The Unadulterated Life

The Calm Before The Storm

That way of life continued for 2 months. Timothy getting his high, Margaret working full time and Horatio not seeing much of his parents. Until Tim supposedly got a phone call from Margaret's brother Daryl saying "if you don't get away from them I will hunt you down and kill you". So one day while Marg was at work and Horatio at day care Tim packed his stuff and left without a trace. This left Marg in a serious state of depression and very suicidal. Marg's sister in law Rosa heard about this and offered her and Horatio a place to stay with Marg's parents and took them both in. After a few counselling session Marg went back to work and left Horatio in Rosa's care.

To Horatio, Rosa was his second mother and because his dad left before he could properly remember him, his grandpa became his mentor. He loved his grandpa. He was the one that taught Horatio how to talk. Rosa was the one that noticed Horatio was developing bad rashes and took him to the doctors. They diagnosed him with severe eczema. With a lot of irritation, scratching and bleeding, his mother learnt what to do to subdue it. After a few years Horatio was due to start school and his mother choose to send him to the same school everyone in the family went to, Caulfield Primary School. He was so nervous on his first day, he wouldn't let go of his mother. Marg didn't know what to do. She had to start work in half an hour but Horatio wouldn't let go. So she walked him over to another young boy named Jesse. As soon as Jesse introduced himself they clicked, become the greatest of friends.

Horatio's primary school years weren't the greatest. In prep his mental illnesses started developing and he became the school bully. When his mother learnt about this she stuck up for him and said "he is only being a bully because he has nothing to do". So the teachers gave him grade 2 work to do and he settled right down. In grade one Horatio's eczema got worse and started turn up to school with scabs all over his body. All the kids would laugh and call him names. Some being, "scabby", "spot" and "disease". He went from the bully to the bullied.

Grade 2 was when Horatio started noticing that his mother rarely ate, saving most of the food for Horatio instead of for herself. This gave him an idea. When his mother had asked if he had eaten he would say yes and feel pride when he would see her eat a proper meal. This however had its downfall. By letting his mother eat, he started losing weight, and fast. In 2 weeks Horatio and gone from 28kgs to 23kgs. The kids at Caulfield had noticed and started calling him more names. This was also the year Horatio had split his head open twice. The first time was on a concrete railing after he tripped on a gutter. He needed 4 stitches. Exactly one week and a day after he had split it open the first time, one of the kids had bullied him so much he fought back. This resulted in him having his head smashed through a wooden table splitting his head open in the exact same spot.

The only good things about this year was when his mother came to him and told him that he was gonna have a sibling. This was also the first time he met his step father Gregory. He was so happy with the news that he told everyone he saw. However the kids at school used it against him. "Your mother hates you so much she is having another baby to replace you". In August that year he moved out with his mother and step dad to a house in Clayton. He still had Jesse at school so Horatio begged Marg to keep sending him to Caulfield. So everyday Horatio would get up at 6:30am and get ready for school.