Boy, Dangling or "Don't Hit Him In the Head!

"Don't Hit Him In The Head!"

Fifteen years of age, seven stone and already terrified of life and with a blinking habit that attracts the piss-taking of fellow classmates, well, it doesn’t look like that fear is going away anytime soon.

Your feet are slightly off the air, as your father pushes you against the wall with one hand whilst the other brutally smashes you around your head. You become slightly disorientated, but you are still aware of this: “Not in the head or face Peter, don’t hit him in the head.”

It is your mother pleading your case for clemency, but later in life, you will wonder if this was actually so that the neighbours don’t see the bruising that will surely appear the next day.

Finally, you are released, and with your ears ringing, you are banished to your room for a sentence of two whole weeks. Your crime for this abuse? A silly argument with your sister. A nothing, just two siblings in a volley of childish words.

Then the other words that follow you around, the words your father equipped you for life with are this: “You are shit, you will never do anything in life.”

And you believe him, you really do. Until you meet that one person who tells you differently. That one person who knows when to push you and when to hold you. She will give you your own clan one day, children you will never raise a hand to, let alone lift off the floor by their throat.

You don’t know this yet, as you trundle up the staircase to be shunned yet again. You still think you are your father’s piece of shit. Through all the years of PTSD, you have no idea you will become A Tall Poppy. But you will.

A Tall Poppy and other books by Simon Morrell are available here

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