Norene and The Man With The Cowboy Hat

There was a time where there were strangers who lived in my house, my parents rented out some of the spare rooms to bring in a little extra income. During this time a family moved in and a single mother and her three kids, Aris, Mark, Norene. Aris and Mark where slightly older than me and the youngest Norene was almost around my age, I don’t remember if I was a year older or she was. Being around the same age of 6 our moms would always want us to play together, being forced to play with someone I didn’t know I felt uncomfortable, but I at least wanted to try, so occasionally I would ask her if she wanted to play or I’d share my toys with her.

During these times my parents used to work a lot, my siblings where either in school, or hanging outside the house with their friends, or hanging out with Aris and Mark I would always be left in the care of this stranger lady and having to play with Noreen, we were either playing in the living room or in the room that they rented on occasion we’d play in my family room. Every so often I would spend my time away from Noreen and be in my room, watching tv, playing my brothers video games, napping, reading. On these days there was something about Noreen that I felt off about and I didn’t want to be near her, I felt unsafe, so I stayed away.

There was one time I had fallen asleep in my bed, after my mom left to work, and in my sleep, I had felt a presence or something standing over me, I was afraid to open my eyes. Keeping my eyes closed “sleeping” I suddenly felt the bed move and someone lay next to me, a sudden cold feeling began crawling over me, as I started feeling a small hand moving all over me. I froze, what was happening? Why was I feeling this? Why was it so uncomfortable? and who was next to me and why were they touching me? The bed started moving and it seemed this person was getting out of the bed. Suddenly, I decided to “wake up” and opened my eyes to find Noreen walking away and out the door. What just happened? What did she do? What did she do to me?

After she left, I stayed in the bed looking up at the bunkbed over me, silently crying. I didn’t know why I was crying. It just happened. I was numb, and I knew I felt disgusting.

A couple days had past after that, I completely stayed away from Noreen, I never left the room, and when my parents or one of them would leave to work I would lock the door, I only allowed my siblings or my parents in depending on who was home that day. My parents got mad that I would lock the door and stopped playing with Noreen, they kept telling me I should be nice to her and share my toys, but I just wanted to stay away from her. As kids, were told to do what are parents tell us, so I did what I was told, and went to the living room to “play” with Norene. But she wasn’t alone, with her sitting on the couch was a man in a cowboy hat, this man happened to be her uncle, but something about this man terrified me, and I wanted to get away from his presence, keep away so he wouldn’t look at me, or see the look he had in his eyes.

I didn’t know when this man would leave but it seemed like he was there everyday, in the afternoons till late evenings. He would always be sitting in the living room on the couch, watching tv, drinking a beer or he would be outside in the front yard. Whenever he was in the living room he always seemed to have Norene sitting on his lap, something about that always made me feel uncomfortable. I didn’t like that man he always had a very dangerous vibe to him, I always wondered if anyone else could feel this feeling as much as I did or was it just me? My parents always told my siblings and I to always be respectful towards others and especially adults, I was respectful to this man yet I feared him.

It wasn’t until one day I was grabbing a snack to eat thinking I had a safe day from the man in the cowboy hat since I didn’t see him around the house or Norene, so I felt safe. I sat in the living room watching tv, my siblings were outside playing tag or something in the front yard, my mom was getting ready for work and my dad having a quick meal before he had to drive her, for once the house felt normal? It was nice, that day I didn’t know where they had gone but I hopped they never came back.

It wasn’t until one day I was sitting in the living room, enjoying my time that out of no where the man in the cowboy hat and Norene and her sister came out of their room, they all looked weird and as if they were crying, the older sister left outside, Norene stayed in the living room and watched tv. As I sat on the opposite side on the other couch, he came towards me, and sat next to me, scared I stayed staring at the tv, planning on how I could escape from sitting next to him, so I got up and was about to walk towards the kitchen when suddenly his hands grabbed my shoulders and lifted me up, pulling me towards him, sitting me on his lap, I froze, I was terrified, and I had no one to call to or voice to call out. Sitting on his lap, my skin crawled, a sinking feeling in my gut, the feeling of his hand moving from my shoulder…down to my waist…onto my hip….. suddenly...his hand and fingers pulling my shirt up….sliding his hand into my shorts….feeling my underwear…then underneath the fabric….leaving his hand over my ……. from time to time he would move his fingers….inching closer…. and closer…. To my…… I felt disgusting, I felt numb, I felt cold, I wanted to run, I wanted to scream, but I was afraid he would do something else if I did, so there I sat frozen on his lap.

That was just the beginning of my torment of a couple months trapped in the hands of The Man with the cowboy hat.

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