Soul Food part one
By
Soul71
Thanks WA001 for the edits.
******
Ten years ago...
A raggedy, dirty, homeless boy was scurrying through the trash of the home of a wealthy black couple. His thin limbs shivered as he dug for scraps that had been thrown away. He didn't like doing this, yet it was better than staying at the home the agency had placed him in. He tried to help. He really did. Yet no one, not his case worker, not the cops, no one believed him. Then once they were all gone he got beaten within an inch of his life. Once he was healed enough to walk he fled that house. The first night out on the street was the scariest of his life. He was given up as a baby, so he didn't know his mother or where to look for her if he even wanted to. Still, he did try to help the girls that were still in that house. However, since being on the streets he learned no one cared enough to lend a hand, you were on your own.
"Jack pot!" The disheveled boy said, as he held open the pizza box. "Pineapple?! Who puts pineapple on pizza!"
"Ew! Daddy! Some boy is eating out of the garbage!" Shawna called out for her father.
He stood there like a deer caught in the headlights before the box fell from his hands. He knew from the months he's been on the streets of what to expect from being found out. He had thought he was quiet; his hunger and the cold got the better of him. Turning to run, yet strong hands took a hold of him by the shoulders.
"Boy?! What are you doing... my God, Helen!" He tried to wiggle out of the man's grip, he knew if he was too rough he would tear the only piece of clothing he had that wasn't filled with holes to stave off the cold. His head shot back as the man squatted down, his big thumb pulling down the boy's lower eyelid looking for signs of malnutrition.
"Where're your parents?" He could see concern in the man's big brown eyes. Tilting his head at the strange word. What exactly were parents?"
"I don't have any," he said, wondering when the man was going to let him go.
"George what is it?" Helen asked, walking out in a dark blue dress shirt. Her black skirt hugged her hips tightly, her ebony hair brushed along her jawline as she walked hurriedly to the side of the house.
"Fetch some of Will's old clothes, and fix a plate for a hungry boy," George said, over his shoulder as his wife rounded the corner.
"Boy?! What... oh my... sweety look at you!" Helen's eyes grew wide at the sight of the boy no older than her daughter. "When's the last time you had a bath?!"
"What day is it?" He asked, as he looked up at Helen.
"It's Thanksgiving, do you know what that is?" Helen asked, her warm smile spread along her lush, full lips. "Well come," she held out her hands to him when the boy shook his head, "we'll teach you what it is." Shooting her husband a nod knowing they would be taking the boy in for the night. It was the least they could do. She for one wasn't about to allow him to wander the streets, not with how cold it was going to get that night. "So when was it, when you last had a bath that is?"
"When I ran away," He stated wondering why these people were being so nice.
"Why did you run away?" Shawna asked, peering around his back.
"They were hurting them, I tried to help, I really did. Yet no one believed me. I got this..." Pulling up his shirt, showing the red jagged scar he had gotten from the beating six months ago. "For trying to stop the bad man from hurting them." Pulling down his dirty, filthy, weather beaten shirt at their gasps.
"What do you mean hurting them?" Helen asked, her DA instincts kicking in.
"Every night when I was placed in that house. I'd hear the girls there cry and scream."
"Was there a girl like me there?" Helen asked, her hands gesturing to her adult body.
"Yes, but she couldn't hear. She talked like this," He said, moving his fingers around.
"You mean she was deaf?" George inquired.
"I guess..." He shrugged his shoulders. "So can I go now?"
"Go?! Son... What's your name by the way?" George asked, knowing his wife, she would be putting in a call to her office the moment they got the boy settled.
"I've been called lots of things," he said, as he hadn't heard the worst of it.
"Like what?" Shawna asked, her interest peeked.
"Ass. Son of a whore. Nothing but a waste of space. If I didn't need that check..."
"Okay. How about we call you Donny, would you like that?" Helen asked, trying not to tear up. Her heart nearly broke when the boy simply shrugged his shoulders. She couldn't think of what this white, dirty, boy had been through the months he's been on the street given the state of his clothes. Obviously, he had found the pair of pants he was wearing somewhere. Did his best to keep them up with the bit of rotten rope. Still she knew even with that his t-shirt would do no good with the dropping temperatures as she saw his teeth chattering.
"So can I go?" Donny asked, once again.
"Donny, you're staying with us tonight," George said, in a stern but warm voice. "I bet you're starving... I take that as a yes," he chuckled as Donny's stomach answered him. "We have a nice turkey, dressing, green beans, yams, sweet potato pie, collard greens. Would you like some?" George asked, with warm caring eyes. Flashing Donny a toothy grin as he nodded. "But first we'll going to have to give you a bath. Will that be okay?"
"Why are you being so nice?" Donny asked, arching an eyebrow.