Group Home by Fatoumata Ly

My life had always been a roller coaster but hey that’s what life is right. My mother was a very kind mother and very strong and independent she was always there for me and loved me (around this time in my life a was HAPPY wow it feels weird saying the word H-A-A-P-Y) but anyway my mother was everything she was my world unlit it was taken away from me when she met her boyfriend TODD. Todd was a much older man then my mother he was very short and scruffy he kind of remind me of Roger Chill Wrought  from The Scarlet letter that I read in my AP literature which was one of my favorite books ( I am not going to go into detail about the book , special for the non- readers which I know there is a lot of them) but anyway when my mother meant Todd it went all downhill for me and her she suddenly started acting different she no longer attend work she always look like she was on drugs. Later I found out Todd has turn my mother into a full born prostitution, using my mother for sexual activity for his own payment. There was nothing else for me to do, I tried to get my mother out of the situation but she wouldn’t listen, Todd had turned my mother into a robot which he only had control over her. My mother wasn’t my mother anymore. There was no point of me staying anymore. So I left. I abandoned a person I once love but it was already too late for her and if I didn’t leave now I’ll probably end up just like her knowing how Todd works. I had to leave, I had to I hope people can understand.

                           That night I fluffed up my pillows under the covers to make it look like I was still asleep  and a left and has I try to leave I felt someone pull my hand and it was Todd, he eyes were red as ever and he looked at me like he wasn’t there  he then asks “ where are you going”? I told him I was going out for a walk he then responded “this time of night don’t tell me you running the streets like your mother” smirking. I tried to fight his hand off of me and that’s when I felt him pick me up and slam me against the wall trying to unbutton my shirt, I can’t believe this was happen to me, I tried to fight him off of me but he was too strong, I then see a knife at the corner of my eye and I reach for it while Todd tries to rip off my pants like a while animals, him pushes my head back with every muscle that he has, I finally reach for the knife and stab him right in the back he then releases me and I run for the door, I can hear him shouting I in great pain, but I keep on running in great fear that he is right be hide me. I mean how could this happen to me my life was just perfect one second and then turned into a nightmare the next.  For the next few Days I slept on the streets unlit I found myself at a Group home with kids just like me who had nothing, or once had something and then it was gone.  There were tons of kids some who were not very nice; I can tell they didn’t want a new kid with no home come." Hi my name is Arba " (a short girl comes out of now where I can tell she was from Indiana or had a Indian decent) What’s yours? "Cyrus" I replied. Oh okay welcome to our disgusting home this Ashley, Carrie , Tony she introduces each member of the house expect one person who was sitting in the back wearing all white which was very dirty with his head bent down I asked her the person was she responded  “Oh that's.. Well no one really knows his name he never spoken before he just sits in the back stays to himself... Weirdo; but anyway don’t pay attention to him this is your new room” Arba then shows me to my room and to be honest it was fifthly but it was better than living on the streets or living at home with Todd and my mother who was now Todd’s property.

                              A couple of months has passed since I first moved here and many things of gone wrong. Yesterday while eating breakfast which we barely had done since the social workers doesn’t feed us enough. We all sat at the lunch table and everyone was pissed and hungry because they weren’t getting feed enough and they all came up with the idea of drug dealing to get money for food and clothes with we didn’t have. Tony told the Group that he knew some drug dealers that he had been friends back then when he was dealing on streets he said that they can give him over 1000 dollars. This shocked everyone and everyone was ecstatic about receiving 1000 dollars this was the kind of money they never heard before, everyone was sitting on the table contemplating on what they were going to do with the money once they received it. "Arab then shouts out “ I am going  buy me whole box of food with everything that I love cookies, peanut butter ice cream I can go on for days”... What are you going to buy Cyrus “I think this is a bad idea” I said... She was shocked she acted like I said I am going to murder the president or something. Any way after everyone discussed who was going to go out and get the money which was Tony of course and Ashley which I don’t know why they pick her because she was the most scared one out of everyone and sure didn’t want to go with Tony but everyone convince her I just thought the whole idea was bad from the start it was too risky. And after all I was right. We all heard a loud knock on our door and we all rushed downstairs, to see if they had got the money but it was only Tony terrified and trying to explain to us what happen after we all just asked where Ashley was. He said  out of breath " She been shoot I don’t know what happen but it happen so fast we walked up to the two drug dealers and introduced them to Ashley and apparently one of the drug dealers was Ashley  ex who she run away from .. And all I remember is him grabbing and pulling and I try to stop him from hurting Ashley, which eventually turned into a fight and Ashley and all of a sudden we here the cops, we all scattered and then all I heard was a shot .I turned around I see that Ashley got it in the back tons of bloods leaking I tried to get her up but she was gone by now, there was nothing I could’ve down” Tony then puts his head down and starts crying .Everyone in the house immediately starts crying  including me , thoughts race back and forth in my head confused I mean  How could this happen so fast and why to Ashley she didn’t want to go in the first and all of a sudden I feel bad and feel like it’s all my fault only if I spoke up and told all of them that this was a bad idea and explain further why they shouldn’t do this I could’ve stop them. "

  The next Moring I wake up to find out the Group home no longer a home, it was flooded with feds and government social workers removing stuff from the home and searching to scope some type of evidence or something. I then run up to Arab and ask her “What’s going on"? She replies “Since Ashley got shot the feds came to investage and find out what happen”... “Now listen to me very careful they are going to talk to each and every one of us individual and ask us question on what happen and I repeat you cannot tell them anything of happen okay do you understand”?. I was shocked  I dint want the feds to be interviewing me special that I think the whole situation with Ashley is all my fault her head nervously “After a few minutes it was my turn to get interview and I repeated the words of  Arba in my head slowly “you can’t say anything” After a few minutes into the interview I couldn’t hold it in anymore, I couldn’t pretend that nothing happen to Ashley it wasn’t right I was tired of living in this crappy home and for the stake of others to keep them safe, I  blurred out the truth from the beginning. I felt better after I did, and nothing was eaten me alive again.

Few months has passed and the Group was shut down for the poor services and the mistreatment of us kids many of us were spilt, many of the kids that I lived in the Group Home with were upset that I told the truth. But I know it was only right for the stake of them. I currently I am living in a new group home, which is much better we actually have real social workers  working at the home and feed us and actually takes really good care of us. I mean I am ok about it all but I am not Happy, after the group home was shut down I went back to visit my mother but nothing was there the apartment was completely empty not a single evidence was left of my mother and day to day I go by thinking about her wondering if she is safe like I am, wondering if she fought off Todd and was able to get her life under control. The only thing that’s left for me is me and this group home and the never ending though of my mother who could be gone.