"Mommy, I Killed Him"

Chapter 1

               I squinted my eyes at the tag sown on the man's jacket: Clark. He hummed a tune as he bagged the groceries my mom placed on the table.He looked at me as he bagged the glass bottle of milk and the glass shatters into pieces with the milk spilling all over the store's tile floor. " Ah, shit," he muttered under his breath. His green eyes shoot over to me and Elly.

           "It's okay," Elly assured him. "Daddy always says that when he hits mommy.Sometimes he throws her and says other words." I feel myself launch into a panic attack. Clark gulps and takes a shallow breath.

          "Oh,okay. $37.95 Ma'am," he says. He speaks to my mother but he won't glance at her. When he puts his hand out to accept my mother's cash, the once confident man turns indescribably uncomfortable and somewhat afraid.She throws the cash in his hands and grabs the large pile of groceries for the week alone and walks out. 

               "Bye," Elly yells. Mommy's blue eyes pierce her like a sword. I grab her by the hand and follow Andrew and my mommy outside. I turn back to see Clark's confused, dark eyes staring into my own. So he was never afraid of us. He was simply confused. That means mommy overreacted.

             "Elly, what did I tell you about blabbing our personal business?" 

              "Don't tell strangers.Sorry mommy," Elly muttered as we climbed into the car. 

             Mommy looked mad. "Oh god," she grumbled under her breath. I gasped. We were due home in three minutes. Or else daddy was going to give it to all of us. She started the car and steered onto the road. I looked out to the road and tried to tune out Elly's questions, Andrew's giggles, and mommy swearing under her breath.

                  Sometimes I hear mommy crying in her room. I don't know what he does when I'm not home because they always remember I'm watching. They know my eyes aren't on the television screen when mommy cleans the house inch by inch while daddy sits there with the dinner mommy spent a whole day making. They know I hear every order he barks and every mistake he points out. 

                  What they don't know is that I remember every word daddy says and every tear mommy cries.