the first boy

the first boy ran away from home quite a lot. eventually he was taken to live with some people. he was told he was in care. but in fact no-one cared very much at all. so he ran away from there too. he met a man. unfortunately for the boy this man was a bad man. he stole childhood. the bad man had some bad friends. they shared the boy around, and each of them stole a little bit of his childhood until there was none left.

when the boy was 13 the bad men were taken away by the sheriff. by now he could not even remember what his childhood looked like or felt like. all he knew was that he felt very, very small inside. he made money by selling his body to men. he took pills and potions to take away the small feeling. but nothing worked.

time went by. the boy became a man. he met a woman. she too felt very small inside. in fact she felt smaller than he did. she had a little baby. the man did not like the baby but it came with the woman. sometimes the man got angry and hit the woman and shouted at the baby. the woman went around with her face black and blue and told people she had fallen over.

the woman thought if the man had his own baby he might be happier. so she had another baby. this was a mistake. the man got more and more angry. he hit the woman more. he frightened the babies. the woman ran away from him but she always came back. some kind ladies came and took away the babies. they told the woman that while she lived with the man she could not have them back.

the man got really angry. he threatened to go after the kind ladies with a knife. he said he would cut them up and take the babies. he said all kinds of really, really nasty things.

some of the sheriff's men went to his flat. they had a magic scroll to give the man, banning him from the village. the door was opened by the woman. she looked very scared and very sad. she had a bruised face. she called the man.

the sheriff's men gave the man the magic scroll. usually they felt very angry with people who were nasty. but even though this man looked very scary, they could tell that inside he was very, very small. that is what happens when people steal your childhood.