Tales from the Darkside – Masha Allen
This is a story which sadly never goes away or gets better. The ever-excellent Pound Pup Legacy recently published this sobering exposé related by a friend of Masha Allen:
I met Masha when I was in the 5th grade. She was awkward, like me. We became very close along with another girl. At first she did not open up about her past. We would talk about normal girl things.
My best memory of Masha is when we used to steal pickles from lunch (the lunch ladies only allowed us 4). It sounds odd but it really helped us connect. We even wrote a silly story about it. From there, She explained to me she was from Russia and came to the US at a very young age. She said she was adopted by a very bad man and he did very bad things, as in sexual. I felt for her. She told me he would not allow her dairy and had starved her because he liked her “thin.”
Then came the subject about her foster mother, Miss faith. She called her “mumzie.” She talked about her very fondly so I assumed she was extremely nice and a savior to Masha.
One night Masha invited me to spend the night with her and Miss Faith. My mother was a little weary because they did not live in the best apartment complex but allowed me. Like any mother she wanted to meet Miss Faith. When I first met Miss Faith she was very nice to me, this was before she had taken in the two other foster children.
Unlike me, my mother knew as soon as she met Miss Faith that something was “off.” I just shook it off and stayed anyway. Miss Faith behaved like Masha and I’s friend. She was not like a mother. I do not remember the specifics of the night. It was quite a while until I slept over again because of some funny business going on with other people from the community near her apartment. In the mean time, Masha was slipping in school. She was having a hard time concentrating it seemed.
The second time I stayed over Miss Faith’s apartment was very different then the first. There was just a hostile feeling.
I did not know she started fostering 2 other children so I was surprised when I walked in the door. One was a boy and the other a girl. They looked to be about 6 years old, somewhere around there. They were extremely polite, almost like they were walking on egg shells around Miss Faith.
That night Miss Faith cooked dinner. While me, Masha, and Miss Faith were sitting at the table eating they were told they had to eat on the floor. It was very odd. I felt bad for them. To be honest, I do not even know where they slept because if I remember correctly Miss Faith had a 2 bedroom apartment and both rooms were occupied by Miss Faith and Masha.
When we left, I do not remember where we went, Miss Faith made the children always open the doors for us. She had a rude attitude towards them and it seemed as though Masha did too. Which was out of character for her because Masha was very sweet. My mother witnessed, I do not remember if they had gone to the local charity basketball game or not but I believe that is where it happened, Miss Faith slapping the little boy in the face. I do not remember the reason. My mother considered reporting Miss Faith and possibly taking Masha in to our home but for issues between my mother and father she never did.
For the rest of this memoir, visit Pound Pup Legacy here.