16. Defending Mom
I was 12 when it happened and as much as it was a pure accident my life was better afterward.
My mum and I were living with her boyfriend at the time (this man was a drunk and an abuser) I came home one day from school to find him beating my mum down in the kitchen. I had never even thought about standing up to this guy, he was above 6’3 and very broad but that day I came home from school made me summon all the courage I had to save my Mum. As I ran over to them I grabbed a fork off the table and stabbed him just below his shoulder on the back, it scared him so much that he had a heart attack and died on the floor.
17. “She Let Go Of My Hand…”
She was turning 13, I was 13 turning 14. It was her birthday and a group of us went to an old power plant to explore. I had asked her to ‘go out’ with me earlier that day. It was hilariously awkward and now it’s bittersweet.
Our friends stayed on the ground floor and she and I crawled up to the third floor to ‘make out’ but, we were just going to tell everyone we did. I was too advanced and she was a good girl, from the nice part of town.
After 10 minutes of edging along the wall, she let go of my hand and tried to crawl over to a window to look out.
It’s taken me years to get past that moment and think clearly about what happened. I heard a yelp and a crack that still makes me nauseous today. I can’t watch videos of a skater falling, or hostel or saw. I crawled down to her and all of our friends ran off to get help. I remember being pissed that no one was helping, I was trying to do CPR or something to save her life. The cops found us and I was covered in blood.
I’ve been told it’s not my fault, her parents still blame me. We went to court for a few times and my saint of a public defender was able to argue out of manslaughter charges.
