This is a children’s book, with easy to understand illustrations and words, that told of a story of horror, that’s usually, not spoken about: childhood sexual abuse, translated by me…
Duo-Duo is a happy child, she loved swinging on the swings, and watching the butterflies dance.
Until one day………
The skies grew dark, the clouds, the lightning, the thunder, they all came, at once, her wings became wet, and she couldn’t, fly no matter how hard she’d, flapped her wings……
“Look, there are the butterflies over there,” said her mom.
“Wow, one, by one, they flew, so pretty!”, said the little girl.
The little girl said, butterflies are flowers that grew on the skies, and should be counted as such, “Butterflies of Duo-Duo, fly, fly away high!” She’d loved pulling on her skirt, dancing with the butterflies that flew all around her.
Later on, everybody called her “Duo-Duo”.
The grandpa next door would share the fruity candies with her.
The grandma at the park, she’d, knitted a bunny with the long ears for her.
The neighborhood aunties, they’d, loved kissing her faces, and played with her using caterpillar hands.
Even though Duo-Duo never knew her daddy since she was born, but there were, a ton of people who loved her very much, and you can hear the chimes of her laughter everywhere in the community, along with seeing her hopping to and fro everywhere.
On the weekends, the uncle from the marketplace would take her and her mom out. “Mommy does not have a job right now, uncle will take care of us. Does Duo-Duo like uncle?”, asked mom.
“Yes! So does Bunny!”
Later, Duo-Duo and her mom moved into uncle’s home.
Uncle would buy Duo-Duo a ton of pretty clothes, and strawberry cake too. How Duo-Duo loved, flying and dancing around in the air, then, landing on Uncle’s knees.
“Duo-Duo is a hundred times more beautiful than the butterflies! Duo-Duo is more precious than a princess!”, Uncle would often say.
“Uncle is so kind, uncle can become Duo-Duo’s daddy, and we will live on happy like a family”, said mom.
“I love being a butterfly princess, I loved the uncle who’d allowed me to ride without putting coins in the slots”, said, Duo-Duo.
There was a period of time, when Uncle would get drunk, and come home late at night. If the following morn, Uncle felt ill, he’d told mom to go to the marketplace to set up the stands.
“My headache will go away soon enough, with Butterfly Princess here with me. Seeing Butterfly fly so high, I’d become, more energetic.”
Every time Duo-Duo worked up a good sweat, uncle would change her clothes.
Uncle told her, he will work hard, make more money, to buy those butterfly dresses for Duo-Duo.
Duo-Duo felt she was the butterfly princess, she feels, so blessed.
But, not long thereafter, Duo-Duo started having nigthmares, she’d dreamed, that all the butterflies which were originally living inside her closets left, one by one.
Her bed became wet, but she’d not dared tell her mommy.
Duo-Duo would often scream and wake herself up in the middle of the nights, the monster that stole the butterflies came to chase her in her dreams too now, her face was wet with tears, but she’d not dared, tell her mom.
As the day breaks, Duo-Duo would call out for her mom to take her out. It’s just, that no matter where she went, the monsters, they’d still, found her.
She didn’t want the candy from Grandpa anymore.
As Aunty tickled her, she’d, not laughed.
Only the bunny Grandma gave to her, she’d, clung on tight in her sleep.
One day, Duo-Duo whispered to Grandma, “Bunny wants some clothes on.”
Later, Duo-Duo often had her tummy aches, she no longer pulled at the tips of her skirt, danced along with the butterflies anymore.
Mom took Duo-Duo to the doctors, took her to the temples too, she’d even taken Duo-Duo to the parks to play, but Duo-Duo only, buried her feet into the sand.
One day, mom stayed home to accompany Duo-Duo who was having a tummy ache.
“Mommy’s been tired working too hard, I really want to be Bunny today, to stay in your arms to sleep. I’m so envious of Bunny, she could always stay with you.”
“Thank you for protecting me”, Mommy said in the voice of Bunny.
“Duo-Duo is my VERY BEST friend. Only you know that I love carrots, love racing with the turtle, love taking my naps under the trees. You know ALL my secrets, I love you oh so much.”
“I love Bunny too! We are the best of friends, we will NEVER part!”
“Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, good friends share secrets, do you have a secret to tell me?”
“But you can’t tell anybody else, pinky promise!”
“Okay, pinky promise, Bunny will tell NO one!”
