I Deserve More, She Deserves Punishment

Author's Note: In this story, it switches off between Erin's point of view and her abusive husband Kevin's.

I still have dishes to clean, the floor to vacuum, the windows to dust. Kevin will be home any minute and when he steps through the door he’ll see what little I got done, and he’ll hit me, I thought to myself. He’ll throw me to the ground and kick me until I vomit or punch my gut and I’ll end up peeing out blood. Nothing is ever good enough for that man. I quickly ran to underneath the sink to get the dusting supply and then ran to the closet in our bedroom to get the vacuum. If I hurry I just might get everything done. Kevin doesn’t like to come home to an untidy house. I got everything done and even had time put on something sexy for him, because he doesn't like it when I wear my sweats. The daily routine gets old but I know every day I get closer to escaping from this nightmare. Sometimes I dream that none of this ever happened and were back on our honeymoon before the first time he ever hit me. Then I wake up and feel the pain and see the bruises from the day before.

I work for her, I bought a house for her, I take her to get her hair done, And what do I get back in return? Nothing. She takes advantage of me. All she does is wait for the timer on the washing machine to go off, I thought. I walked up to the door and took a deep breath. I’ll walk in this door and she’ll be happily sitting on the couch reading a book that I took her to the library to get. She will act like everything’s ok when it’s not. She’ll put her weak arms around me and think that she can suck me into her mind games with her looks. I turn the doorknob and I’m welcomed home with the smell of a home cooked meal on the stove and Erin in a short, red, cocktail dress. I like it when she wears those dresses, I hate seeing her in sweatpants and t-shirts. A man is supposed to have a slim, beautiful wife that makes him feel like a proud man. Erin looks at me with her big brown eyes and her freshly dyed hair thinking she can crawl into my arms and act like everything’s okay. I don’t deserve this she is a selfish coward and I’m the one being treated this way. Erin walks over to me and puts her arms around my neck just as I imagined. She gets a confused look on her face because of my silence. I slap her across the face. She falls to the ground. I can see her holding back tears, I hate it when she cries, she’s weak. “What’s wrong? What happened?” She asks, acting innocent. “On my day off, my only day off every week. You decide to go get your hair done. Your selfish Erin and you know it. You know I don’t like hitting you, but you can be so stupid sometimes!” I felt the pressure in my face build and I kicked her.

I fall to the ground, I feel a sting in my gut and I vomit all over the floor. Kevin helps me stand and he gives me a cold rag holding me close.”I’m sorry baby, sometimes you just don’t think.” It takes everything in me not to push him away and slap him across his face. I look at him and lie ,”I know baby, I know.” That night I was up every hour vomiting in the toilet, I could still feel the stinging sensation in my gut and it makes me want to scream. The next morning I wake up, limp to the kitchen, and make Kevin his bacon and eggs. Once he was ready to leave he gives me a hug and a long unwanted kiss, then he leaves. I go to the bathroom to get any type of pain reliever I can find. Motivating myself I sit on the couch thinking in a few days I’ll be far away from him and he’ll never touch me again. Last night I was able to steal 3 dollars from Kevin, I walked out the front door to the flower bed in our front yard. I lifted the farthest pot and added the little money to the rest I stole from him other times. Since I started stealing I have 97 dollars, that’s almost enough to escape. To think that in a week I’ll be a free woman and on my own.

I walk up to my desk and found a bundle of papers from a case I’m currently working on. There’s a young boy who was killed from a bullet that shot up through the floor. His mother found him dead, leaning on the kitchen table with a bullet through his gut. I looked over the papers and poured a bottle of whiskey. I think of Erin and her vomiting all over our new kitchen floor, I think of her cleaning and putting fresh flowers in a vase on the dining room table. I think of the way she walks and how it makes me smile and the way she looked in that red dress last night, before she was punished. Through the curtain I see nothing but a boring police station office filled with bored, gossiping officers. I hate gossip. They look at me and pretend wave as if I would wave right back. I return to my papers and proceed in finding the one who killed the young boy.

