inside him. Swallowing tightly, I pinched my lips together as he continued.
“When Mr. VanMeter took me home, I ran inside to show Mom the magnet Tommy’s dad had helped me make. My mom was on her knees in front of the couch, snorting lines of powder off some big, ugly biker dude’s cock. Then sucked it deep inside her mouth. When he saw me standing there, an evil smile spread over his fat face. He still had a couple of teeth, but they were rotten and black. He motioned me over while my mom’s mouth bobbed up and down his dick. When I shook my head, he pried my mom off his cock and sprinkled some more powder on it. Then he told me to come fill my nose and suck him hard.”
Images of Syd’s innocence being ripped away in such a vile and revolting way made my stomach pitch. Biting back the bile rising in my throat, I refused to vomit. Refused to interrupt him. Syd had to purge these abhorrent memories from his system before he could start to heal.
“Mom was so high she didn’t even know I was in the room until the prick started talking to me. Thankfully, she wasn’t completely under the influence. She started yelling and cursing at the bastard. He stood and tucked his dick away, then yanked her up by her hair and started punching her. I was so scared he was going to kill her that I ran next door and told the old man to call the police. He must have known my mom was a junkie, because he said if he called the police, they’d take me away. Then he told me to stay put, grabbed a shotgun, and ran out the door. A few minutes later, I heard a loud bang. Next thing I know he’s dragging my mom inside the trailer. She was covered in blood, but the old man led her down the hall to his shower.
“The cops never came. The old man made a bed for me on the couch, and while I pretended to sleep, he and my mom went back to our trailer to clean up the mess. I don’t know what they did with the dude’s body. I never asked, because I didn’t care. She started laying off the drugs after that. It was nice. Summer came and we sometimes had picnics with the old man next door. There was more food in the house, and I thought we might get to start living like a real family, like Tommy’s. But…”
Family. All his life, Syd had been like Pinocchio, searching for a real family. He’d found one, or rather a damn good facsimile with the guys in the band and the women they loved. But I knew Syd still wasn’t complete. Happiness was still nothing but an illusion to him.
“My first day of sixth grade, I was up before the sun. I showered, dressed, and fixed myself a bowl of cereal. Then I strapped on the new backpack, chock full of school supplies the old man next door had bought me, and waited at the end of the gravel road for the bus. It was a great day, mostly because the teacher let Tommy and me sit by each other. We played dodgeball at recess and laughed as we ate lunch. I was so excited to tell my mom about my day that, the minute I stepped off the bus, I started sprinting toward the trailer. The old man was outside hammering on something. We both grinned and waved as I tore into the house.”
A tear slid down Syd’s cheeks as he drew in a shaky breath and then licked his lips.
“M-mom was slumped on the couch, naked. Her eyes were open, but she looked right through me. Her skin was white…snow white, like the f-foam dripping down from between her b-blue lips.”
I pressed my hand over my mouth to hold back my sobs. Tears spilled down my cheeks, but I didn’t wipe them away. I let them fall and spill to my lap, just like Syd’s.
“A piece of yellow rubber was lying in her lap, and the needle was still sticking out of the vein in the crook of her elbow. The walls started closing in all around me. And just as I opened my mouth to scream, a scrawny naked man with long, stringy blond hair, walked out from the kitchen. I didn’t even know he was in the house.