smallgayjew (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
smallgayjew) wrote2011-07-14 02:33 pm
smallgayjew) wrote2011-07-14 02:33 pm
[Milliways]: After school special
If he’s honest with himself, he knew this was going to happen, but he doesn’t see a way he could have avoided it.
Every day, after dinner, his father and his uncle retire to the parlour, and his mother brings them tea. And every day he sits with them long enough for his father to ask what he did at school that day.
It’s not always an easy question to answer succinctly, but his father is always so interested. He always genuinely wants to know, and Posner knows he doesn’t have much else to occupy himself with, so he indulges him.
It’s the same today as on any other day.
“What did you do at school today, David?” he asks, and Posner pauses before answering.
It’s too much to explain the complicated politics behind Irwin and Hector sharing a class, so he says, “We talked about the Holocaust.”
Tension radiates from his uncle, and even his mother hesitates in adding sugar to his father’s tea.
“And what did you say about this, David?” his father asks, a thoughtful frown on his face.
“Well…Irwin reckons it’s a historical fact like other historical facts.”
He shouldn’t have said it. He should have lied, though lying to his parents always makes him feel a bit ill. He should have known what would come next.
The resounding crack shocks him almost more than the feel of the back of his uncle’s hand hitting his cheek, and for a long moment, there is silence.
“Never again, David.” It’s his uncle who speaks this time. “Never again repeat such filth in this house. This is what you’re going to school for? To learn such lies?”
But Posner doesn’t stay to hear the rest of his uncle’s tirade. He’s on his feet and racing up to his room before he says any more, before he really angers someone. His cheek stings and he could almost swear he feels the bruise forming, but he doesn’t stop at the bathroom to get something for the pain. He just runs to his room and shuts the door behind him, throwing himself onto the bed.
He can hear their voices below: his uncle’s loud, angry and demanding, his father’s softer, calming.
A few minutes later, his door opens, and he thinks it will be his mother, bringing him ice and perhaps some tea.
His bed dips with the weight of someone sitting, and a cool, wet cloth is placed against his cheek, but it is his father’s voice that speaks.
“He shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.”
Posner wants to say that he has no reason to be sorry, that he’s not the one who hit Posner, but he says nothing, afraid of hearing his own voice crack.
A hand is placed lightly on his back, and they both sit, saying nothing. Posner can still hear his uncle fuming below and his mother trying to calm him.
When the noise settles down, his father speaks again.
“You must never forget who you are, David. And you must never let them make you hide it.”
Posner still says nothing, and after a moment, his father pats his shoulder lightly.
He feels the weight removed from his bed, and he hears the door shut behind him.
And he wishes, not for the first time, that he were anyone other than who he is.
Every day, after dinner, his father and his uncle retire to the parlour, and his mother brings them tea. And every day he sits with them long enough for his father to ask what he did at school that day.
It’s not always an easy question to answer succinctly, but his father is always so interested. He always genuinely wants to know, and Posner knows he doesn’t have much else to occupy himself with, so he indulges him.
It’s the same today as on any other day.
“What did you do at school today, David?” he asks, and Posner pauses before answering.
It’s too much to explain the complicated politics behind Irwin and Hector sharing a class, so he says, “We talked about the Holocaust.”
Tension radiates from his uncle, and even his mother hesitates in adding sugar to his father’s tea.
“And what did you say about this, David?” his father asks, a thoughtful frown on his face.
“Well…Irwin reckons it’s a historical fact like other historical facts.”
He shouldn’t have said it. He should have lied, though lying to his parents always makes him feel a bit ill. He should have known what would come next.
The resounding crack shocks him almost more than the feel of the back of his uncle’s hand hitting his cheek, and for a long moment, there is silence.
“Never again, David.” It’s his uncle who speaks this time. “Never again repeat such filth in this house. This is what you’re going to school for? To learn such lies?”
But Posner doesn’t stay to hear the rest of his uncle’s tirade. He’s on his feet and racing up to his room before he says any more, before he really angers someone. His cheek stings and he could almost swear he feels the bruise forming, but he doesn’t stop at the bathroom to get something for the pain. He just runs to his room and shuts the door behind him, throwing himself onto the bed.
He can hear their voices below: his uncle’s loud, angry and demanding, his father’s softer, calming.
A few minutes later, his door opens, and he thinks it will be his mother, bringing him ice and perhaps some tea.
His bed dips with the weight of someone sitting, and a cool, wet cloth is placed against his cheek, but it is his father’s voice that speaks.
“He shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.”
Posner wants to say that he has no reason to be sorry, that he’s not the one who hit Posner, but he says nothing, afraid of hearing his own voice crack.
A hand is placed lightly on his back, and they both sit, saying nothing. Posner can still hear his uncle fuming below and his mother trying to calm him.
When the noise settles down, his father speaks again.
“You must never forget who you are, David. And you must never let them make you hide it.”
Posner still says nothing, and after a moment, his father pats his shoulder lightly.
He feels the weight removed from his bed, and he hears the door shut behind him.
And he wishes, not for the first time, that he were anyone other than who he is.