CONTENT WARNING!!: There is a very brief mention of domestic violence. It's not directly stated but it's not difficult to understand what happened. It starts at "'He broke it'" and ends at "'Why can't you live with me?'", in case you wanted to know.
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It was two in the afternoon. I had eaten lunch but I was still hungry. I was also bored. I looked over at my father, who was working at his desk, then looked around at the empty room. Nobody had come in in a while, and I began to wonder if anybody ever would.
"Can we go home now?" I whined.
"Mummy's coming to pick you up in about an hour," my father replied.
"Why couldn't I just stay home?" I whined.
"Your mother and I didn't want you to stay home alone," my father said, still focused on what he was working on.
"Why couldn't I go to a friend's house?" I asked.
"Which friend?" my father asked, looking at me.
"Ralph?" I asked.
"His mother is probably busy," my father replied. "I wouldn't want to bother her."
"How 'bout Roger?" I asked. My father quickly answered this with a "No." before looking away. I translated that to mean "Absolutely not."
I groaned and slumped down in my chair. Another hour with nothing to do sounded horrible to me. I just wanted to go home and do something I enjoyed doing.
A knock on the door jolted me into a sitting position.
"Come in!" my father yelled. There was no answer, and after a while whoever was on the other side of the door knocked harder.
"Jack could you go open it please?" my father asked. I sighed and got up from my chair. I walked to the door, and when I threw it opened, I saw Roger standing on the other side, ready to knock again.
He was holding his right arm close to his chest, and his wrist was bruised and swollen.
"Your arm..." my voice trailed off. Roger pushed past me and walked into the room. I closed the door, turning around. Roger walked up to my father and said,
"Dr. Merridew?"
My father looked up, and when he saw Roger he said,
"Hello, Roger. What's wrong? How can I help you?"
Roger held out his arm. My father inspected it, then said,
"That looks bad."
"It is," Roger replied.
"How did this happen?" my father asked.
"I..." Roger hesitated. I knew he was thinking about a way to hide what actually happened. Eventually, he finished with, "I broke it."
I knew he was lying, but I didn't say anything.
"Okay," my father said. "How?"
"I just did," Roger said.
"I can't do anything for you if I don't know how this happened," my father said.
"I'm not going to tell you what happened," Roger said. "Now are you going to help me or not?"
My father sighed. I could tell he didn't like Roger's attitude, but instead of criticizing him, he said,
"The best I can do without much information is take an x-ray."
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The Choir He Wanted, The LIfe He Had
FanfictionEveryone knows what happened to Jack Merridew in William Goulding's novel "Lord of the Flies," but what happened before that? What was his life like before the island? How did he become the "chapter chorister and head boy" that he is in the novel? T...
