Ponyboy's Point Of View
The next few days were the longest and most grueling days that I have ever spent. At least when I was in Windrixville, I had Johnny, now I was all alone to clean up after those slobs. The evening that I arrived at my new "home" I was instructed to put my belongings away, so I asked where my room was. The woman laughed at pointed me towards the garage, so there I was, sleeping on the stone cold cement floor with no pillow or cushioning, just a single blanket. Their garage was a two car garage so they had their car in there and I still had enough room to find a place on the floor for my clothes and belongings. I remember, I was just putting my photo down of our family when I heard "Michael" being called. God, I loathed her for that one most. I walked up the freezing cold steps of the garage and into the warm house. "Yes Ma'am" I replied. "Well are you finished yet?" She hollered at me. "Yes Ma'am I am." I answered. "Good, then you can start by raking the yard, and if you even DARE try to run away, I will make your life a living hell" she snarled at me through clenched teeth.
Today, five days after originally arriving there, I have started to get use to the ways of this house. I am up at six a.m. every morning to prepare their breakfast and make the house tidy, and if I have done those chores probably, I will get their leftovers for breakfast, that's IF I'm lucky. After that I will be driven to school, so that ma'am can make sure that I actually go, and not wonder off somewhere. After school I have to run home to finish my list of chores given to me that day or else I won't receive dinner. Unfortuanly, most days I cannot complete the given demands, simply because there is not enough time to finish that monster list so most evenings I go hungry. Sometimes, ma'am and sir start to drink, but that only makes them angrier, for example, on my third night here I was told to wash the dishes, which was a new chore simply because I usually did the dishes in the morning so that I could finish my school work at night. I told ma'am that I needed to work on my history assignment; well she had been drinking and was very angry. She slapped me so hard across the cheek that I stumbled backwards and hit my head on the counter top. She didn't care, she walked to where the metal serving bowl was from dinner and threw it at me while I was on the floor, that hit my chest. I didn't receive any dinner that night, or any breakfast that following morning and I never receive lunch. I was so hungry by last nights dinner that I was dizzy and nearly collapsed while doing the dishes as fast as I could so that I would make her happy so that I could get some food. Luckily I received some food, a small bowl of cold soup and half a slice of bread.
Today, the social worker was going to come over to make sure everything was alright in the household, ma'am told me that if I said ANYTHING to the social worker about not liking this family, she would hurt me worse than she ever did before, man I was scared. When the door bell rang, I was in clothes that ma'am laid out for me, I sure looked like a rich kid, for once, I hated money more than anything else in the world. "So Ponyboy" the social worker began as I sat on the sofa for the first time since living here. I tried to keep the shock off of my face that she called me by my real name and not "Michael" but I could feel ma'am and sir's presence behind me so I quickly said "yes madam?" "How do you like it here? Do you like school?" I looked up at ma'am and sir, unsure of what to say, I'm not that great of a liar so this was really hard for me to come up with a lie on the spot. "Well, schools lots of fun, I really enjoy my English class." I began. The woman nodded and wrote something down on her paper. "And how do you like living here, do you thinks it's a good suit for you?" I thought about how I was going to answer this, I could feel ma'ams nails digging into my shoulder as she waited for my answer. "It's a wonderful place, I really like it, I get along real well with ma'am and sir" right after I said that I wish I didn't. I forgot to call them mom and dad, instead I called them the names that I'm only suppose to call them in private. I was scared what ma'am was going to do to me. The social worker looked at me puzzled for a second until ma'am piped in. "Oh Ponyboy, he isn't quite ready to call us mom or dad yet, he feels more comfortable calling us ma'am and sir" ma'am lied to the social workers face without missing a beat. The social workers eyes looked relived as she began writing in her book again. "Well Ponyboy, Mr. and Mrs. Cole, I have to be off, lots of other boys to see" she smiled as she headed for the door. After she drove away, sir left, saying that he was going to the pub. I was alone, with ma'am and she looked pissed. "YOU STUPID CHILD! YOU COULD HAVE BLOWN OUR COVER BY CALLING US MA'AM AND SIR IN PUBLIC! YOU FUCKIN BRAT! I'M GOING TO TEACH YOU A LESSON!" She screamed at me so loud that I thought that the neighbors would have hard her. I was standing next to the countertop unsure of what to do, "hopefully if I'm lucky she will just give me more chores for a few days and she wont hit me again" I thought. "LOOK AT ME!" She snarled. I looked at her and felt my cheek burn as she slapped me again; I stumbled backwards as my head hit the stove. I laid on the floor for a moment as she threw the cutlery at me, the knives kept barley missing me and the forks and spoons pelted me on my chest and stomach, I then saw her pick up the vase. "She wouldn't" I thought to myself as I began shaking. She hurled the vase at me as I yelled and covered my head with my arm. I felt the glass shatter across my protecting arm as the water drenched me and I felt a few pieces of glass digging into my skin. I looked up to see if she was gone but my eyes grew wide as I saw what was in her hand, the frying pan. She had a chilling look in her eyes as she lifted the pan over her head, reading to throw at me, I started shaking and crying uncontrollably, "please!" I begged, "Please don't!" She wouldn't listen to me as I heard it leave her hand and I felt the crack in my side. An overwhelming pain struck my body, and I knew, I bad just broken at lease two of my ribs. She left me in the kitchen, clutching my side and slowly pulling the glass out of my arm as I drifted in and out of consciousness.