I was in the living room with Leslie and our mother.
Our mother and I were nearer to the entrance of the living room, and if memory serves me well, she was getting me dressed for something, perhaps for school.
Little Leslie was standing near to the entrance of the kitchen, he appeared to be staring at something inside our mother’s glassed paned china cabinate.
He had a serious expression on his little face. I watched it turn to anger and disgust before we heard a crash, and saw glass shareds and splinters flying everywhere.
Little Leslie had punched the glass panel in front of him with so much force that it shattered to bits all over him, leaving the toddler covered in dangerous fragments.
Our mother was frantic at the sight of the child covered in glass. Her initial reaction was to try and brush it off him. However, she changed her mind and instead picked him up and ran into the bathroom with him.
When she got him inside, she placed him into the bathtub and ran the shower over him until she had all the glass washed off him.
We dried him up and I remember being really concerned about what would happen to him later that day when his father found out.
I don’t recall what happened or whether our mother beat the child after she had cleaned him up. Whatever happened to little Leslie, it would not have been good.
Author’s note: The exact date and time of the following events are not known. They have had to be approximated in order to post the content.
Leslie was NOT staring at something in the cabinate. My little brother was staring at his own reflection! The emotion I saw on his face was directed at his reflection and thus at himself.
This is normal for young victims of child abuse. Their young minds can’t comprehend why these things are happening to them and they assume it must be their fault.
Little Leslie punched his reflection because he was mimicking the thoughts and actions of his father towards himself.
It took us some time (several years in fact) but we were successful in reversing Leslie’s negative image of himslef and to get him to realise that his father was the problem, not himself.