Hello, everyone! Wishing you well on a beautiful Saturday.
Here’s a snippet from “Because of Sam,” published by MLR Press. It’s more than six sentences, but it’s for context. Martin, the main character, is remembering the night his drunken father attacked him and his sister. It’s not pleasant…
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“Stop, Dad. Please! Why are you doing this?” I said, my scrawny, eleven-year-old body no match for his height and strength. But I had to try. “You’re hurting her. You’re hurting us!”
He shoved me away, but at least he’d stopped harassing Louise. Dad picked up the beer he’d been drinking, and swallowed its contents. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve, then grabbed the neck of the bottle. “You think you can talk to me like that? Goddamn pansy. I’ll show you how to be a man.”
Dad hauled me to him with one fist in my shirt and then pushed me into the wall by the fridge. “I’ll teach you to interfere in things that don’t concern you.” And then he took his first swing at me with the bottle.
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What an intense, heartbreaking scene.
Thank you.
Beautifully intense. I want to read to find out what happened.
Thanks. 🙂
Wow. Intense.
Very – it shaped him into the person he is today.
That’s horrible, poor boy 🙁
It gets better, though. 🙂
This really broke my heart. Poor kiddos!
They went through a lot.
Oh, man. What a heartbreaking scene! I don’t generally get behind smacking anyone around, but there’s one character in that scene I could gleefully watch take a punch (or twelve).
Understood.
Painfully intense.
Yup.
You’re right, that’s no pleasant but it happens far too many times. Poor kids.
It does happen too often…
Oh! I remember this story. 🙂 And this scene–heart-wrenching.
It is – thanks for reading! 🙂