Kevin walked through the door looking pleased with my work, but stressed with his.”Long day?” I ask him as I kiss his cheek. He says nothing and violently pulls me closer and roughly kisses me on the lips.”What’s for dinner?” He says setting his jacket on the living room chair. “I was thinking chili would be nice because of cold weather we’ve had lately” I try to make it sound like I want conversation, but he does nothing but sit on the couch with a glass of whiskey in his right hand and the remote in the left.”Yeah, sounds good,” Kevin replies softly. I start the chili and as it’s sitting on the stove I walk to the couch and sit in his arms. Trying to please him I kiss cheek and act interested in the T.V.”Did you find anything about the boy?” I could tell he didn’t want to say anything about it, so I stood up, grabbed his empty glass and put it on the counter.”Is dinner ready?” “Yeah!” I replied trying to act enthused. He sat at the two person table and waited for me to serve him his dinner. With my back turned away from him I rolled my eyes, he isn’t even acknowledging the fact that I’m trying to make conversation and help him! I hand him his dinner in a nice glass bowl on a matching plate underneath it. We sit silent at the table.”How was your day?” Kevin says breaking the silence.”Good! I got some dusting done and put some new sheets on our bed. He stops eating and I look up at him and slightly smile from the corner of my mouth. He wipes his mouth with a napkin and looks back at me and smiles.”Dinner can wait,” he says as he gestures his hand out to me. I know where this is going, I think to myself. I take his hand and stand. Kevin starts to kiss my neck and I act pleased. He grabs my breast and I squeeze my eyes shut, hating him, hating him for hitting me and beating me to the ground yet I let him do this to me. He takes off my blouse as I think about how much I hate myself and him, and why this happened to me, and why did I stay the first time he hit me. He takes my hand and leads me to our bedroom. The next morning I wake starving and I noticed I never got to eat my dinner last night. I pick up dinner mess and start to make Kevin’s bacon and eggs. Tears start rolling down my face but I keep them back, because Kevin hates it when I cry. He walks in and notices real quick,"Why the hell are you crying?", I think of something real quick to say.“I just don’t want you to leave.” Kevin is leaving tomorrow for one night on a business trip. “It’s just one night, and when I get back how about you do something special for me?” I stand and act joyful. “Okay, you just wait, I have an idea already.” I put my arms around him and kiss him passionately, I pull him back and he smiles and walks out the door. After a full day of work and planning Kevin comes home, I make him dinner, I clean his dinner up, I watch his T.V show, and we go to bed. That morning I act like it’s any other day but it’s not. Today is the day! I’m going to leave him and start a new and better life. I pack his bag with two clean shirts, two clean pairs of dress pants, socks, and underwear. I make him his breakfast and I sit there watching him eat it, thinking it’s the last time that man will eat anything made by me. I gave him his bag, give him a kiss, and he walks out the door. As soon as I see the taxi leave I grab a box of hair dye I hid in a tampon box, because I knew he’d never go near there. I take scissors and cut my hair to my shoulders. While the dye is sitting I grab all the money from beneath the flower pot and grab a pay phone I bought before he picked me up from the hair salon the other week. I rinse my hair, pack granola bars and peanuts in a small bag along with a few tank tops and shorts. I step out the door and look at the bright sun. I ran with my hood up to bus stations, I bought a ticket as far away as I can afford, a small town in North Carolina. I get on the bus in a panic. He will find me and come for me. He’ll kill me and no one will ever know what happened. I think about going home acting like it never happened, but my hair is short and dyed brown. I act confident as I step off the bus into my new life.

Two months later.

I live in a small house and I work at a small diner called Ivan’s. I’m very happy and I have a neighbor who I’m very close with, she’s coming over tonight for wine and cheese. She claims that the man who works the small store likes me. Him and I talk and laugh, I enjoy his company. Tomorrow I am joining him at the beach. When I see him I can’t help but smile and I think I might be falling for him.

Fighting for Family

Author's Note: This is a Compare and Contrast essay on two young boys who had to grow up too early to keep their families alive. 

Michael from the book, Jump Ship to Freedom, reminds me much of Samuel Martin from the movie The Patriot. Michael was the same age as Samuel during the Revolutionary War, and they were both left behind by their father’s to watch over the rest of their families. They were both in charge when their father’s left to fight. Both of them had to grow up very fast and had to learn to handle a gun at an early age.

When Michael’s father left, he was told to take care of his mother and Sam was to take care of his younger siblings. The two of them were told very similar things by their father’s. Michael and Sam both got very used to being in charge and got quite good at it. Even though they gained a lot of maturity quickly, it wasn’t always like that. They both couldn’t wait to see their father again.

One of the few differences about them two is that when Michael’s father left to fight, he never came back. It pained Michael to think he was dead, but it only made him want freedom even more. Michael was given his father’s soldier’s notes after he had passed, and Michael heard they were worth a lot. He worked so hard, his hands began to callus. Michael new his mother and him will soon be free as soon as he gets the money to.

Sam and his younger siblings also had to work hard while his father was in war. Young Sam had to make a living for months. All of the food and safety came from the help of Sam. Their Aunt Charlotte also gave all she could and let them all scrunch into her little house so they could have a place to sleep. Sam spent many nights sitting on the front porch to be sure no one was there that would be harm them.

These two characters also remind me of Prim Everdeen. Prim is a twelve year old girl who’s older sister, Katniss,  was called into The Hunger Games. Katniss has always pretty much been Prim’s mother and father since their father passed away. Their mother became very depressed and started to not care about taking care of her family because of her loss. Because of their mother’s absence, Katniss was like a parent to Prim. When she had to leave, Prim wasn’t sure if she’d ever see her again.

