A story of child abuse, taking place right after “I’ll Be Right Back.”
Rainbow House. That was the name of the place where the five children were now living. The name meant nothing. Unexpectedly, about two weeks after the children were dropped off their mother made an appearance, but she didn’t stay long. Dawn was the first to see her mother come in through the front door and quickly walked up to give her a hug. Dawn had a black eye from rough housing with the other kids. Edan had unintentionally hit her with a pool ball while they were playing in the basement. It didn’t hurt anymore, but she wanted her mother to take her home; she didn’t like it at Rainbow House, none of the children did. Their mother didn’t say she was coming to take them home when she came by, she didn’t say much to her children at all.
It was already late spring, the children had been enrolled in a new school and were just finishing up the year before summer break. Marissa’s and Dawn’s birthday had passed in April, they had just celebrated Angie’s in May. Jason’s birthday was also in May, but it had been a long time since the five children had seen their older brother. Edan’s birthday was coming up in June, Lydia’s was in August and Rafe’s was in September.
Lydia was still gone too. The kids had stopped asking where their baby sister and older brother were after a few days of staying in their new home. They had to adjust to a new living arrangement and a new school in a very short time, so eager questions skipped through their minds quickly. Edan and Rafe had the hardest time adjusting. Sandy did her best to try to make everyone comfortable, but it was too many children for two adults to take care of on their own. Stan couldn’t deal with the energy Edan and Rafe exhibited, having two daughters had hardly prepared him for the sudden burden of taking care of two young boys.
It was early in the evening, and Sandy had just fixed dinner and called all the children from outside to come in and eat. After supper, the foster parents supervised the kids doing their homework, then cleaned up the dining room and made sure everyone got ready for bed. All the kids were outside playing except for Edan, he was in his room, being punished for misbehaving. Stan often made Edan and Rafe sit in a chair in their room whenever they did something disruptive. Edan had been in his room today for hours, sitting in a chair, staring at the wall. He hated the way Stan would come in to speak to him about his behavior, he didn’t care what Stan had to say about anything. Whenever Rafe was being punished, he would just sit in the chair and cry. The first time Rafe was forced to sit in his chair, he began to call for his mother, not thinking that she was nowhere around.
Tonight Sandy had made some kind of stew with mixed vegetables. Edan was the first to sit at the table since he was already inside. Feeling relieved to finally leave his room, however, taking a look at the food he was about to eat, was suddenly nonchalant. Katie and Lauren were accustomed to the kind of food their mother served, but their new foster siblings were beginning to protest. They didn’t like any vegetable that wasn’t peas, corn on the cob, or potatoes. Green beans, broccoli, tomatoes, squash, carrots and anything else Sandy usually prepared was novel to their little stomachs. Sometimes they refused to eat.
Dawn had gotten into the habit of putting food in her mouth and spitting it into her napkin. She hated green beans the most, but Sandy would make her sit at the table and finish them before letting her go to bed. Fortunately, they weren’t eating green beans tonight, they had zucchini. Angie didn’t like the taste of it at all, admonishing the food on her plate and refusing to eat it.
“This taste funny, I’m not going to eat it.” Angie stated, looking up defiantly whilst putting down her fork, aplomb with her decision. She’d rather not eat.
Immediately, Stan got up from his seat, scooped up her fork and slammed it into the zucchini on her plate, making a loud scraping sound as he did so. Before anyone even thought about what he was doing, he shoved the fork in Angie’s mouth. She squirmed in protest, so he reached up with his free hand to grip the sides of her mouth between his thumb and index finger, forcing her lips to stay open. A silence fell over the table and all you could hear was Angie’s gagging to Stan’s brutality.
” If you throw up, you’re going to get spanked and sent to bed.” Stan said coarsely. Sandy tried to get her husband’s attention to tell him he was being too rough, but he ignored her. Stan determined to make Angie finish her meal. Although Stan rarely spanked any of the children, including his own, the prospect of such a punishment was terrifying. No one likes to be hit.
” CHEW!” Stan demanded as the little girl’s face flushed red and tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, slowly sliding down her cheeks. Angie relented and swallowed the unsavory substance in her mouth. The table was still quiet, but a though in the back of the mind of her siblings was nothing more than setting precedence for a similar consequence if they ever behaved the same way.