Previous Challenge Entry (EDITOR'S CHOICE)
Topic: GIANTS( 10/22/20)
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TITLE:
Torment and tormentors | Writing Challenge By Dave Walker 10/26/20 |
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6th Place
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I sang softly to myself, my favourite song, Country Road. I longed to be on the country road, not taking me home like the song said, but rather far away from it. Where though, would a five-year-old girl, with no shoes, bruises on her face and dark tangled hair go?
Try as I might, however, I couldn’t drown my drunk father’s harsh cursing and my mother, high on weed, slobbering and giggling till Daddy punched her. Baby Robbie was crying, too, so I covered my head and sang and sang.
When I was seven, I found a friend. Billy also lived in the trailer park and had no shoes. We’d go to the trees on the edge of the park. The grass was long, and the trees were big and shady. We felt safe there. It was the closest I could get to my Country Road. Billy stole his father’s cigarettes, and we’d sit under a benign, sheltering oak, hidden in the long grass, and smoke.
One morning, Baby Robbie was quiet, not crying like he usually did when he woke up hungry. I looked in his cot and he wasn’t moving. I called Mommy and our trailer suddenly was a chaotic hell. Mommy threw herself on the floor, wailing and beating her hands and swearing at God. Daddy downed a bottle of brandy in one go. I couldn’t hide under my blanket because Baby Robbie was in my room, so I ran outside to our favourite tree.
My eyes were blurry from tears for Baby Robbie and from the way Mommy and Daddy screamed at each other. I didn’t see Billy come. I felt him take my hand and squeeze a small tablet in my palm. He passed me a bottle of water. “Here, take that. It’ll make you feel better.â€
I swallowed it and gulped down the water. My head spun. I was floating. The air filled with brilliant colours, and I didn’t care any more. I didn’t care that my parents were fighting when their precious baby, and my gurgling, smiling brother had just died. I didn’t care I had no shoes and couldn’t go to school. I didn’t care Daddy hit me when he was drunk, or that Mommy giggled when he did it.
That little pill became my friend. Instead of hiding under my blanket, I’d go to Billy and get a pill.
But by the time I was twelve, it had become a monster, holding me captive. Mommy was a half-person after Baby Robbie died, barely saying one word. Daddy became worse. When he tried to fondle me, I headed for my Country Road.
In the city, my monster drove me into the gutter, begging in the day and sleeping on the streets.
Then it brought its friends. Soon I was shooting up.
One day I realised I was worse than my mother and father, whom I despised. I needed to escape. But my monsters became a giant. Try as I might to escape, he held me in his huge grip.
I’d often heard Mommy curse God, so I did likewise. But I didn’t want to be like my mother, so I changed tactics and cried to Him for help instead.
Nothing changed. I’d stop the drugs for a day, and, when my body screamed for them, yield to the giant.
Then Andy came. He had love in his eyes --- not the usual lust but pure love. He said it came from Jesus. I cried as much as I did when Baby Robbie died as he told me about a God who’d died in agony out of love for me. I asked Jesus to save me and peace filled me like cool water to a parched throat.
But still I couldn’t defeat the giant.
“You’re trying to do this on your own, Jessie.†Andy said, “You’re asking Jesus to help you, but you need His Holy Spirit to do the work through you. Ask Him to fill you.â€
That’s when everything changed. My body came alive. I went four days without any craving. When it came, I prayed and overcame it. The Holy Spirit in me pounded the giant to pulp.
Now I’m victorious. There are always fights to fight, and giants to defeat, but now I know I can win.
And so can you, with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Accept Jesus as Your Savior Right Now and be Certain of Eternal Life.
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