Fact or Fiction: A boy and a tattoo

 Will stood on a blue plastic stool in front of the bathroom mirror. His chubby fingers clutched the black magic marker as he drew “barbed wire” around 6-year-old bicep. He wanted a tattoo like his dad’s. He missed his dad. He didn’t understand why he left, except that his dad and mom were always fighting. 

 It got worse after the twins were born. Will’s dad stayed away more and more and when he did come home, he smelled like he had been pickled in booze and bar smoke. Will liked it much better when it was just him. He didn’t ask for the twins. And he was pretty sure, from all of the shouting, that his mom and dad hadn't either. 

Is this fact or fiction? Read on to find out.

This is fiction and based on a scene in my newest middle grade novel, "Will, Middle Name Trouble." Here's the excerpt from that work:

Once when Mom and my sisters were away, I searched the entire house for photos of Dad. I wasn’t about to ask Mom if she had any. Every time I mentioned my dad she got so mad I thought her head would pop off. I figured that if she had any photos, I’d find them – just like I’ve found every Christmas gift she’s ever bought. But I never found any photos.  Not one.  I even looked behind the secret door in her closet she doesn’t know I know about. When she wants to hide something super secret, that’s where she stashes it.

I don’t remember much about Dad – except for his tattoo. I remember that and getting whacked a good one when I gave myself a tattoo. Well, it wasn’t a real tattoo. I drew a circle of squiggly lines around my arm with a black marker. It was supposed to be barbed wire, like Dad’s, only it didn’t exactly look like it was supposed to. That was after he left, and mom went wild when she noticed the squiggly lines peeking out of my shirt sleeve.

Other fact or fiction posts:
Living a lie 
A cancer diagnosis

The Broken Nail

Yapper in the house

Scratches left behind

The pleading eyes

Man at the convenience store