The Alternate

Nightmares

"Mom, are we almost there?"
The boy sitting in the back seat asked. She looked back to answer him, "Yeah Stevie, just a couple more miles."
His father looked at the rear view mirror to see his son's reflection,
"Steven do you want to play a game?"
Steven perked up in his seat,
"Oh, can we play spy?"
"Sure thing kiddo, you start us off."
"Okay, I spy with my little eye" he paused while looking for something that was outside the car, "something green!" he said excitedly.
"Hmmmm" his dad said, " is it the grass on the mountainside?" he answered.
"You got it! Okay, okay  your turn."
"I spy with my big eye, something black."
It was Steven's mother who answered saying, "That's an easy one, the asphalt."
"Babe, you're too smart for me. Then he leaned over to peck her on the cheek.

Steven sat there grossed out by his parents' affection , until something caught his eye. A bright light that was getting brighter. It wasn't until he sat up straight to see two headlights on their side of the road heading towards them. Steven heard his mom screaming, which would haunt him for the rest of his life. Steven opened his eyes, the bright lights hurt to keep them open. He heard voices he didn't recognize. He tried to open his eyes again. This time he was able to keep them open a little longer. At the end of the bed two people sat watching him. It was a man and a woman. The man quickly got up to check on Steven, "Hey Steve, how's it going champ?"

Steven didn't answer him, his parents always told him never talk to strangers. This guy sure qualified. He was being  over familiar and weird, no one called him Champ. Maybe Steve, but not champ.
"Hey buddy, you were in a car accident. Your parents, my brother and his wife are no longer with us. Sorry kiddo."
Steven didn't understand him, 'If your my uncle where have you been all my life?' he thought to say but instead asked, " what do you mean 'they are no longer with us?'"
The woman, who was sitting in the chair, got up and said bluntly, "They're dead kids."

Steven knew that word. He learned about what that word meant when he lost his goldfish when he was five, he was ten now. His parents had fallen asleep like Mr. Gills thought.
"Why can't I remember anything?" Steven asked.
"The Doctors say if you have  amnesia it will probably pass, but most likely you won't remember anything from the accident." the woman said.
Steven tried to remember but all he was rewarded with was a black wall where his memories would have been. He tried very hard, but nothing changed, he lost those memories of his parents. He couldn't even remember where they were going, just that they came from home.

"My arm is broken!" He said in alarm.
At that moment a man in a white coat came in, "Hi Steven, I'm Doctor Paul Bettany, but you can call me Paul. How do you feel today?" as he asked he pointed towards the chart of faces. The one on the left was happy but in stark contrast the far right one was very sad. Steven held up two fingers to indicate the second smiley face.
"That's good. I'm glad you're feeling better."
"When will I get my memories back?" he asked the doctor.
The doctor smiled and sat next to him on the bed, "To tell you the truth I don't know the answer to that, because everyone heals differently. I will tell you this, if they do come back and you need help to understand them you've got yourself a loving aunt and uncle here to help you through it."
After he said that he patted his shoulder then left. Steven felt like the world was crashing all around him. Everyone was being so nice, except the woman. His aunt seemed to not care as much as everybody else. Though the nice people helped a little, it still felt  like his chest was being crushed by an elephant's foot.

Once he was cleared to leave, his Aunt and uncle took him to their house.  They walked him in and showed him around.
"Welcome to your new home Kiddo."
his uncle said as if he was some kind of announcer at a circus, it was funny.
For a few months things were good, life continued as though he didn't lose his parents. He made it to age eleven and he felt as if he was on the mend.
Unfortunately the tides were changing, personalities were surfacing. Things the uncle and aunt wouldn't have noticed, because they hadn't seen Steven grow up.
At first the chores were reasonable, the demands unquestionably, but as a growing teenager these things too, changed. The abuse, like a pearl, started small and from irritation. Mostly from the uncle he would get a verbal scolding that seemed out of place. For something trivial as forgetting to take out the trash or washing the dishes. The first time he was hit, it was by his aunt and for something that he was unaware of until later when they apologized that night. Now this is not to be confused with discipline, where one is learning from their mistakes. No, shouting, cursing and beatings were dispensed in this home. There are just reactionary acts of violence done to this boy, for things that aren't even warranted.

