no success and stop shortly there after. He was stuck and he knew it.

"Don’t worry son, I left you something to snack on." She went for the door, turned towards him and smiled. "I’ll be back, I need to go to the hospital," and saying this reminded her of what he had just put her through. She walked back over to him one last time and kicked him in the side. He screamed out in pain but his voice didn’t carry far. "I’m so glad that I don’t have to listen to you anymore," she said while at the door. She started to laugh and closed it behind her.

He was now alone and in the dark which he hated so much. He had to be brave and he told himself that, but he also told himself that he needed to be loved; he wanted to be loved. He opened his eyes and saw the polluted water in front of his face. He wished that his mom would have turned off the lights this time so he wouldn’t have to look at this awful mess that wasn’t more than five inches from his face. Being in the dark was a hell of a lot better he thought to himself. She knew just the right things to do to make his life miserable.

He heard his mom pick up the keys to the car and walk out the front screen door. Before the screen door slammed with a loud bang she yelled out something that sent fear flowing throughout his whole body. "I’ll be back Derrick and so will your father. Don’t you go running out on us now," she said sarcastically, knowing that he wasn’t going anywhere. He heard the engine start and at first the car drove slowly away, then not soon after picking up speed at a very accelerated rate. He started crying again and watched as his tears fell from his face and hit the water below.