She

She is running from the mobile home. The six month old baby is in the truck buckled into his carseat. The man is getting closer. She gets behind the wheel, but he is already there, pulling the door open.

He punches her in the head, the arm, the face...any where that he can land a punch. He tells her to get out of the truck, but she has the keys in the ignition. She knows if she can turn the ignition on and coax the truck forward, she will escape the beating...escape it all of it for the last time. "Get out of the truck," he shouts, but she is still trying to break free. She is trying to start the engine while dodging and blocking the punches. The baby is crying. She is yelling for him to leave her alone.

He grabs one of her legs and pulls her out of the cab. He has both of her ankles and she lands hard on her backside with nothing to break the fall. Tears are streaming down her cheeks. Her baby is crying and she is trying to get up. He is kicking her, while he tells her, "Look what you made me do." Yes, look what she made you do.

She finds her feet and crosses to the other side of the truck. She takes the baby out of the carseat and she makes him a bottle. She rocks the baby gently while singing, Edelweiss. Her baby falls asleep peacefully. She rocks him for hours, promising him that it will not always be this way.

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She is hanging laundry in the backyard. She doesn't know that he is there. The baby is asleep in the house. Suddenly, something lands in the grass next to her. Boom! A fire cracker. Then it begins to rain fire crackers. She can hear him laughing, while she is begging him to stop throwing them. He laughs and tosses them endlessly. She pleads for him to stop, but he thinks it is so very funny. So very, very funny.

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She is sleeping hard and the baby is in his crib. Suddenly, she jumps awake. He is punching her in the head. "Get up and go see what that noise is," he says between punches. "What is happening," she asks meekly and then she hears the noise, too. Someone is in the house. "I'm scared," she says in a whisper, but he keeps hitting her and telling her to go find out who is in their house. It is the landlord. The baby is fine. She is dizzy.

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