Guarded Love©

Mother Drunk -- Chapter 5

When I finally came home at nine fifteen at night I was one hundred percent relaxed. I snuck in the backdoor that was closest to the stairs that would lead to my room. There are two stairs that lead up to my room. The first one leads to the hallway that connects all three upstairs bedrooms, and the second staircase leads to my bedroom. It was convenient, because if I really needed to, I could sneak out the back door and leave the house.

I highly doubt my mom even knew I had left the house. I knew that my brother noticed though. I quietly knock on the door that has one of my brother's posters on it.

I hear a barely audible "come in" from inside the room, and I open it up. Jack was in the blue bean bag chair at the end of his bed holding an xbox controller in his hands. I looked at the small box tv and watched for a minute or two as Jack's Maddon character deked his way past the other animated football players about to tackle him. I watched as Jack skillfully moved his fingers across the controller, knowing exactly what buttons to press to do an action. Jack's facial expression didn't change when his character scored a touchdown, adding another six points to the score. He paused the game and looked up at me; his hazel eyes held a questioning look in them.

I held my little ten-year-old brother's gaze for a couple seconds before sighing. "You alright?" I asked.

Jack's eyes averted away from me and he rubbed his left eye; I knew he was lying or hiding something when he did so. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

I held back an eye roll, and sat down beside him, picking up another controller. I connected myself to the game, and began to play with him. I wasn't quite as good at the game as Jack was, but I'm alright at it. "Did Mom notice I was gone?" I asked, not looking away from the tv as Jack scored yet another touchdown on me.

"No," Jack said, choosing his play and then made his character complete a field goal kick. "She stayed in her room and fell asleep blasting Brown Eyed Girl."

I winced. Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison is Mom's comfort song. She only ever played it if she was really upset.

Our dad died when I was seven, and Jack was two weeks short of two. He had Olfactory Neuroblastoma. Olfactory is a type of cancer that starts in your nose -makes you go nose blind, have bloody noses, clogs up your nose, and more- and then it moves on to your eyes -where it makes you go blind in on or both eyes- and then finally, it goes to your brain, where it sooner or later kills you.

My dad was a great guy. I may not remember much about him, but Mom's told me stories. So have my aunt's and uncles, and my older cousins that remember him. But the one thing I remember, was his favourite song. Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. He used to sing it to her (even though her eyes are hazel not brown) and she loved it.

Ever since he died, Mom never listened to that song, unless she was losing it, and my mom never loses it. So when she played Brown Eyed Girl, Jack and I were terrified.

"I'm sorry, Buddy," I said, rubbing his arm with my hand. "You know you can call me if that ever happens while I'm gone."

Jack opened his mouth to answer, but his bedroom door opened. In came my Mom, and I could almost see the steam coming out of her ears. "Taylor Rose Melinda Chester, when I call you, you pick up your phone. You know I don't like walking through the house when I'm upset!"

Mom called me six times while I was gone, but she didn't actually know that I wasn't in the house. Mother-of-the-year award goes to my very own mother right here.

I looked away from my mom. "Sorry," I whispered, looking at my feet.

"You sure as Hell should be." Mom growled before slamming the door.

I exchanged a look with my brother, and we both knew what was happening. Mom was drunk. She's only been this drunk twice before, when I almost failed math in Grades nine and ten.

Jack couldn't do it anymore. He started crying his eyes out. I paused our game, and wrapped my arms around my little brother. Jack didn't deserve any of this shit. I let a tear escape my eye.

God, why did you let this happen to my family?