"Mommy, What's Abuse?"

A Children's Short Story, by C.J. Heck

“Mommy, What’s Abuse?”
A Children’s Short Story

Six-year-old Hannah got home from school and found Mommy in the kitchen putting clean dishes away in the cupboard. Hannah plopped in one of the chairs at the round oak table.

“Mommy, I'm home."

Claira stopped what she was doing and looked at her pretty daughter. Hannah’s cheerful smile usually connected two adorable dimples. Today, she could tell, something was wrong.

"Hannah, everything okay?"

Hannah started to cry and the words all came at once. "I talked to Janie at school, Mommy. She was sad and it made me sad, too. Her mommy is in the hospital and policemen took her daddy to jail. Later, they drove her to her grandma's and she heard them whispering about 'abuse'.”

Hannah stopped and took a deep breath. She felt awful and tears were making rivers down her cheeks. Even worse, her nose was crying, too, and she swiped at it with her sleeve.

Claira sat in the chair next to Hannah and handed her a tissue from the box on the table. Hannah climbed onto her lap for a mommy hug.

Feeling safe in the hug, Hannah asked, "Mommy, what's abuse?"

Claira laid her cheek on her daughter's soft brown hair. "Well, honey, abuse is never good. It's when someone bigger, stronger, or older, hurts someone with their words or actions. Sometimes it's someone they love, and that makes the hurt worse."

Hannah was confused and the tears kept coming. "Janie said her mommy and daddy might get a divorce. Why? Don't they love each other any more?"

Claira thought for a minute —this was a grown-up issue. She wished it hadn't touched Hannah, but it had.

She wanted to find some way to explain and she chose her words carefully. "Hannah, people can love each other, and be good people, but not be good for each other. Do you understand?"

Hannah sniffled and shook her head. "This is too hard and I don't understand. Janie said they get angry and shout and sometimes her daddy hurts her mommy, but he's always sorry —sometimes he cries. Then it’s okay again. Janie doesn't want them to get a divorce."

"I know, sweet girl, but hurting someone you love is always wrong. I think Janie has lived that way for a long time so that’s become normal to her. It’s the only life she knows, but it’s still very wrong."

This wasn’t working. Claira had to find a better way.

Then Claira saw Hannah's dog, Jeffie, curled up and asleep on the rug by the sink. She had an idea. She could use Jeffie to explain

"Hannah, let‘s talk about Jeffie. We've had him a long time, even longer than we've had you. You really love that old dog, don‘t you?"

Hannah smiled as she sniffled. Jeffie was her best friend. She told him her secrets and she knew his secrets, too.

(He didn't like broccoli either, and she knew how unhappy it made him when she tried to share hers).

"Hannah, how would you feel if you came home from school and Jeffie didn’t run up to you and lick your face, wagging his whole body? What if Jeffie showed his teeth and growled?"

Hannah stopped crying long enough to giggle. "Mommy, that’s silly. He would never do that. Jeffie loves me."

Hannah tried to sniff her nose tears back inside and Claira handed her another tissue.

"But what if he did show his teeth and growl?"

Hannah‘s blue eyes looked up at the ceiling. Why is Mommy asking silly things about Jeffie? "Mommy, If he did THAT, I would tell him to stop!"

"What if that didn't work? What if Jeffie growled LOUDER? What if he even tried to bite you?"

Hannah couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Then I would yell at him. JEFFIE, NO! STOP THAT!"

This was working, Claira thought. "Okay. but what if yelling just made him even madder and he bit you?"

"Then I would want to hurt him back —but we're not supposed to do that. We would have daddy put him in a cage, so he couldn't bite any more. Or maybe, we could take him where they teach dogs that biting is bad."

Claira smiled. "Excellent answer, Hannah. How long do you think it would it take?"

Hannah thought for a minute, her mouth squinching to one side and then the other. "Well, prob’ly until he stopped biting."

Claira went a step further. "What if he didn’t WANT to stop biting? What if Jeffie hurt you so bad, we had to take you to the hospital? Then, no matter how much we love Jeffie, we would have to send him away.”

"I don't know, Mommy! I don't want to think about that! He would stop biting. I love Jeffie and he loves me. I know he would stop. He would!"

Even thinking Jeffie would hurt her brought new tears and she mopped at them with her tissue, trying to catch them before they got away.

Claira gave Hannah a fresh tissue. "Yes, Hannah. Jeffie could learn to stop biting. But first, he would have to understand how wrong it is to hurt someone you love, even if he had to live far away from us."

Suddenly Hannah’s eyes opened wide. She understood what Mommy was trying to say. Mommy was saying what happened with Janie's daddy was just like her story about Jeffie.

"Mommy? When Janie's daddy hurt her mommy, the jail is like Jeffie's cage.”

"Yes, Hannah," Claira answered.

“And when you said we would have to get rid of Jeffie if he hurt me, that would be like divorce?"

"Yes, Hannah," Claira answered.

"Janie’s daddy really can go somewhere to learn what he did was wrong?"

"Yes again, Hannah.”

Hannah nodded her head and sighed. "Well, I hope he wants to learn. Then he won't have to be in jail and he can go home. Then they won't get a divorce. I don't want Janie to live like that. I want her to be happy."

“Her mommy and daddy will still need to find out if they can be good for each other and that will take time. There are people who will help them with that, too."

Claira smiled and wiped Hannah's tears with her apron. "I love you, Hannah-Banana, you're a smart little girl."

"I love you, too, Mommy!" Hannah wiped her nose on her sleeve and jumped down to go wake Jeffie.

Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
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