The Dream (200 word flash fiction poetic story)

[LyorBoone]

Escape.
I’ve dreamed of it for years. It started with mom’s passing—that’s when I became the sole target.
Beaten with a belt.
With fists.
By the drunk.
The man was a football player, and I was bound to him by blood. He talked of failed dreams. Part of his anger tied into his NFL rejection, his lifelong dream. Said he would’ve married a healthier woman if they took him, or he would’ve had the money to fix her. Instead—since I was seven years old—he was stuck with only me.
The artist.
My art was acting. After all, I had to pretend I was happy every day of the school year because kids don’t like the miserable.
Once, I gave it my all in a school rendition of Hamlet. I was the star of the show who got the biggest applause with my onstage death.
Though, not from the drunk.
He said I needed to man up to live in the world and beat the lesson into me that night, now yesterday.
I did.
I packed my bags. At seventeen, I dropped out of school—a risk to live the dream with a train to take me.

[nicole-adrianne]

A wonderful story of rising above abuse, of unbreakable spirit and confidence.