New Scenes Added to Forager
Dear Readers,
Some good news - I've gone through Forager, Book One and created additional detail by adding a few new scenes.
Here's the first one, which is now in chapter two:
As we worked, I reflected on the unlikely friendship that had blossomed between Michal and me. When he graduated from primary school and started attending high school, Michal was so messed up that I went out of my way to avoid him, even though I was his senior by one year – on his first day, Michal beat the daylights out of several year niners. It became quickly apparent that he was not only taller than all the other boys, but stronger and more vicious too. We all learned to steer clear of him during recess or lunchbreak, for he’d thump someone for even looking at him.
Turned out there was a reason for his violent behaviour – his home life was hell, something I found out after we become fast friends by some miracle. Some days he’d come to school with a limp, others he’d struggle doing the woodwork class because one of his arms was too badly bruised to hold the saw. And then there was the time he favoured his ribs for six weeks, causing me to conclude that several had been fractured.
Michal never let on where he got these injuries, but when I considered his refusal to discuss his home life and his insistence that we never visit him at home, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. When I tentatively broached my suspicions with him one day, he surprised me by admitting what I suspected – his father was a violent alcoholic. He frequently came home drunk and beat up Michal or his mother. Never touched his kid sister and brother though – probably because Michal always kept them away from his father when he was in one of his alcohol-fuelled rages by presenting himself as a target.
I tried to talk Michal into reporting his father to the authorities, but as fathers in Newhome were considered authority figures second only to the Custodians, he wouldn’t hear of it. So I tried to help him in any way I could: a supportive word here, an encouraging word there, and more practically, I’d sneak bandages and healing ointments from home to dress his bruises and fractures.
When he left school at fifteen, Michal was so big that his father stopped hitting him when he was drunk. From then on, his attacks took the form of verbal rather than physical abuse. That was an improvement, but abuse is still abuse.
I will list another added scene in my next post.
Some good news - I've gone through Forager, Book One and created additional detail by adding a few new scenes.
Here's the first one, which is now in chapter two:
As we worked, I reflected on the unlikely friendship that had blossomed between Michal and me. When he graduated from primary school and started attending high school, Michal was so messed up that I went out of my way to avoid him, even though I was his senior by one year – on his first day, Michal beat the daylights out of several year niners. It became quickly apparent that he was not only taller than all the other boys, but stronger and more vicious too. We all learned to steer clear of him during recess or lunchbreak, for he’d thump someone for even looking at him.
Turned out there was a reason for his violent behaviour – his home life was hell, something I found out after we become fast friends by some miracle. Some days he’d come to school with a limp, others he’d struggle doing the woodwork class because one of his arms was too badly bruised to hold the saw. And then there was the time he favoured his ribs for six weeks, causing me to conclude that several had been fractured.
Michal never let on where he got these injuries, but when I considered his refusal to discuss his home life and his insistence that we never visit him at home, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. When I tentatively broached my suspicions with him one day, he surprised me by admitting what I suspected – his father was a violent alcoholic. He frequently came home drunk and beat up Michal or his mother. Never touched his kid sister and brother though – probably because Michal always kept them away from his father when he was in one of his alcohol-fuelled rages by presenting himself as a target.
I tried to talk Michal into reporting his father to the authorities, but as fathers in Newhome were considered authority figures second only to the Custodians, he wouldn’t hear of it. So I tried to help him in any way I could: a supportive word here, an encouraging word there, and more practically, I’d sneak bandages and healing ointments from home to dress his bruises and fractures.
When he left school at fifteen, Michal was so big that his father stopped hitting him when he was drunk. From then on, his attacks took the form of verbal rather than physical abuse. That was an improvement, but abuse is still abuse.
I will list another added scene in my next post.
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