Lying in the corner of a room, Tesla was on her stomach, playing with the ants that were going after the single morsel of rotted cheese. She wiped away her chin-length, dirty, matted, brown hair from her face and muttered softly to the ants, "I wonder how you can work so well together. I wish my family can do that too..." For the first time in thirty minutes, Tesla sat up and stretched her arms out. Peeling wallpaper with little bluebells dotted on a faded purple background covered the walls. There was a metal bunk bed in each far corner with grey sheets covering the infested mattresses. Tesla had the lower bed closest to the door. In between the two beds was a small window that was too high for her to reach, as she was only nine years old. There was a closet on the outer sides of both bunk beds with wooden doors that slide open with the same color as the wallpaper.
Tesla still didn't understand how she got here. How did she get pulled out of her warm home with plenty of friends in the neighborhood and into this dank place where all they do is neglect her even more. At least at home she was able to run to her best friend, Lilia, and her family when things started to go bad at her home. Why couldn't those people in the suits just let her live at Lilia's house? Nobody ever listened to her. She should have ran away when she had the chance... As she thought about this, the small bump in her right leg started to hurt again... No, she would have ran away at the very first sight of them but her leg was hurt... All she could do was just let them pick her up and carry her into that blue car...
Tesla let out a gasp of pain as she tried to get up by using her roommates’ bunk bed’s post. She figured the bump will go away just like the other lumps, scratches and bruises. But this one refused to go away. She didn't want to tell the adults about her injury, then they will start asking about where she’s gotten the other bruises. She loved her parents. And she’s pretty sure they loved her too. They got angry sometimes and she just happened to get in the way. She closed her eyes and opened them a few times, trying to get rid of the images from the last conversation that was replaying behind her eyelids. She gave up trying to stand and just crawled awkwardly to her bed. She leaned her head back against her mattress, she no longer cared about the warnings from the older girls about the bugs that could crawl into her ears.
She wished Margie and Penny would come in from lunch soon. At first she thought that the reason why they helped her back in here and left her alone was to let her get used to this place. But now she started to wonder if they did it so she can realize that she does need to tell an adult about her bump…
“Margie? Penny? I need help..” Her voice sounded so small. She sat up straighter and called out, “Penny! Margie! I want to get out now!” Still no answer. She let out a small whimper and awkwardly crawled out of the room, she tried to put as little weight as possible on her leg and avoided the bruises on her left leg.
“Tesla? Tesla! What are you doing on the floor; you know how filthy this place is. Get up! I said, get up!” Tesla let out a small yelp as the older girl kicked her in the shoulder. She looked up and discovered the fifteen-year-old face of her sister that was taken out of the house with her, Katie. “Come on, baby, get up! Or do you want to tell the child protective services some more lies about our family? Huh, do you? Do you?” Tesla’s only reply was a louder yelp as Katie kicked her in the head. Tesla fell down and curled up in her usual fetal position as she took another beating. She started to cry, she wished that none of this was happening.. Finally Katie gave one last good kick in the back, it probably damaged her spine and walked away. Tesla closed her eyes, thought about the good things.. And finally fell asleep right in the middle of the hallway.
Margie and Penny found her and carried her to a rat-bitten couch and sat in a couple of rickety, old wooden chairs and stared at her. “Why did they bring Katie in too? Sounded like she was having the time of her life there from what I’ve heard from her,” asked Penny. “I have no idea.. Except.. Do you think that this is some sort of test? Or maybe they are observing who is the real bully?” Said Margie.
“Nah, that don’t make sense. They should have planted cameras or something in that house..”
“I know.. Sometimes I think this place is just a little too messed up in the head, you know?”
“Yeah.. I wonder what she’s dreaming about that’s making her smile so much..”
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This was written during the summer of '09. It's inspired by a dream I once had. Whew, I don't think I'm gonna keep posting things every day. From now on I'll probably post something once or twice a week.
Anything thoughts/comments/questions/critique?
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