Rafael could barely move.Rafael could barely move. The pain was excruciating. It felt as though Cal was still stabbing into him. His pillow wet with his tears and it felt as if his bowel was on fire. Rafael tried to fight the truth of what Cal had said but it was impossible. He began to cry, not in anger or rage but in the terror of the knowledge that he now possessed. The young boy wanted only to sleep and to forget, to wake up and find that it had never happened. He turned onto his side and clenched his jaws as the pain worsened. Slowly he curled up into a ball. The pain in his belly came without warning, it was a cramp worse that he had ever had with diarrhea. His bowel opened and he exploded onto the bed. Torrents of steaming, foul smelling fluid and hard lumps gushed out of him as he convulsed in agony. As soon as it stopped the worst of the pain seemed to disappear. There was still a terrible ache inside his bottom but he could live with that. Rafael could hear Cal laughing. The smell filled the room and he could feel the wetness all over him, covering his legs and back. "You gotta hold it in, boy. You stinked up the whole room, wid yo' shit. You gotta squeeze it back till it stops, then git out to the can." Cal jeered. "I don't want yo' messin' here." Rafael staggered up out of bed. He stood half-naked, swaying and nearly falling as the foul mess dripped onto the floor and oozed down his legs. The little boy cried as he pulled the sheets from his bed, stripping off everything down to the plastic-covered mattress, then carrying them out into the bathroom. |