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The door into the attic opened and I heard her cliri doard, as if forcing herself to look at ht she could look so mean
"Pull down your pants, Bart"
"No!"
"Do as I say or your punishment will be much worse"
"No! You can't hurt me You lay one hand on me and I'll wait until you're in your ole ballet class and then I'll get Cindy--and Emma won't be able to stop me! I can be in a thousand places before she can move to one--and the police won't put me in jail because I'm a minor!"
"Bart, I' patience with you"
"That won't be all you'll lose if you hit me!" I bellowed
She paused three feet from where I sat on the bed Her small pale hands rose to her throat and she said quietly, "Oh, God" and it was just a hoarse whisper "I should have known a child conceived under such circumstances would turn out like this Bart, I'm so sorry your son is a monster"
A monster? Was I a monster?
No--she was thetoput in the attic and punished I hated her then, just as much as I'd loved her before
I screamed it out: "I hate you, Momma! I hope you drop dead!"
That's when she backed away, tears in her eyes Then she turned and ran But before she went down the stairs she locked the door to keep me up in that onnalike Malcol this to ood, and wanted her to love an to cry Nothing ever worked out the way I wanted it to
It was Daddy who spanked my bare bottom after he came home and heard all they had to tell hi the way I pleaded and apologized
"Did you feel any of that?" he asked when he was finished, and I pulled up my pants
I sotta break my bones, and then the police would throw you in jail for child abuse" He studied me with those stern blue eyes "You think you have the best of us, don't you?" he asked in his calm, rational way "You think because you are a , Bart We live in a civilized society where people are expected to conform to the rules No one is ever beyond the control of the law, even the President And one of the worst punish locked away so he cannot coo at his own free will" He looked sad then "That can be a very traumatic experience"