As Mommy is away at work, Uncle will play with me. He said he’s a bear who loved catching butterfly. We would run all around in the forest until we sweat a whole lot. Uncle said, children who sweat needs a bath quickly, to get into a clean change of clothes, or she will get a cold.”
When we were bathing together, Uncle would tickle me. At first, I’d, become squiggly, because I was ticklish. But, he soon began, touching other parts of my body, I felt odd, and didn’t like it at all. I got mad, and Uncle took me to buy cakes and dresses.
Once, we’d played that game of Bear catching Butterfly, Bear said he was itchy, wanted Butterfly to scratch him. Then, Uncle said he wanted to bathe with Butterfly. He’d told me to touch him, I refused. And as he touched me, I was so scared I’d screamed. Then, Uncle became so mean suddenly, told me not to cry, that I can’t tell Mommy. He wanted me to behave, that he will buy more things for me. He’d even told me, that Mommy stole from the customers, that if I told the games we were playing to someone else, then he will call the police officers to take mommy away.
Bunny said, “I don’t want to be with Uncle anymore, I’m so scared, but I can’t tell mommy, what do I do?”
“Oh, Duo-Duo, I’m so happy you’d told me this secret”, Bunny’s voice trembled.
“The older boy next door said the monsters will come in the middle of the nights, and EAT up all the bad children, and there’s that monster that kept biting on my tummy at night. Bunny, did I do something wrong? I don’t want Mommy to be taken away, I don’t want Uncle to be my daddy!”, Duo-Duo started to cry.
“Duo-Duo didn’t do anything wrong. We will find a way, to chase away the monster, I promise.”
Mommy became like a thick cocoon, wrapping Duo-Duo tight in her arms. When Duo-Duo’s asleep, Mommy carried her and Bunny to the house of the Grandma from the park.
That day as Uncle came home, and became a volcano.
“You believe the words of a child………”
“I was just, playing with her………”
“I was kind, bathing her………”
“So what, if it weren’t for me, you two wouldn’t even have this roof over you head!”
Later on, the Police came.
But Mommy wasn’t the one they took away.
As Duo-Duo wakes up in the Grandma at the Park’s house, the Bunny smiled at her.
“Hello, Bunny!”
“Hello, Duo-Duo, you slept for a very long time, the caterpillar you grew turned into butterflies already. You know? As Grandma from the Park slept with you, I was out with Mommy, catching the monster”, said the Yellow Dog.
“Really?”
“Mommy wanted me to tell you, she is sorry for not protecting you, that you were hurt by Uncle. Uncle’s the one who’d done something EVIL, not you. There’s NO monsters who ate children, only monsters who HURT children. The Police just took the Monster away.”
“Then, will they, take mommy away too?”
“No, Mommy didn’t steal any money, Uncle LIED to Duo-Duo. The officers said thank you, because you’d helped them catch uncle.”
“Because you told your secret, Monster Uncle can no longer control you, you’re, so brave!”
“Bunny helped me become brave.”
“Duo-Duo, Bunny, and Mommy are, the THREE MUSKETEERS! Now, the Three Musketeers have a super mission!”
“What Super Mission?”
“To Find those Butterflies that were your Favorites back one by one!”
Duo-Duo nodded and smiled.
That was when that tiny butterfly from Duo-Duo’s lips spread its wings, and slowly, took flight.
Duo-Duo was in a huge thunderstorm, the rain wetted her tiny wings.
Everybody has a set of wings,
All our wings will bump into storms big or small
Sometimes, we’d get wet, sometimes, we’d, get hurt
But, so long as we know how to protect them
They will become light and shine, and spread to fly again.
And, this book is written from the child’s perspective, the little girl, Duo-Duo was sexually molested by the man her mother was dating, and, she didn’t know how to tell, besides, she was scared, because the man threatened her that if she’d told, her mom would be taken away, and that is just it, the sexual molesters often utilized how young and helpless their victims are to control them, and, in this story, the young girl had supports like the grandma at the park, and a mom who believed her, and in a lot of the cases, the adult would often call the child a LIAR, because the adults are mostly, in need of economic support from the abusers, but thankfully, the mother of this young fictional but very realistic girl had, believed her, and together, they got the LOSER arrested, and the young girl slowly started on her recovery from being sexually molested by the man who was supposed to have been a father-figure to her.
Life, the Obstacle Course 