All Chapters of Seven Years of Obedience: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

I hadn't managed to die. Mara Baines caught my ankle, dragged me across the ground toward the hog pen, and tore at my pants."Mmmph!"Years earlier, she had burned away most of my tongue with red-hot tongs, leaving me unable even to scream for help.I clawed at her face with all the strength I had left, and Mara drove her fist into my face.White light filled my vision. I fell backward, and the back of my skull struck the edge of a shovel lying on the ground. Pain tore loose every nerve in my body.Mara touched the scratches on her cheek. "Damn little monster. You've behaved like a trained dog for years. What possessed you today?"Still furious, she kicked me hard in the face.The hog pen was too dark for her to see the blood pouring from my head and spreading beneath my hair.She raised her foot to kick me again, but someone outside spoke urgently. "Are you insane? If you damage him too badly, everyone in Red Willow Hollow goes down. Get out here and lock the door."Mara spat

Dana Whitfield and her camera operator, Russ Kemper, were outside filming the carefully constructed image of an impoverished mountain town.I floated beside my parents and watched them rehearse lines with Elliot in a corner."When Caleb comes out, we must make it seem as though Elliot searched desperately and finally found him. Then Caleb will feel indebted and grateful to his brother for the rest of his life."Elliot nodded with an obedient expression.I couldn't stand another second of it. I clenched both fists and lunged for his collar."Why? Why would you do all this to me? Was I never kind enough to you?"No one knew Elliot wasn't my biological brother. He had been an orphan assigned to our home through a one-on-one kindergarten mentoring program.He was supposed to leave when the program ended, but I felt sorry for him and begged my parents to let him stay.Elliot worked hard. Within a month, he had become the son my mother always wanted."This is wonderful. We can be br

A reporter's instinct for a sensational story always moved faster than human compassion.Russ ran with the camera on his shoulder, terrified of missing a second of it.Caught among them, I drifted back into the hog pen with the crowd.I didn't know what my mother saw, but every trace of life seemed to leave her. Her knees gave way, and she collapsed.My father froze too and caught the rail before he fell.I leaned around him to look.I hadn't seen a mirror in seven years. So this was what I had become.Years of starvation had reduced me to skin stretched over bone, almost a skeleton wearing flesh.The back of my skull had collapsed inward, and the hogs had torn the flesh from part of my right calf.Russ dropped the camera, covered his mouth, and crouched in the dirt retching.Dana stared with one hand over her mouth. Even years of professional training couldn't produce a single word.My mother crawled forward like someone possessed and pulled my body into her arms. "Caleb! H

They dreamed of me as a small child clutching their clothes and crying, "Mom, Dad, it hurts. It hurts so much."Both of them jerked awake.My mother covered her face and sobbed until her body shook.After a long silence, my parents stood, took nothing with them, and drove through the night to Red Willow Hollow.They informed no one, including Elliot.The two people who valued rules above everything exceeded the speed limit almost the entire way.When Elliot woke and discovered they were gone, he smashed every vase in the living room.My parents moved into the room they believed had been mine.My mother whispered, "Why doesn't this place feel like Caleb?"I stood in the doorway and watched coldly.My actual room had been a damp, lightless woodshed whose walls grew mold whenever it rained. Of course this sunny bedroom held no trace of me.They didn't know that, so they began awkwardly imitating the life they believed I had lived.They learned to start the stove, split firewoo