Dark History - Tzeitel - Thirteen Years Ago - Spring Vacation

About thirteen years ago

***

The kids on the playground did not like Tzeitel. They held a grudge from the times she raided their lunchboxes during that time her parents SNAP had lapsed and had no other access to food. Tzeitel was punished by having to spend a few recesses sitting at her desk outside and the school did nothing else. The school did nothing about the bruises either.

As Tzeitel sat alone on the playground she wished her teacher would let her just stay at her desk. Her loneliness bit less deep when she was alone than when she was watching the other kids playing together and leaving her out.

The kids were talking about how they were going to spend their upcoming spring vacation. One kid was going to Disney World and was envied by her peers. Tzeitel was going to spend vacation at home and probably get beaten more often. That was how she spent most of her vacations. Some of the kids had already been to Disney World and Disneyland, and the way they described both parks made it sound like a paradise Tzeitel wished she could go to. No one would know her there, no one would hit her there, maybe she could even make friends there.

After recess Tzeitel got scolded for not having her social studies homework. She had actually done it, only to have her mother tear it up for some reason. At the time Tzeitel’s mother’s reasons for punishing her by destroying her homework made a sort of sense. It did not make enough sense now for her to tell her teacher. Instead Tzeitel looked down in shame and lied about forgetting to do it. The sick feeling lingered in her stomach until the bus ride home where between the bullying and dreading ten full days with her parents at home finally caused her to vomit. The kids laughed and the bus driver looked annoyed.

It did not take long for Tzeitel's parents to start in on her. Some social media post had Tzeitel's father offended and according to her mother it was Tzeitel's fault. Tzeitel had only ever used a computer at school and had never been on any social media platform but "kids all think the same" so they were going to beat her into thinking right.

Tzeitel wished she knew what she could do to make them stop hitting her. She curled into a tight ball with her face buried in her knees and her arms wrapped around her head. It was hard to breathe. She wanted her parents to stop being so angry. Under all the pain Tzeitel felt something, like touching a source.

The blows became less severe and gradually they stopped. When Tzeitel finally lifted her head her parents were sitting on the floor looking very calm. The only time Tzeitel had seen them anywhere near this calm they had smoked a lot of weed. They were even calmer looking now. They looked like they might pass out.

Tzeitel did not know what she had done. She hid in her room. The next day things were back to normal. Her parents started drinking around noon, a few hours later they were drunk and angry again. They started hitting her again. Tzeitel reached inside herself and touched that source again, calming them and they stopped hitting her.

By the end of Spring Vacation whenever Tzeitel's parents started to get angry, Tzeitel grabbed that source and calmed them down. The cuts and bruises from her last bad beating were healing when she went back to school. She wondered if she could use this power to make the kids at school like her, but somehow it felt wrong to use it that way. Instead she just made everyone around her calm whenever anyone started getting worked up or mean.

Of course it could not last.

Tzeitel's parents were more addicted to anger than drugs or alcohol. They were constantly seeking out things to be angry about. Tzeitel would have kept things calm all day, go to bed thinking everything is okay. Then be woken up by screaming, which was bad, or by being dragged out of bed and beaten, which was worse. Tzeitel would grab her source and force them to calm down. She got them to stop hurting her but she always had some cuts and bruises.

Tzeitel was only an eleven year old kid, she did not know what she was doing, she did not know what pheromones are. She had not yet learned how to be subtle with her power. She did not realize that people would eventually figure it out when their emotions kept suddenly changing whenever they were angry with her. That her targets knowing what she was doing made her power less effective.

So one night Tzeitel was dreaming about being in Disney World. She was getting on a water ride when an alligator’s head burst from the water and its jaws closed on her foot. Tzeitel clawed at her pillows and sheets, trying to escape as the gator tore her from her bed and threw her to the floor. Air was whistling through her father’s belt buckle as Tzeitel fully woke up. Tzeitel curled into a ball, covering her head and blasted calming pheromones.

For a moment it worked, and the beating stopped just as suddenly as it began. Tzeitel slowly started to uncurl.

“YOU’RE ONE OF THOSE FREAKS! STOP IT YOU LITTLE BITCH!” Tzeitel’s mother shrieked and kicked her in the side.