Cursed To Be Average

Chapter 1: Just Your Regular Everyday Beating

     The cane came down on me again. And again. And again.Just in case you've never been caned by an irate dad on a school night,here's a heads up:It hurts.

     "I said lie down."said my father angrily as he pushed me onto the floor.My whole body was shaking as I lay on the cool tile floor.I cried out incoherent apologies, even though I knew that it was useless to do so.My father looked at me,furious.

     He had one hand on my back trying to pin me to the floor, the other hand behind his back, holding a cane.His 6.2 form towered over me.His eyes were always bloodshot, and his forehead was slick with sweat as he forced my head down.Another one came down on my back.I was sure I would bleed this time.

    "All you ever do in this house is disrespect people,"He said,beating me over and over with the thin stick he had taken from a tree in the backyard."Do you know how much of an embarrassment you are?,"he spat.I tried to hold still, writhing around as the cane landed on me.I started shaking much more violently out of fear."Every teacher in your stream is talking about you. You're quite a hot topic." He snarled.Tears were pouring down my face and blurring my vision. My body arched on its own,my arms over my head to protect me. It'll end. It'll end. It'll end.

      My back arched.I could feel the large welts forming as I rolled around on the floor,trying to get away from him.An odd howling bounced off the living room walls.It took a second to realise that it was coming from my own mouth.I screamed as the stick finally broke in half.My father threw the useless remains out the window, and stormed out to get another one.I looked up through my tears to see my mother looking at me in pity.

She was clad in a long faded dress that looked like it had seen better days. Her darting eyes looked everywhere but at me."You shouldn't have done that,"she says to the blank wall behind me."Your father is only trying to beat that habit out of you.Why aren't you listening?"She shook her head in disappointment.

I was too exhausted and scared to react, so I remained on the floor, still trembling.I could hear him struggling to yank another cane off the tree, and my body shook even more.The smell of sweat and strong cologne surrounded me as he came back,with a longer and thinner cane.My body tensed up again,the flight or fight response screaming for me to get out."This will teach you never to disobey anyone again."

The pain was becoming unbearable, but I couldn't scream for help as he kept telling me to shut the fuck up.I couldn't keep quiet, even though I tried to,and every time I hit my back against the floor, a new wave of pain would leave me thrashing on the floor like some demented thing.Finally, he stopped. Maybe his arm got tired.Maybe he was considering getting a whip so that it would hurt more.

I screamed as he yanked my head up by the hair."ShutupshutupshutupSHUTUP! You're only paying the price for what you did. All you ever do in school is sashay around with those assholes you call friends and end up getting low grades! "I screamed again."I don't ever want a repeat of this. Are we clear? "

Yes.I'm sure you made it very clear.You sadistic bastard.

Seeing no response,he asked again, in a deadly hiss."Are we clear?"I nodded slowly.He clenched his hands into a fist and walked away,leaving me on the floor,wounded and having wet my trousers and half of my shirt with piss.Meanwhile,my mother awoke from her trance and finally looked at me.She sighed and rose from her seat.

Later, she would explain that it was just my father trying to beat it out of me."It's like a spirit we're trying to cast out of you." As though I had a demon in me, and it was all my fault."Your father often hates beating you, you know? He feels your pain,and as your father, it is his duty to correct you lovingly."She'd then hug me tightly and whisper,"After all, spare the rod, spoil the child, right?It's written in the bible."

I was only 13 then. Tell me what I did so wrong to deserve all of this...