No Safe Places and No True Protectors – Prompt – Composure

By Patty L. Fletcher

Copyright 2019 – 2023

This post was originally written after I was a victim of extreme online bullying.

I’ve revised it as a prompt post for the writersGV@groups.io group.

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It’s just after school, you’re on your way home when you hear them. The catcalls, taunts, and fists as they fly.

“Hay Crazy Geek! Who ya talkin’ to? Where are they? Did the voices in your head pick your clothes?”

Quickly you shrink into the corner, way back into the shadows making sure to stay out of sight watching as the geek with the coke bottle glasses and old faded bookbag from the Special classes for mentally challenged kids is tormented yet again. You know he’s defenseless, yet you do nothing. When it’s over and the gang of loudmouthed redneck boys from the football team have run off to wherever it is they go you step out, and only after making certain they’re gone for good do you approach.

As you help him pick up his large print books which are soaked with soured rainwater and streaked with dirt from having been tossed haphazardly into the ditch you murmur softly so as not to be overheard, “Dude, I’m sorry, that’s so wrong. I mean-don’t say I said anything, but you know? That just stinks.”

Gathering at your favorite eatery at the mall with your friends from your women’s book club you sit stunned and horrified as Marian who suffers from depression and anxiety disorder once again must endure the snide remarks from the snotty rich Meg who just has to show off her new dress that had to cost nearly as much as Marian makes in two-weeks while she simultaneously degrades her by pointing out that the dress Marian is wearing is one Lauren put into the thrift store donation box just last week but only after Meg and Lauren have gone to the lady’s room do you speak.

“Oh Marian, I’m sorry. Don’t let her get to you, you know how she is? Oh dear, here she comes. Shhhh well-you know-no need to make a fuss. Right?”

Two days later, you learn, Marian committed suicide. The note she left read, “I’ll never be good enough, so why bother?”

It’s 2 AM and you sit with your Smartphone in your hand your mouth a perfect O of amazed disbelief as the nasty hurtful comments just keep piling up on your favorite FB group. One after another, they just keep popping up into the newsfeed from the group, which the group leader has just changed from closed to public so everyone can see the humiliation as one after the other the girls from college torment Becca about her report of date rape and how it was found to be false and rather than her attacker having been punished it was she who was suspended until next term for, “inappropriate conduct.”

And, even though you know better, even though you were there that night, and you saw what happened, you remain silent because to get involved would be the ruin of your reputation and after all, like you told Becca earlier in a private message, “I’m writing this just to you because I don’t want anyone else to see, but, I just wanted you to know that I think what happened is just so wrong, but I just cannot get involved you know. You understand, right?”

You live in an upscale neighborhood in a brand-new apartment that you worked hard to get, but the beauty of it is ruined by the sobbing of the little girl next-door as she begs night after night asking…

“Daddy, please don’t? Please? Stop! It hurts. I promise I’ll be a good girl. Please?”

Surely someone will report this. Her school, a doctor, a babysitter? Someone, you couldn’t possibly do it. What if her father found out? What would happen to you and your nice little life?

Sound harsh? Farfetched? Paranoid?

Guess what? It’s not. Those things and many others just like them go on day after day, week after week, and year after year and every-time you say, “don’t say anything” or, “I’m writing this just to you so no one else will see” or “Just ignore her you know how she is” Every-time you refuse to pick up the phone and make an anonymous call to the child-abuse hotline, every-time you hide in the corner or look the other way, you’re invalidating all those victims and more.

I’ve been Becca, Marian, and the geek. I’ve been abused, ignored, and blown off. I know that pain, and though many have reached out time and time again to lend their support, because no one would stand up and speak out against what they claimed to believe was so wrong, the hurt, and humiliation continued, and it was I who felt as if I’d done wrong.

I know what it is to stand up against that kind of thing too. Know what can happen when you speak out against the mistreatment of others. I’ve lost friends, family, and jobs from doing things such as that, but right is right and wrong is wrong and if no one ever stands up and makes a protest nothing changes.

All the Marians, Becca’s and geeks and little girls next-door continue to be bullied and abused.

So, go ahead, talk about all the injustice in the world from the comfort of your little bubble, make your private remarks, turn up the TV so you can’t hear. Go ahead, and you can be just like the bullies and the abusers.

Someday there will be a judgment. Someday all who stood by while one after another people like Becca, Marian, the geek, and the abused little girl next-door suffered will get to stand up, face their creator and explain why they said nothing. They will get to know what it is to feel they’ve no one who cares enough to speak up and take their part.

Composure a Poem

I sit,

Words pouring forth on the screen.

I say nothing,

But I want to scream!

I keep my composure,

Hoping,

Hoping for closure.

Will it stop?

Will someone stand for me?

Speak up!

No!

It won’t be.

About Patty L. Fletcher

Patty L. Fletcher lives in Kingsport Tennessee where she works full time as a Writer with the goal of bridging the great chasm which separates the disAbled from the non-disAbled. She is Also a Social Media Marketing Assistant.

Follow her at: https://pattysworlds.com/ for stories, book updates and more.

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