Here’s a little backstory before the story since r/nosleep requires 500+ words.
I’ve added the flair “Child Abuse” because this story is based off of actual abuse I experienced in my childhood. My mother was verbally and emotionally abusive in addition to it being a time when physical punishments was the norm.
Her verbal insults burned themselves into my mind, my heart, my very soul. We are taught the rhyme “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” at an early age. The truth is though, that words do indeed hurt and can wound very deeply. Her choice of using “God” in many of her tongue lashings soured my belief in God despite my family being regular attendees of church.
If you read my other story “Filling in the Holes ”, you may get the feeling that it is very real. That’s because it is actual events, including the whole sudden recollection of memories. That was a punishment that I actually lived through. More than once throughout my life though as I grew older it wasn’t a scary punishment anymore.
Yes, I am seeing a therapist. Have been for years because a toxic childhood led straight into a toxic marriage, which is sadly a natural turn of events for many with similarly abusive lives. I believe speaking of the abuse, even in a such a manner as posting on Reddit, helps to release some of the tumultuous emotions that are trapped within me.
As well, abusive environments have a way of stifling creativity. I used to write long ago as a method of expressing my feelings when I was unable to vocalize them around the people that were supposed to love me. Unending oppression put a kibosh on even that part of me. Now that I’m flying solo and am free of tormentors, I bring you a taste of my creative juices. Adding a fictional twist to the events of my reality allows the darkness within me take on a new life.
Enjoy!
I was always messing up. I could never do anything right. Mom would tell me repeatedly, “If God gave you half a brain, you’d have one!”
Years passed and God never gave me that other half a brain so I took matters into my own hands. I was so excited to show my mother! Surely she’d be proud of me now!
I was sorely disappointed though, when instead of praise, Mom laid into me. She swore up a storm and called me an idiot. “I made a mistake,” she screamed at me “you don’t have half a brain you have zero brains!”
Well I knew she was wrong. I hadn’t lost the half a brain inside my head and here I was holding a whole brain in a jar. She was cussing at me for no damn good reason.
So now Mom’s brain is in the jar as well. Funny thing is, I don’t really feel any smarter. Maybe I need more brains.