All Things Go Bump In The Night

When She Pretended

I was a single mother of three. My youngest child's name is Jake, he is only 2. My other son is Aaron, he's six and my daughter Cindy is 4. Life wasn't too bad and me and my family lived comfortably, that was until the day she got sick.

Cindy.... she was extremely ill. She was vomiting everywhere, she always complained of headaches and pains and would break in and out of high fevers. The doctors thought she had a new form a cancer and put her on medication.... expensive medication.

She was put on a strict diet and couldn't go outside and play anymore. If she ever fell she could easily break her bones or worse. She would never want to take the medicine. It was a battle everyday. Soon we had to cut down some of our privileges like going bowling and to the movies every now and then.

The entire time things got worse. Cindy had to stop going to school completely. She was completely bedridden. I thought it was over but then I was given hope. The doctors put her on new medication which started to help her. We could finally take her out of the house and she could play outside.

That's when Aaron started to get rough. I would see him grabbing her hand and pulling her around or just screaming at her over the simplest things. I told him to stop and he looked me in my eyes. "Don't you see it Ma? She's just pretending. She's a pretender"

He would go on and on until one day he walked up to her and pushed her off the swing she was sitting on. She fell flat on her face. I was already running towards her before she had begun to bleed. I got her inside and gave her a tissue to stop the nose bleed.

I was so upset. Why was Aaron behaving so horribly? He was never a bad kid, so why was he bullying his sister all of a sudden. I stopped taking Cindy outside to play, only when she stayed home and Aaron was gone, but that didn't stop him. Aaron would throw his food at her, call her names and tease her.

I told him to stop but he would ignore me. No punishment would stop him, I even spanked him a few times but nothing worked. He just got worse. One day I walked in the room and saw Cindy hiding in a corner while Aaron held a knife in his hand.

"Stop pretending, why can't you go die already? Why are you still here? Go away!!" He shouted at her. I grabbed the knife and screamed at him to go and stand in the basement for his punishment. I cradled my daughter in my arms. She was so cold and scared. I told her everything was going to be okay

I had to cut down our food supply to support the medication for her, but once again she got worse. I blamed Aaron for all of it. The torment inflicted upon her must of caused a relapse into this horrible disease. She was dying, her skin was peeling off and I couldn't bare the smell that lingered in her room.

I couldn't take her to the doctors so I just had to bring pictures of her to them. They thought that she was suffering from a weaponized form of the plague or 'The Black Death'. They wanted to see her but I couldn't afford it.

I started to lose weight tremendously. I barely ate or cooked anything. Aaron would yell at me and call me a horrible mother. I didn't care. After I locked him the basement I couldn't hear him. He would scream and shout but I didn't listen.

Soon the only things I paid for were the bills and for the medicine. I would pop the pills in between Cindy's cold lips and use the water to help slide it down her throat. And soon she got better. I showed the doctors and they said she needed more rest but I didn't care. I took her outside and pushed her on the swings and played Ring around the Rosie with her. We were so happy.

The school called a couple of times to ask why Aaron wasn't going to school but I didn't care. How could I afford to send him to school if I had to spend so much on medication. They would understand. Jake cried a lot. He must of missed his sister. I felt sorry for him but I couldn't do anything.