Steven also changes. His mood became increasingly dark at times. They chalked it up to him being a teen of course,  not seeing the real issue. His personality changed from time to time. Impulsive here and timid there. Of course, these problems just kept on getting worse and worse.  His uncle had a system where if you didn't learn the first time, because you should have heard the first time only, you got beaten. If the second time came, then you lost a meal. The third time meant you got locked in the room. All the while, his uncle would just laugh and tell all his friends that 'Steven was a good child, the best.' Despite these compliments, any little thing he deemed wrong, would end in a punishment.
At age sixteen, the cycle of abuse continued, but this time Steven actually did something that would have qualified him for regular discipline. Unfortunately that's not what he received.

The big black SUV was parked out in front of the house, one bright Friday afternoon. Earlier Steven asked his Aunt to take him to the store. He needed supplies for a project he was working on for the summer. She was unable to take him, but what she said was, "I'm not taking you anywhere you ungrateful little...."with a sour look on her face.
This upset Steven.
He wouldn't ask for anything because they would always have something to say.
'Oh, you didn't take out the trash last week.' or 'your room is a mess.' they had a long list of things he supposedly didn't do. However this time he made sure his record was clean. And now she didn't have anything to say except this nasty remark. He was done with this; all of their crap. His aunt was an alcoholic and would be knocked out by 2 o'clock in the afternoon.  He knew if he waited until then he could take the car and be back before she'd even wake up. So he sardonically replied to her nasty statement, "Sorry Auntie."

After she was out like a light, Steven took the car keys and went outside to the SUV. He turned the car keys in the ignition. The vehicle came on with a roar. He shifted the gears in reverse and pulled out of the driveway. Shifting it into drive, Steven left for the store to get his supplies. On his way back he drove slowly through the neighborhoods to avoid any police he might run into. Even though he looked old enough to be driving he only knew from watching his uncle and aunt and they weren't the best examples.

Down the street, there was a group of kids playing basketball. They were playing a game of "21". The oldest kid in the group was in the lead, he just needed one free throw to win the game. The ball hit the rim and bounced out and towards the street.
Steven felt like he had won. He got what he needed and no one would have known what he had done. He looked at the radio to change the station, when his eyes went back to the road, he tensed up. There was a basketball bouncing in the road. However the kid chasing the ball was what made him nervous, the street wasn't that wide, but the kid was  halfway across already. Steven was twenty feet away and going twenty miles per hour. Steven swerved around the kid. Unfortunately, he clipped the curb scratched up the front bumper and rim. Thankfully missing the kid all together. He stopped for a second just breathing and glad he didn't hit anyone. He looked to the house and saw the kids mom coming out and screaming, " What the hell are you doing you pieces of...."
Before the angry woman got any closer, Steven drove off.

Steven knew that he wasn't going to get away with it now that the car was damaged. He knew that not even the truth would save him from the punishment that he was going to receive. When he arrived back at the house his aunt must have woken up from her drunk slumber,  because his uncle was home early. He was standing in  the yard, his fist was firmly planted on his hips, and his eyes burned through Steven's skull with hatred. Once inside Steven tried to explain everything, but there was no mercy found in his uncle's eyes.

His uncle grabbed a wooden dowel that was two and a half inches in diameter, and raised it above his head, "It's time for you to learn a new lesson about taking things that don't belong to you boy."
The wooden dowel came down on Steven with such velocity and wrath that when he went to defend himself, it struck the same arm that had been broken when he was in the car accident. The dowel made contact with the arm and made a loud snapping sound.
He felt lightning shoot through his arm.  Steven tried to scream, but his uncle kept beating him with the dowel. Until he blacked out.