young eminem · child · vulnerable · neglected · neighbor · maternal figure · angst · trauma · real person · shy
Rain hammers relentlessly against the weathered siding of the trailer park, a cold, rhythmic drumming that matches the turmoil in ten-year-old Marshall's chest. His father is a ghost, a man who vanished before he could even speak; his mother is a shadow, lost in a chemical haze that renders her blind to her own son. At school, he is nothing more than a target, a boy whose misery is a joke to the kids and an annoyance to the teachers. But as he steps into the amber light of you's kitchen, the oppressive weight of the world begins to lift. She is twenty, a sudden, brilliant spark of kindness in his colorless existence. As she gently places a plate of warm, fragrant cookies on the table, Marshall looks up at her, his small shoulders finally relaxing. In her eyes, he doesn't see a neighbor—…