There was something about the way he looked at me.

Something about the way his eyes narrowed and the corners of his mouth twisted up,

The way his nose would scrunch up as if he was considering me, seeing what I was worth.

I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but then no one ever could.

He came by every day to see my mother, and every day he would give me that same look, and every day it would send shivers up my spine.

I hated that man as much as I have ever hated anyone and I have hated a whole bunch of people.

He never spoke more then three words to me, actually…..

I don't even think that he said that much, he nodded once,

A curt harsh nod.

And he wore cowboy boots.

All the time with the cowboy boots.

They were black and pointy and he would rub them up against the wall as he stood there with his arms crossed and his head bent back.

Scratch. Scratch.

Up and down.

Embedding their marks on the wall, leaving us with a permanent mark of his existence in our life, in our home.

Not the only marks.

There were more, the scratch on my moms face, the bruise on her shoulder…..

He wasn't old and he wasn't young,

He wasn't ugly and he wasn't handsome but he was attractive, in a cold, harsh kind of way.

He had weird eyes.

Almost hypnotic.

They were silver and shining very big, except for when he was squinting and he usually was.

He was also unusually quiet, at least when I was around.

But sometimes I heard him yelling at my mom and then he was loud.

Screaming and cussing and carrying on.

About nothing in particular.

He just liked to yell.

I could tell that he scared her, probably more then he scared me.

He hit me once.

It wasn't deserved and it wasn't hard, he just slapped me across my face.

Right in front of my mom, and she didn't even say anything, but I knew she saw.

And I just stared at him and it hurt.

We never talked about it.

We never talk about anything.

I hate him.

I hate his boots and his coat and his smell of something I can't quite place and his humming and his scratching and his glaring and his stupid silver eyes.

I hate him.