It’s dinner time and he’s gonna be late……playing football with his friends in the park – he lost track of time. Huffing and puffing from rushing, he steps into the crowded elevator….#6 is already pressed.

Almost immediately, he spots a face he recognizes, and is always glad to see. It wasn’t too hard to notice the figure as he stands head and shoulders above everyone else. Then again, everybody is tall to an 8 year old! The tall dark figure and the Boy lock eyes, and the Boy obviously wants to acknowledge the man; however, he discourages the Boy by placing an extended index finger to his puckered lips…….shhhh. The Boy understands….and says nothing.

By this time, the elevator has reached the 4th, 5th floor and has emptied out somewhat; only the tall dark figure, the Boy and a couple of people remain. The 6th, 7th, and 11th floor buttons are still pressed. Noticing this, the Boy is perplexed because he knows that his building is the 2nd of two towers and is still under construction (“finishing”) from the 10th floor up to the top. The man sees this in the Boy’s eyes and when the 6th floor arrives, a discreet hand is placed on his shoulder indicating he is to remain. The Boy does not exit the elevator.

As the door closes behind the last of the passengers, the Boy questions the Familiar Man. “Hey, where are we going? We can’t go past the 10th floor. Mom’ll give me a ‘whoopin’……AND, I gotta be home for dinner!” “It’s okay, I’ll talk to your mom. D’ya wannna see what’s going on upstairs?” Excited at the prospect of exploring a construction site, and the added thrill of venturing into the forbidden….what 8 year old boy could resist?

With late dinner times and the threat of a tanned behind (Mom’s favourite term, “I’ll tan that ass, boy.”) forgotten, the Boy readily agrees to embark on the adventure. Besides, he feels comfortable and safe in the company of the `Familiar Man`, AND he`s agreed to speak on the boy`s behalf with Mom.

When the evevator door opens on the 11th floor the Boy is in wonderment at what he sees. It`s as if he has stepped out into a completely different world than the one which exists on the floors below. It`s a world filled with various tools and saws, hanging plastic sheets, and doorless apartments, unfinished marble floors….and everything covered in a fine white dust. Awesome!

However, not allowing the Boy free reign to explore, the Familiar Man leads the Boy to a small room, a garbage chute, lays the Boy down on the floor, pulls his pants and Superman underwear down to just below his buttocks. The Familiar Man lowers his own pants, and while the Boy lays on his belly on the floor of an apartment building garbage room, he is raped by the Familiar Man!

Afterwards, not understanding what has just happened, the Boy doesn`t really know how to feel. He finds himself suddenly alone on the 11th floor, alone to fix his clothes, alone to put himself back together….., alone to find his way back down to the 6th floor…..,and, alone to explain the white, chalky dust which completely covers his clothing. Explaining the state of his clothes is going to be tough as he is wearing a dark blue K-Way jacket, and a pair of black nylon Parachute pants.

Knowing he can`t tell his mother he`d been up to the 11th floor as she had explicitly forbidden him from going up there, knowing how boys are. Besides, the Familiar Man told me [sic] not to mention our [sic] little adventure to anyone, as he could get into a lot of trouble if anyone knew he`d brought a boy up there.

Worried and scared at what would happen when he got home, the Boy knew there was nothing to do but go home and face his mother. He did his best to clean up, and left the 11th floor garbage room behind.

As expected, “playing with friends“ didn`t fool Mom. She knew exactly where the white dust came from and, as promised proceeded to `tan my ass`.

Later, with an empty belly, and a sore butt, the Boy feels frustrated and angry at being left in the lurch by the Familiar Man who`d promised to advocate on his behalf, and save him from the `whoopin` he knew he was gonna get.

He didn`t know it at the time, but the Boy would come to understand that his feeling would become recognizable as betrayal.

Also, that anger and frustration would become the two most prevalent emotions in his life.

….written by Brennan Guigue, and dated Sunday, December 6, 2015