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This is a story about a young boy who comes from an upper-class family
in a conservative society. His family is considered quite large by
normative means but isn't very rare by conservative society standards.
He has five siblings in total and he is bang on in the middle. He is
the youngest of four boys but also a middle child. He has two younger
sisters; the youngest of whom is a 'person with special needs'. Her
eyes are Asian-like, her tongue is a little bigger than normal, she is
the ray of light in a home that would otherwise be pitch-black; she
breathes life into a home that would otherwise suffocate; she brings
peace to a house over-ridden with war; she looks like every other
person with this condition, she is a Down Syndrome child...
The
young boy had quite a normal childhood considering he was the youngest
of four boys. He played, he got bullied, he laughed, he loved, he got
hurt, but he always managed to project a sense of naive optimism...
that is until he was abused. He didn't know at the time... but his
child inner siren went off and he made a stop to it - whatever it was.
Little did he know that 'whatever it was' was in fact, a moment that
would haunt him for the rest of his life; a moment that defines
everything about him - every action, every personality trait, every
touch, and every emotion - a moment which has caused him to withdraw
from the world for several years; a moment which has brought darkness
in the eyes of the young boy; darkness to a home that seems like a
workshop for crushing souls because it was there... it is still there.
Then
his baby sister was born. "There were complications, she has a small
hole in her heart" that's what they told him when he inquired about why
it was taking so long for mommy to get back from the hospital. He could
recall it did not take that long for a baby to come out of mom's tummy
last time, he was leaning with his elbow on the evidence, he was
leaning with his elbow on his other sister's head.
A week later,
his mom holding his new little sister appeared through the front door.
The little thing in his mom's arms looked like the cutest little person
he had ever seen. She was fast asleep, pale, and extremely kissable. He
ran and hugged his mom first, but it felt strange... there was
something wrong. This was not the mom he knew before. She looked like
her, she sounded like her, but she seemed... different, almost ...
broken. He brushed those thoughts away as a symptom of the "whatever it
was" experience, and plus, he thought, his little sister did have a
hole in her heart which from what he has seen in cartoons, is something
easily fixable with a little band-aid and a hug, but deduced it can
still cause a mom to be worrisome and distant for awhile.
A few
months with the new baby made the young boy get accustomed to her. Her
hair grew straight and she seemed very energetic, even when she
couldn't see anyone around. His mom, however, was still as distant as
ever. He would notice her going to the bathroom quite a lot when he and
his siblings were around their new little sister. But he didn’t think
anything of it. He loved hanging out with his baby sister everyday and
nothing seemed to convince him to leave her alone. However, he
eventually forced himself to find the time away from his little sister
to hang out with his cousin one day. This cousin wasn't the most
pleasant kid in the world, his idea of having fun is bullying smaller
sized kids (which pretty much included everyone in his school since he
was huge) and eating tooth-paste (he seemed particularly fond of
‘Signal 2’ brand of toothpaste). The young boy caught the cousin eating
toothpaste once, he never told him he knew his secret. But he was the
young boy’s cousin so he had to entertain him since he was nevertheless
a guest at his home. Everything was going as typical as a day with that
cousin could go; it was boring, annoying, and occasionally funny. The
young boy heard a lot of hurtful words from the cousin over the years
but he always managed to brush them off as immature tooth-paste eating
blabber. But this day there were words that simply stuck to this young
boy’s head; "I heard your sis is a mongoloid".
The
young boy kept thinking about what that word meant and sought to find a
definition in his 'childrens dictionary' but with no avail. So after
exhausting all other feasible options he decided it was time to ask his
mom about it. He went into her room and found his little sister lying
on her baby mat sleeping, and his mom sitting on the couch reading a
newspaper. After finding the right timing, which took him about 10
minutes after sitting down next to his mom pretending to read a
magazine, the young boy asked:
"Mom..."
"yes?"
"What is a mongoloid?"
It was like the question was a flamed arrow that struck her heart.
"Where did you hear that word!?" his mom snapped back
"My cousin told me, that she was a mongoloid…" The young boy said whilst pointing at his baby sister.
"..."
Tears
started rolling off of mommy’s eyes... she was crying and he didn't
know what he did wrong. He started crying as well and leaped off of the
chair and hugged her real tight. The tears were rolling off her eyes
and falling on the young boy's shoulder. He was never the same after
that. It was only later that day that his oldest brother explained to
him that that 'Mongoloid' term was used, in that instance, as a
derogatory name for people with their sister's condition; people with Down Syndrome.
Copyright 2008 mmk080
Copyright 2008 mmk080
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