A Child Called "IT"
...st abusive things she did to David: “A month or two later, on a Sunday, while father was at work, my brothers and I were playing in our room when we heard Mother rush down the hall, yelling at us. Ron and Stan ran for cover in the living room. I instantly sat down in my chair. With both arms stretched out and raised, Mother came at me. As she came closer and closer, I backed my chair towards the wall. Soon my head touched the wall. Mother’s eyes were glazed and red, and her breath smelled of booze. I closed my eyes as the oncoming blows began to rock me from side to side… Her punches seemed to last forever… As she jerked violently to regain her stability, I heard something pop, and felt an intense pain in my shoulder and arm. The startled look on Mother’s face told me that she had heard the sound, too, but she released her grip on my arm, and turned and walked away as nothing had happened.”(34) The shock of her abuse left him stunned. How could his own Mother do such a thing? Little did he know it was only the beginning of his nightmare. The abuse continued and worsened over time. It is amazing how he survived not only physically but mentally as well. He got used to it and learned how to cope. One of the techniques he used to endure her sessions of abuse was looking at the clock and counting to himself. If he could concentrate on something else besides what she was doing, he considered it his victory and not his mother. It is astonishing to think this horror happened at all, never mind it continuing for so long. The teachers and school officials knew but could not or did not act in timely fashion. They did call her in to talk but she covered her tracks. She had her story down and had David lie as well. Yet somehow, someone should have intervened sooner. A child comes to school and is starving. He is filthy and obviously neglected. His clothes are dirty and smelly. These factors alone should of involved someone helping him. In addition to his physical abuse at home he had to listen to other kids tease him and be cruel to him at school. The abuse did continue and get more and more sick and twisted over time. An example of his mother’s cruelty is “the accident”: “She apparently wasn’t pleased with her renewed tactic because she continued to badger on and on as the clock ticked away, eating up my time limit. I wished she would just shut up and let me work. I was desper...