Year 7/28

Imagine you are 7 years old. Your smooth, well-rested skin still stretches as you yawn while throwing your school bag over your shoulder. You walk through the hallway and smell the cold morning air through the slightly leaky wooden door. You go into the living room, which also serves as the kitchen, to pack your lunch and water from the counter-like room divider. And everything is covered in plastic sheeting. The entire kitchen floor, the cupboards, even the living room is covered with a carpet of plastic sheeting, which is supposed to provide protection overnight. And somewhere in between, even though my father tries to hide it from me as inconspicuously as possible: 5 huge rat traps with dead rats on the mouldy, green-blue walls. That was the sign for me that winter had arrived. I thought it was normal. But what wasn't normal was the punishment my brother and I were subjected to when we messed up...