"Are you happy; are you happy that you drove your father away?"

Robert lay curled up on the floor with his hands over his face. His mother kicked him hard in the back causing the young boy to scream in pain. She reached down grabbing him by his tangled mess of brown hair, she pulled him across the floor; burning pain shot through his scalp. He peeked between his fingers to see Drayton sitting on the couch watching this go on, he had his arms folded across his chest, and a pleased smile on his face. He didn't understand why or how he could allow this to just happen, he still couldn't understand why his mother was doing this to him.

Julien Sawyer was a woman who could change her moods quickly. Out in public at church or in the market she could be sweet and charming. At home with her sons she was a horrifying monster, the boogeyman that her two younger sons came to fear and loathe all at the same time.

"You deformed little monster; you, you did this! He left me because of you, you disgust me." She yelled before kicking the boy again this time in the stomach.

"Mommy stop it, please." He pleaded his voice weak and scared.

Drayton laughed.

"Mommy stop, please." The older boy mocked.

His mother pulled him by his hair again hauling him onto his feet. Bo stumbled back against the wall; he stared up at his mother with frightened wide eyes. She smacked him hard across the face her red painted nails cutting into his skin making it burn.

"Go and get that….That creature out of your room and put him out with the other animals, where he belongs."

She turned and walked away from her son, she went to the couch where Drayton was sitting. She smiled sweetly down at her oldest son.

Robert felt that pain going through his head again, it didn't come anywhere near the pain in every other part of his body at the moment. He wasted no time in getting up the stairs up to his bedroom; Nubbins was sitting on the bed with Bubba, the small child smiled when his older brother entered the room. Nubbins looked worried when he saw the condition that his twin was in. He stood up from the bed and went up to Robert; he lightly ran his fingers along the cuts on his cheek.

"You okay?"

Bo ignored him and looked towards the bed.

"We gotta take Bubba outside."

"Why?"

"Mama said we have to, he's not allowed inside anymore."

"Screw her" The brown eyed boy said.

"C'mon we have to, I'm scared she'll do something to him if we don't."

He was afraid she would kill him; Hell he was scared she would kill him as well at this point. His mother despised him, he was finally accepting this more than obvious fact; even if it was hard to accept.

He shoved past his twin and picked the baby up off of the bed, he left the room almost hoping that Nubbins wouldn't follow him; he knew that his brother wasn't happy with him about this. He walked quietly down the stairs praying that his mother wouldn't be downstairs or that she at the least wouldn't pay any mind to him. He couldn't hear anything so maybe it was safe; he glanced around into the living room and it was empty. He sighed in relief, he quickly left the house and went to where they kept the few animals that they had on their small farm.

He wasn't sure why they didn't own that many animals anymore. He remembered there being more when he was younger and Drayton told him they used to have a lot, all kinds, and they all would be sold to the slaughter house for a lot of money. They were a successful family when it came to the business of slaughter, but in recent years nobody talked about it much. He noticed more of their animals dying until finally they were only left with some chickens and mostly pigs.

Robert went to the pin where the pigs were kept; there were only three moving about their little dirt filled habitat, a small wooden shack in the back of the pin where the animals could go and sleep during the night time. He opened the gate and walked in holding his little brother close to his chest; Bubba was pulling at strands of his older brother's hair. Bo looked down at the baby; he was becoming accustomed to his strange appearance, he loved his baby brother, and he wanted to protect him from their mother. That's why he would keep him out here, Hell he would stay out here with him if he had to just to make sure he didn't get sick or hurt.

"We don't have to do this Bo." Nubbins said from behind him.

The other boy tensed and sighed heavily. He walked inside of the badly built wooden shack and lay Bubba down on a pile of hay. He sat down on the mud coated ground next to the small child. He looked up at his brother who looked down at him like he was trying to understand this situation.

"We can sneak him back in tonight when mama sobers up and bring him back out during the day. We'll stay with him so he doesn't get hurt….I want dad to come back." Robert said pulling his legs up against himself.

Nubbins sat down next to him wrapping an arm around his brother's shoulders.

"I know, I wish that he would too….I think we should go back inside now."

Bo shook his head.

"Okay how 'bout you go in and I stay here with Bubba?"

Robert gave a small smile and nodded. He got up and left the shack, he headed back up towards the house. He noticed an unknown car in their driveway, maybe it was their father. He felt a small pang of excitement at the idea of that, he ran inside of the house hoping to find his father.

He heard voices coming from inside of the kitchen. When he got there he saw his mother standing by the sink running her fingers back through her brown hair, she looked pale, and nervous. Across from her stood a very old looking man.

"Dad I don't understand how this happened." Julien said sounding almost shocked.

The old man shook his head; his eyes were pale like Robert's the blue was even rimmed with pink.

"Damn machines, it's those damn machines….N-no need for the working man, no working class….Those damn, god damn machines have taken everything over." The old man rambled on more to himself than to Julien.

"Mama?"

Both adults looked towards the boy standing nervously in the doorway. Julien glared at her son and he knew that if the old man wasn't there she would be beating him right about now. The old man regarded him with curious eyes, a small smile spread across his severely wrinkled face as he looked at the young boy.

"He looks like me, nothing like you my dear."

"Who are you?" Robert asked feeling confused.

The old man laughed dryly.

"O-of course your mother wouldn't….Wouldn't tell you who I am, by the…By the look of your face I feel she's taken up her mother's form of love." He said his eyes focused on the scratches on Bo's cheek.

Julien shifted uncomfortably her eyes now focused on the floor.

"I'm your grandpa, I-I'm going to be living here from now on."

"What?" Julien asked her head shooting up, she looked at her father with wide eyes.

"Yes I will be, I-I lost the house. I'm an old man I can't very well live on my own….I can't manage any longer not now that those damned machines…Those damn machines have ruined everything."

"What machines?" Bo asked.

"We work in the business of meat; your mother and father raise animals and send them to the slaughter house where I until two months ago was working. Some bastards are making these new ways of killing the animals so it's easier and safer. They fired me and the slaughterhouse where your folks send their stock is going to shit pretty quickly."

"We still have some pigs, my little brother Bubba sleeps out with them now."

"Robert" His mother whispered harshly as she glared at her son.

"Bubba, I see another son then; we always wanted a son, but all we ended up with was you." The old man said bitterly as he looked at his distraught daughter.

"Go to your room, I'm sick of looking at you."

"You really have a way of children, Julien."

Robert took this as a sign to sneak off, he made sure neither adult was paying any mind to him before he darted out the front door and went back to the shack where Nubbins and Bubba were still residing.

"What's goin' on?"

"Grandpa's here, he's gonna be living here with us. Mama doesn't seem happy about it." Robert said as he sat down on the ground.

Bubba crawled over to him; Bo pulled the small child onto his lap.

"Grandpa, I didn't even know he was alive; Drayton told me he died in an accident."

"He says a lot of things." Robert said quietly.

He thought back to Drayton mocking him while he cried for their mom to stop beating on him.

"So why is he stayin' here?"

"He lost his job, he seems kinda off."

"Our whole family seems off."

Bo smirked.

"Do you wanna spend the night out here; I don't really want to see mama again today."

"Sure thing bro."

The three of them spent the night out in the shack curled up on the mud caked ground. He figured in the morning maybe they could sneak Bubba inside, maybe now that their grandfather was there they could keep their baby brother inside without their mother getting overly angry.