“C’mon! Keep pullin’ those weeds harder!” Mitchell rasped. Sometimes the fact that he hated his dad scared him, but it was the truth and he knew he had to handle the truth like a man. Arthur, a 15 year-old who was strong, brave and surprisingly outspoken, had short, brown hair and fair skin.
“Then you can clean up after the cows an’ c’llect the eggs. After that, there are clothes t’ be washed.”
Arthur didn’t complain. He always tried his hardest to please his dad, but unfortunately, his dad was never satisfied no matter how hard Arthur tried. So Arthur spent his morning pulling weeds, and as he pulled, he would watch some boys play soccer in the field and laugh, something he hadn’t done in a long time.
“It's lunch time!" Mitch hollered. Arthur cherished lunchtime, as it was the hour he would prepare himself a sandwich and daydream or watch the boys play sports. Once his break was over, he would wash his dish and get back to work. Sometimes Arthur actually wished that his father would beat him so he could go to court, and hopefully get adopted by someone nicer. Whenever he thought this, he would shake his head and rid himself of such “childish” thoughts.
As soon as he was finished washing his dish, Arthur headed towards the hen house with a straw basket in his hand. Even as the door creaked open he could hear the chickens squawking. Hens scurried around the hen house as Arthur was collecting the eggs. Just as Arthur was about to finish, he noticed a hen running out the door. Mitch would be devastated if he lost a hen, so Arthur set his basket down and chased after the hen. He was having no luck at catching it, for every time he tried to grab it, the hen would struggle away. The hen ran wild and ended up towards the guard dog’s doghouse. The guard dog did not like its sleep disturbed, and woke up by the squawking of a certain hen. The dog chased the hen around, towards the bull fence. Just as the dog was about to get the hen, its leash got caught on the lock holding the gate close. It was one of the slide locks, and when the dog tugged, it opened up. The lock was almost rusted shut, but the leash was strong, and so was the dog. With the gate unlocked, the bull could escape. Arthur stood in horror as Mitch came to check on Arthur and saw a bull instead. The bull charged towards Mitch, who jumped behind a stack of barrels filled with water for the animals. The bull charged into the barrels, knocking them into Mitch. Just as the bull was about to charge again, Arthur leapt onto the bull’s back. The bull started kicking and struggling, causing Arthur to hold on for his life as the mad beast attempted to knock him off. The bull calmed down once he succeeded.
To Arthur’s luck, he was thrown onto a large stack off hay bales, which plummeted down like a falling tower. Arthur got up and rushed towards Mitch, and as soon as he got the barrels off of him, he started to laugh.
“I haven’t had this much fun in ages!” Arthur laughed. Then he looked at Mitch, who was not at all pleased. With a sneer on his face, Mitch growled, “you’re workin’ overtime and getting’ this mess cleaned up!’ He stormed into the house and locked the door behind him.
That night, as Arthur cleaned up, he expressed his feelings out loud for the first time. “You’re working overtime. He treats me like one of these ordinary workers at those factories. He didn’t even care to see if I was okay. I could’ve been killed trying to save him. I bet he wouldn’t even care if I killed.” Arthur rasped in anger. He spent the rest of the time cleaning up in silence. As soon as he finished and had calmed down, he decided to go apologize for what had happened. When he got to the door, he found out that Mitch had locked it, and all the lights in the house closed. Arthur sighed. “He doesn’t even care.”
Mitch, meanwhile, was watching everything Arthur did. He watched him go to the barn and sleep on the pile of hay in front of it. He watched him cry, and he also heard everything Arthur had said. Mitch faced a mirror and looked at himself. “My own son hates me, and I was so stupid I never noticed it all those years.”
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