COURAGE OF SOLDIERS page (291)
Characters
-Father
-mother
-Lewis
-Aunty Ten
-Leroy
-Luke
From Aunty ten’s Perception
July 17
These poor kids, I cannot believe that my little nephews and nieces are being beaten depending on the grades they get at school. It hurts me knowing that there’s nothing I can do, except delay the inevitable. Every time I visit, the house is flooded with despair and agony. Every time I visit, the kids beg me to stay longer, not out of love or joy, but out of pure fear, hoping that somehow, just this once, they can escape the sadistic beatings given to them from their father. No matter how long I stay, it is always the same result. He is a patient man and I would not be surprised if the beatings started the second I left the house. It’s this feeling of helplessness that I can’t deal with. I can’t inform the police or the child protection agency as that would bring shame to my family. What that man is doing to his own children is cruel and inhumane and there’s nothing I can do except pray for it to end and for that family to have at least a speck of joy in their house. As each term passes and gets closer to report time, I try to figure out something that I can do to help those children. Nevertheless, it seems that there are only momentary fixes to this situation. I believe that at one point in time, that man did have good intentions. Like every other parent, he want his children to succeed in life and to be happy. However, there is no doubt that the way he chose express his concerns for the future is incredibly misguided.
July 18
Sometimes I wonder why that man has become like this. I never remember him being so cruel to others. His relationship with his own children is built around fear, pain and anguish. That man is ruining so many lives and I think he doesn’t even cares. “Tough love” doesn’t even begin to describe how he treats his own flesh and blood. He treats them as though they are unworthy to be even called his children. I don’t remember him being like this when we were kids; I mean we did struggle to get by but not so much that we were hanging by a few threads. I understand how he doesn’t want his kids to suffer as he did. Education is a way out of this. However, by beating his kids he’s throwing away his chance of having a loving and functional family. I can’t seem to be able to cope with this. I can’t think about anything else. It ruining my life. I can’t focus on my own life, my job, and my friends. The feeling that something so cruel is happening right under my nose and the fact that there is nothing I can do is eating away at me. It’s being reflected in everything I do.
July 19
I remember the last time I visited them and on countless occasions begged him to stop. I would beg his wife to put an end to this but they both turn a deaf ear. I would tell him that, “there just kids and what he’s doing is cruel and sadistic”. He just glared at me with a look on his face, as if he was going to kill me; I’ve never been...
