Harry's troubled Life - Extract

A short extract from my autobiographical book 'Harry's Troubled Life", describing how my troubles began

"This is Harry's story - a real story of abuse and torture in South Wales. Based on true events, the novel follows the life of a young child who's life is turned upside down by a horrific accident and who then suffered terribly at the hands of his mother and stepfather. years of abuse and maltreatment leads him close to death several times...
But this is also a story of remarkable recovery - how Harry managed to pick up the pieces of his life to regain independence, love and happiness..."

Paula and Arnold didn't go to bed that night. What parents would? They spent most of the night trawling the streets looking for Harry, shouting his name. Paula somehow knew, deep down, that something terrible had happened to him. He wouldn't have gone off with someone would he? No! He wasn't like that. She had to find her son. He might be barely alive, lying in a ditch somewhere, waiting for her to rescue him.
She spent the whole of the next day searching for Harry, and many of the neighbours joined the police as they scoured the estate. They were heading back to her house when they heard someone yelling out, "He's over here!"
Everyone rushed to where the shouting was coming from. A young boy was pointing to something that lay in the ditch. As the searchers gathered around, Paula prayed that she would hear Harry call for her.
Silence! She felt that she wasn't going to see him alive again. She felt weak and numb with terror, and the nausea rose up in her throat. A policeman put his arm around her.
Harry had been found just a few hundred yards away from their house. An ambulance was called and, when it arrived, the paramedics said that they thought a car had knocked harry down and the force of the collision had thrown him into a ditch. Luckily he was still breathing somehow...

Reviews

[C]

Interesting dramatic beginning. Look forward to more.

[PaperHearts]

What an intense start to a promising story! This captured my attention from the very first word, and kept me intrigued and wanting to read more as the story progressed. I thought that the tone of this piece was very fitting, and that the pace and build up of suspense worked really effectively. Nice work,
~PaperHearts

[tshigg]

Good start. Keep it going.

[Mark]

I look forward to reading more of this story, Josh. For such a brief piece, it was unusually gripping. I will reconsider your Friend Request when I have read more of you.

[Cheryl J. Turner]

Gripping - I look forward to reading more of your work.

[StrawBarry]

I'm intrigued. Have you changed your name?