Much like Prim, Michael and Sam both knew it would be a struggle to survive the next few months, but their father’s put them up to the job. Whether they would come back from war or not, they would obey and that’s what they did. In the end of their journeys they both got to feel freedom and what it was like feel safe. They both saved their families from death and that brought both of them great honor. 

Elf (Revised)

“The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to here!” That is quoted by, in my opinion, the most cheerful elf to live on this planet, Buddy. “Elf”, by David Berenbaum, is about a adult elf who as a baby crawled into Santa’s sack on Christmas night, little did Santa know his sack wasn’t empty and brought baby Buddy back with him to the North Pole. Buddy was raised by an elder elf, he called Papa Elf. Papa Elf raised Buddy to believe he was an elf, he was just a little different.

Buddy believed Papa Elf  and that he was a real elf, but after he found out all his life, everything he thought, was a lie, Papa Elf helped him set out to find his true family that lived in New York, that leads us to our theme. Believe, that is the theme of the story. Throughout the story of Buddy, he faced many people that didn’t believe in Santa Claus or themselves. Most importantly he met his father, Walter Hobbs, who also didn’t believe in the beauty of Christmas and spent most of his time at his job and not with his family. He was on the naughty list. That didn’t stop Buddy, he believed in his father and loved him even if he was on the naughty list.

Buddy soon found out that his father had a son, Michael, and  wife, Emily. Buddy loved Michael, they were brothers. Michael believed Buddy and that he was an elf. Every day they had a fun activity, for example in one scene they go to a mall and jump on the display beds at a mattress store.  While at the mall, buddy got a job at a major Christmas store, called Gimbles. While working there Buddy met the girl of his dreams, Jovie. Michael helped Buddy learn how to make a good impression on Jovie. Later that Thursday, Buddy and Jovie went on a first date to go and explore New York.

New York was much different from the North pole for Buddy. There were no elves, no toy making factories, and not everyone was very kind there. Near the end of the movie Walter then starts to believe in Buddy and that he is indeed a wonderful elf and a great son. Also because Buddy believed in his father so much, Walter finally got his spot on the nice list.

Prediction (Revised)

I have always been into very action pact books, anything else I read it's hard to fall asleep. When estimating an ending to a story I always end up up making it either adventurous or very dramatic. So when I was assigned to assume what was going to happen once he opened the purple jar I couldn't help but think it was going to come out and attack him. In the beginning of the story the author did I good job with making it surprising. I defiantly couldn't tell what was going to happen next. Once it got to the part with the purple gunk in the jar my big imagination took charge and pictured a big purple monster coming out and attacking him to the ground, but just before he can Mr.Mason tells him to stop. I pictured that Mr.Mason was using that as a threat and that if he doesn't stop the inappropriate attitude he wouldn't stop the monster and would let him devour Troy whole. Lastly, once his punishment was all done and over, he'd end up just like Dale, brainwashed forever.

Compare and Contrast

Theme (Elf)

Author's Note: In this piece, I wrote about the theme in the movie "Elf". I focused a lot on my transitions and using different styles of transitions. Please Enjoy.

“The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to here!” That is quoted by, in my opinion, the most cheerful elf ever to live on this planet, Buddy. “Elf”, by David Berenbaum, is about a adult elf who as a baby crawled into Santa’s sack on Christmas night, little did Santa know his sack wasn’t empty and brought baby Buddy back with him to the North Pole. Buddy was raised by an elder elf, he called Papa Elf. Papa Elf raised Buddy to believe he was an elf, but he was a special elf.

Buddy believed Papa Elf  and that he was a real elf, but after he found out all his life everything he thought was a lie, Papa Elf helped him set out to find his true family that lived in New York, that leads us to our theme. Believe, that is the theme of the story. Throughout the story of Buddy, he faced many people that didn’t believe in Santa Claus or themselves. Most importantly he met his father, Walter Hobbs, who also didn’t believe in the beauty of Christmas and spent most of his time at his job and not with his family. He was on the naughty list. That didn’t stop Buddy, he believed in his father and loved him even if he was on the naughty list. Buddy soon found out that his father had a son, Michael, and  wife, Emily. Buddy loved Michael, they were brothers. Michael believed Buddy and that he was an elf.

Buddy and Michael were best buds, and they were inseparable. Along the way buddy got a job at a major Christmas store, called Gimbles. While working there Buddy met the girl of his dreams, Jovie. Michael helped Buddy learn how to make a good impression on Jovie. Later that Thursday, Buddy and Jovie went on a first date to go and explore New York.

New York was much different from the North pole for Buddy. There were no elves, no toy making factories, and not everyone was very kind there. Near the end of the movie Walter then starts to believe in Buddy and that he is indeed a wonderful elf and a great son. Also, because Buddy believed in his father so much, Walter finally got his spot on the nice list.