Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 130102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
They cut away the lady’s clothing and soon she was in only her underwear. And then, not even that. From where he stood, he could see she was now naked like when he took a bath.
Were they going to make her take a bath? Or a shower like his mommy did?
Julian didn’t think she wanted to take a bath. She looked even more scared now. Her eyes, which had been wide, were now squeezed shut as they forced her to turn around in a circle, lifted her hair and let some of the other men touch her.
The room got even louder with what they were saying about her. How pretty she was. How young she was. About her private parts.
Some comments weren’t very nice at all.
They were also touching her everywhere. Why were they doing that? Were they hurting her?
Soon the man standing next to the lady stopped the rest of the men from doing their “inspection,” as he called it, and told everyone to step back and get ready to “bid.”
Julian had no idea what any of that meant.
But he knew it wasn’t good.
This was very bad.
He needed to escape the man who was holding him and get to his mommy and help her get away from the man holding her.
His mommy’s eyes were moving back and forth. She was probably looking for him, but he couldn’t call out to her or lift his hand to wave at her. He couldn’t do anything so she’d see him.
He needed to get closer.
He tried to pull away from the painful hold, but the scary-looking man forced him back to his side.
“What did I tell you, brat? You want your mommy to get hurt because you’re being a bad boy?”
No, he didn’t want his mommy hurt.
He wanted to go home.
He wanted to go home with his mommy.
Why weren’t they going home?
Why was he being forced to stand there?
Why was his mommy being forced to stand on the other side of the room?
The man next to the platform began to yell out for “bids.”
The shouts of numbers came from men around the room. So quickly, that Julian couldn’t keep up. All the big numbers began to blur in his head and he wobbled on his feet.
He hadn’t eaten anything since those licks of his ice cream cone, the one he dropped in the parking lot at the mall.
His tummy now hurt. He needed a cup of water or juice because the rag made his tongue feel like he ate sand. He didn’t feel so good, either.
Whenever his tummy hurt his mommy helped him by rubbing it. She also gave him ginger ale.
He needed to pee really, really bad, too. He didn’t want to do it in his pants since he wasn’t a baby. It had been a long time since he’d peed his pants and his mommy said she was proud of him.
He liked to make his mommy happy. When she was happy, he got things like ice cream or cookies. Or sometimes cake. Like for his birthday.
His tummy growled and it hurt.
He didn’t know how long he stood there. He didn’t know when the lady on the stool, or whatever she was standing on, disappeared and the next one took her place. That one took a lot longer and looked a lot younger than his mommy and the other lady.
When the girl disappeared, his mommy was shoved forward next for everyone to touch her when she was naked.
Her eyes went wide when she spotted him, but only for a second before men moved again and blocked them from seeing each other.
He wanted to call out to her but couldn’t. He thought he heard her screaming his name but he couldn’t hear her very good. Not with that cloth in her mouth.
The mean man shoved him forward when the room got really quiet again.
He was finally going to get to see his mommy.
His heart began to beat really, really hard.
Maybe they’d let them go home now since whatever was happening was over.
The men all turned toward him as they made their way toward the front.
Every step took him closer to his mommy.
But the closer they got, he now couldn’t see her at all.
She was gone.
Where did she go?
How could she leave him here? With strangers.
A room full of stranger danger.
She told him not to be alone with strangers.
She left him alone with strangers.
When they got to the front of the room, warm liquid soaked the front of his pants and dripped down his leg.
His mommy was going to be mad. But he’d rather have her mad at him than crying and sad. He never wanted to see his mommy sad again.
While the man was mad that Julian wet his pants, he also told everyone around them it didn’t matter.
Julian realized why once they cut off all his clothes, too. Then shoved him onto what he could see now was a wooden crate upside down.