My Childhood

I was once like that.

Once, a very long time ago, I was happy. I believed in myself. I had a future to look forward to. Now, I sit in my lonely old cottage and dwell on the past. I know it is the wrong thing to do. I should be looking towards the future, and grabbing opportunities. But, I have no future. I have no opportunities to grab.

I am old and my life is almost over. I know that, and I have come to terms with it. I am very ill. I am disabled and I have a fatal disease. I will not tell you what that is, but when I die you will find out. Doctors are very clever like that. They know everything!

How I wish I were young again. What I did when I was young was so much fun. Until that terrible thing happened. I'll tell you about that later.

When I was young I did many things. I played in the forest with the fairies. Their names were Ronnie and Jessie. I never went there with any of my friends. I was a very independent lad. Best of all though, I loved my tree house. At the bottom of my garden there was a grand Oak tree. The tallest and thickest for miles around!

My father built me a tree house right at the top. It had a long rope ladder leading up to it, which you could pull in if you didn't want anybody else to climb up. There was a fireman's pole at the back of the tree, which you could quickly slide down in case of emergencies.

The house itself was made from planks of wood, but they were painted blue. It had lots of things in it. There were model cars, a small black and white television and lots of sweets!

Anne wasn't too happy about it. Anne was my step-mum. Beautiful as she was, she was very horrible to me. She whipped me and beat me. My dad stood up for me sometimes, but he mainly said that I deserved it. I never got angry with him though. I know he didn't mean it. He just thought he did. Deep down he was scared of her. He didn't see it at first though.

When I was four years old my mother died. I remember her very well. She had long, straight, dark hair and big blue eyes. She was in a road accident. It was very tragic. My father missed her terribly. He grieved for her continuously. I tried to be brave for him, but deep down I was hurting too.

This carried on for two years, until he met Anne. I always hated her but my father adored her, so I just went along with him. At first, she acted nice but soon she became a bully. My father and I tried to escape from her many a time, but we were trapped. I don't know how I managed to get through the next four years, yet alone my life. My father died when I was almost eleven. How he died is a mystery. Well actually, I know how he died. Anne killed him. The horrible old bag. She wanted all of his money, and she got it. That's all she was in it for. His money!

I lived in pain for the rest of my life. I looked forward to going to school, then doing my homework in my tree house. I still went in my tree house, and I still had fun sometimes. But I always used to think about what had just happened to me. Why Anne hated me so much. Why my life was so horrible. Why all the horrible things had to happen to me.

I suppose this is why I had a terrible life. I was always unhappy, whatever I was doing. Even before that horrible thing happened. I suppose it is about time I told you about that. I don't like talking about it because I couldn't help it. It just happened.

It was when I was... let me see... 13. I didn't know it would happen. Well I knew it would happen, but I didn't think it would happen so suddenly.

I was in the forest at the time. I didn't go to the forest that much anymore, but I had to get away from Anne. I was talking to the fairies as I always did, when suddenly they disappeared. One minute I was talking to them and the next...they were gone. I didn't look for them, or call to them, or anything like that. I don't know why. I just felt like they were out of my life now.

I went back home after that. I was very unhappy, and I felt alone and afraid. I went indoors and went straight into the back garden. Anne was throwing insults at me the whole time. I wanted to go into my tree house and play ships. I thought this would cheer me up. I liked pretending that my tree house was "The Royal Oak."

I climbed up the rope ladder and pulled it in after me. I was all set to be a Captain. I started playing when I realised that this wasn't a ship. It wasn't a treasure island. It wasn't a cave. It wasn't anything else I used to pretend it was. It was just... a tree house.

My life was even worse after that. Anne was even more horrible to me as I was always in the house. I wanted to go and play with the fairies and pretend to live in the jungle. But I couldn't. I knew it wasn't real. I had grown up.

So here I am. I am an old man with a fatal illness who is continuously unhappy. I should have made the most of my childhood while I still had it. Now my life is over, and I never had any fun.