Mynd Rayne

Terri by: Mynd

Sitting in her bare, silent room; all by herself, she waits for them to come for her. She is waiting for them to take her to the "other place", the place her mother told her she was going.
As she waits, she watches her reflection in the mirror. Watching her beautifully long hair playfully tangle in the brezze from the open window. Her wide, worried eyes wonder around restlessly as she wonders aloud, "What's taking them soo long?" She takes off her glasses and ponders her reflection, thinking about what will soon happen.
The scissors are on the table where she left them, blood crusting on the smooth parts of the blades. She wants to say it wasn't her fault, but she knows that's imposible. This time, they'll never believe her.
Suddenly, a sound jerks her from her reverie. She hears a door slam, and and sounds of a car pulling into the drive. She can hear people talking, and she knows they're explaining to her mother what they'll be doing to her.
Straightening her hair and sliding her glasses back into place, she opens the door to face the strangers. She knows they are the ones who'll be taking her away. She holds her head high as she walks out to meet them; thinking that if she acts tough they'll treat her with the respect she feels she deserves.
"About time," she says as she walks through the doorway, "did you guys expect me to wait in there forever?"
Her mother speaks to her for the first time sence the incident with her stepfather, John. "Terri, get your things and go. These men are going to take you somewhere, somewhere you can't hurt anyone else."
She stoops to pick up the bag that she packed the night before, and takes one last look at what has been her home for so long. She knows won't be comming back. Walking out into the summer light, she turns to face her mother one last time. "I'm sorry, Mama," she says as she walks to the car, "I never ment to hurt you."
Her mother, Joyce, doesn't answer; she just walks back into the house. By this time, Terri's baby brother, Benny, has started to cry for her. He misses her already. He is far too young to realize that it is for his sake that she has been sent away. Joyce didn't want her to hurt him again. He already cannot sit or bend his knees, because of the burns and cuts Terrie has made up and down the length of his legs. She just couldn't let it get any worse.
She knows, of course, it isn't Terrie's fault. She doesn't do these things on purpose, they just seem to happen. Sometimes she tries soo hard not to hurt anyone, but other times it seems as if she just doesn't care what she does.
When she was younger, the doctors tried all they could think of -- short stays in hospitals, shock treatments, and tons of different medications. All the options seemed to work for a short time. But as she got older; it got harder and harder to controle her, care for her during her tantrums, and deal with her constant need for attention adn reassurance and guidance. And it got all that much harder to take her to the doctor when Benny came along and there were more mouths to feed. The other children took up too much of her attention and time. There was just no way that Joyce could deal with her any longer. Not now, not after what she'd done this time.
When Joyce called the doctor this time, even he had a hard time believing what Terrie had done this time. While her stepfather was sleeping, she had snuck into her parents bedroom and angerily stabbed him repeatedly in the arms and cheast with a sharp pair of scissors. Yelling over and over again loudly that he wasn't her father and he couldn't hurt her anymore. John was fine, but he would be remaining in the hospital for a few days for observation.
What she had done was the "last straw" so to speak. Now she was being sent away. Commeted......