My second grade teacher bashed my face into my desk.

I was playing with a little toy  giraffe that my Dad had gotten  from a giveaway at a gas station. The Giraffe was part of a Noah’s Ark collection and that promo was  A BIG DEAL.

All of the kids in my neighborhood hounded their Dads into buying gas at that Station so that they could get their own Ark.  As far as giveaways at Gas Stations went, that was one of the best at the time.

My Dad wasn’t one to indulge me in anything- let alone be told where to buy gas from his somewhat dimwitted kid,  so I knew that Giraffe was the only toy I was going to get from that giveaway and I wouldn’t put it down.

I carried it with me everywhere.

I had it with me on the day I became a little Devil.

Mrs. Lee had tried to get my attention a few times and out of frustration and the fact that she  had tried to have me put into a Special Ed class and had spent each day after that idea was shot down making my life miserable,  she ended up behind me with her hands in my hair.

She yanked my head up and slammed my face into my desk and she yelled about me not listening to her. I remember she pulled me out of my chair and wanted to know why I wasn’t listening to her and then she looked down at my hands and told me to give her my toy.

I held it up to her and then I put it and my hands behind my back and I laughed at her.

My eye, as I saw later was already starting to swell shut.

And then the girl who sat next to me  inexplicably peed all over herself.

Thinking back on it she was probably scared by our teacher going crazy and having to watch her seatmate have her face smashed into her desk for playing with a little toy that almost all of us had either with us or at home.

Mrs. Lee made me clean up the pee and then she made me sit out recess and I had to stand out in the hall and skip lunch too.

The next day Mrs. Lee found a giant giraffe drawn in felt tip pen on the blackboard when she came into class. Shortly after that there was an incident involving her desk and termites. And then somehow ants found their way into the cupboard where the cookies for our Friday Treat that we got to eat when we got to watch a show called, ” The Electric Company,  were kept

It got worse for her and for some reason things got better for me.

I started to enjoy going to class and seeing Mrs. Lee. I hated the weekends and dreaded long breaks from school.

I started to really enjoy going to class because I could feel it in my bones- something was up with Mrs. Lee. She wasn’t looking well and she spent most of her time yelling at everyone.

One day we were told that Mrs. Lee was ill and would be out for the rest of the school year. She came back just before for the last week of school and our class presented her with handmade Welcome Back cards for the occasion.

Mine was covered with little giraffes and on the inside I had drawn a picture of me…with a black eye.

Sometimes when the worm turns, it goes straight for your throat and it never stops.

Ever.

Daily Addictions Prompt: Persecute