A Safe Haven

Three

Mark could see the way Ace was looking at him and he would be right. He had lied to Spencer, mainly because he wasn't sure the boy would understand the truth or why he had ended up in the terrible situation he had. How could he tell the boy that his mother had given him up for adoption hoping he would have a better life when that wasn't what happened at all.

"What are you thinking about Mark?" Spencer asked after having eaten his fill. He was sitting on his knee's and bouncing a bit in his seat.

"Can't you sit with your feet on the floor?" Mark asked the boy avoiding the question.

"Is that what you were thinking about?" Spencer asked raising the side of his lips and didn't answer the question. 

"No," Mark said deciding to drop that line of questioning. He could barely get the boy to sit still and one had to pick their battles. "Do you have any homework to work on this evening?"

Spencer moaned rolling his eyes. "Yeah but it sucks. I can't do it."

"Can I see it?" Mark asked wanting to see his schoolwork after having talked to his teachers.  Spencer had only been here a few weeks and the teacher told him that his assignments were like chicken scratching and his reading apprehension was really bad.

Mark watched Ace get up and put his dish in the sink. Then he left the room. Spencer stomped into the other room and brought back his folder with his homework papers inside, shoving it at him. Opening the folder, he looked at the papers and looked at the way the words were written. It reminded him of how his brother wrote letters some as if looking in a mirror and other letters were just very chaotic. In fact, Spencer reminded him a lot of Scott. The last memory he had of Scott was of him being angry and yelling at him. They were always fighting but this had been the worst because later that day, Scott had gotten drunk and rode his bike off a bridge. Whether it had been suicide or an accident, he still didn't know. "I know its hard but you can overcome this. I'm going to get you some extra help."

"Why do I even have to go?" Spencer whined kicking the table leg lightly.

Mark gave him a stern look. "Don't do that. We all have to go to learn stuff in order to be responsible educated adults."

Spencer kicked the table leg again. 

The boy really had no concept of right and wrong or of loving discipline. His parents ignored him most of the time and was doing illegal drugs and whenever he did bother them, he'd get beat up or worse. Mark knew all this from files. He sighed, "If you do it again you will have a time out."

"F**k no I'm not," Spencer yelled and probably didn't even know what that word meant. He was just copying things he had heard from his parents.

The battle began as Mark picked him up and attempted to sit him in a chair in the corner. Spencer was thrashing his legs and arms, screaming obscenities at the top of his lungs as Mark smacked his bottom which made him start to howl. Corner time never happened because Spencer became full on aggressive; biting, spitting, kicking, hitting and screaming. All he could do is pull him into his arms and hold him on the floor keeping his arms securely pinned along with his legs with his own legs. He would have to hold him like that as long as it took. "I'm not letting you go until you calm down."

Spencer worked himself into a frenzy.  It seemed like hours before he was too exhausted to fight. Mark was tired too and took him to the bathroom helping him wash. Then he laid Spencer on his bed to rest for awhile. There was a few hours before bedtime so he imagined Spencer would be back up after a little while.