Alone

1. Mum

I remember the day clearly. I was five years old at the time and I was living in Ireland. My parents were shouting back and forth at each other and it was scaring me. I remember running out of my room and down to Greg’s. I crawled up into his bed and he held me while my parents continued their fighting.

“I can’t take it anymore!”

“What can’t you wake?! We’re your fucking family."

The voices were getting louder and I was becoming even more scared. Greg was trying desperately to calm me down, but it was not use. I couldn’t stop my trembling or my crying.

“What the hell are you doing?! Why are you packing your bags?!” My dad was sounding very close to tears at that point.

“I told you! I can’t take it anymore! So, I’m leaving!” Greg tightened his hold on me and buried his face into my back. I could feel his tears soaking my shirt. This didn’t calm me down at all.

“You can’t leave! What about the kids? How am I going to tell them that their mom left? That she doesn’t want to be here anymore? How she left and isn’t coming back? What about me?” The last part came out very softly and I almost missed it. I could hear his sobs after that.

“I don’t know! It’s not my problem now! You guys aren’t my problem now! You can figure it out yourself!” Her tone was so harsh and hollow sounding and as soon as she finished yelling that, the front door slammed closed.

I could hear my father’s loud sobbing. I got out of Greg’s embrace and sprinted out of the room to my dad, Greg was hot on my heals. We found our dad crumpled on the ground by the front door, crying his eyes out. I ran over to him and wrapped my arms around him and Greg was soon to follow my example.

We sat there for what felt like forever before my dad finally spoke up. “Listen, boys, I need to tell you something. Y-Your mother l-left.”

Greg immediately got up and ran back to his room. My dad stared after him with tears still slowly falling out of his eyes. I was beyond confused. “Why are you crying? Isn’t she coming back?”

He gave me a sad, watery smile and shook his head slightly. “I don’t know, Ni. Maybe she will someday.”

I started crying again and my dad wrapped his arms around me and held me until I calmed down. He was trying to hold himself together too. He knew she wasn’t going to come back.

2. Harry