Basements & spiders – Not a good thing!
March 7, 2006 — Mary Childs(Originally posted 3/1/06)
Charlie, 12 years old, has been locked in the basement of his house for a LONG time, haunted by an image of a huge, reddish spider off to the side of his vision. His father sent him down there as a punishment for some unnamed crime, and his mother can’t seem to speak up to help him.
He sneaks up into the kitchen for a PB sandwich every night and a drink from the faucet. But it’s when he stepped outside one night to relieve himself–his father didn’t allow him to use the bathroom!–that he got locked out and ended up out on the street, cold and sick.
He woke up in a hospital room where people realized he didn’t know his name, and gradually realized he had never gone to school, couldn’t read or knew anything about everyday things like soccer, Halloween, TV and more! But Charlie only wanted to go back to the only security he knew–his abusive parents!
What was going on with his parents and how is he going to move on from these horrible memories? With the help of his doctor, Dr. Leidy, his new foster mom and foster brother, and his friend Aaron, maybe he can forget the horror of being locked in a basement and learn to live again.
