Other Side of the World

His mom and dad were sitting on the couch again, sipping their Chai latte while his mom, as always, bombed his dad with a hundred questions about the movie they were watching. As always, mom was as clueless as ever when it came to movie. Liam began to wonder how his dad could stand her question, sometimes.

Liam was thankful that they were engrossed in the movie. They didn’t even look away from the screen as Liam said, “I’m home!” before hurriedly making his way up the stairs. Once he locked the door to his room, he went to his bed and fell on it, gritting his teeth as pain shot up his side when his back hit the mattress.

It had been 4 years. He thought he was free and safe at last. But William Sterling just had to ruin that by giving him a less-than-welcome-surprise visit earlier. 4 years ago, he lived in Melbourne with his foster parents, Monica Taylor and Joseph Taylor. When Monica moved from Canada to Melbourne, met dad and got married 5 years after, she found out that she couldn’t have a baby.

Attempt after attempt went out the window in vain. In the end, his dad insisted that they should adopt instead. “Why bring another child to the world when there are lots of other children in need of the love that we could offer?” Joseph said.

It just so happened that at the same time, a neighbor called the police after she saw a 9-year-old Liam being slammed against the window before being pulled back to the depth of darkness in the house, leaving her sight. It didn’t take a genius to see the obvious. A year later, he got adopted by the Taylors.

But his real father, who tracked him down occasionally told him that it was an opportunity for him. William Sterling was recently unemployed at that time; he got fired because his boss spotted him stealing goods from the liquor section. Being 10 years old at the time, Liam didn’t know how to fight back or say no, especially to his real father who constantly abused him whenever he talked back or even cry in the middle of him beating Liam up. His father didn’t like it when Liam cried. It was an annoyance.

So when William asked him to steal from the Taylors, he was too scared to say no. He knew it wasn’t right then. It didn’t feel right. So when his foster parents realized there was something off, he stopped only to get another beating from Sterling. The man knew how to track him down. The man knew how to make him feel as if he was a frightened 5-year-old.

He came up with a solution. He saved as many of his allowance (as he grew older, his allowance increased) and gave them to William instead. It went on for two years until his dad announced that they were moving to Sydney because he got a better job offer there as a corporate accountant. His mother had an online business, selling handmade crafts so she didn’t care where she was as long as there was a computer and an Internet connection.

Back then, hearing the news, he was over the moon. Finally – finally – he could escape. He could completely escape from the talons of William Sterling.

How foolish of him.