The boy nobody loved - Chapter 4

The first home

Eventually he was brought “home”.

To begin with, “home” was a dark room.  There was a strange smell in the air.  A little musty.  It smelt a bit like a fish and chip shop after closing time.

Here he was blessedly isolated.  He could still hear the same sounds he did while in the womb, but they were not muffled.  They were loud.  And there were a lot more sounds than before.  His heart jumped at every noise.  But at least he was not being bumped.  At least not yet.

Eventually, he was put in the sitting room.  There was an old couch.  He used to sit on the left side.  Right at the end.  Next to it, to the left there was a little table with a lamp.  Then a wall.  The door to the dark room was on the right.

There was a big French window on the left, next to the little table. It was bright and pleasant. He could see the clouds and the sky, and the sun often shun through the glass giving a congenial hue to the room.

He was rarely moved from his place on the couch. He rarely got any attention paid to him. Occasionally someone, usually a little girl, would come and give him a bottle of milk. She was sweet and loving. She was the only one that would approach him. Seeing her was comforting to him.

He was an observer. All the sounds and feelings he had while in the womb started making sense. The shouting was usually because a man would be chasing either a child or a woman and beating them. The children and woman were screaming in pain. The woman would often shout at him angrily, and in exchange he would slap her. They were always running, screaming, crying, shouting, running some more, until eventually everybody tired themselves out. At this point the man would leave, and all the little boy could hear were quiet sobs.

These were the only times when he had some peace. He would stare at the sky. He would watch the clouds chasing each other and form anomalous shapes. His heart would slow down, and the fear subside.

One day the man was chasing one of the little girls. She run, as always, trying not to get hit. She moved a little too close to Angel, and when the man struck, he hit him. He was swung from his seat to the opposite side of the sofa. He was dazed. The girls and the woman started shouting “You gave him a black eye”. This made the man more even more angry and now he was chasing everyone, not just the one girl. This went on for what seemed an eternity.