domesticated; through my eyes.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Malcolm suddenly jumped up from the chair, his chair screeching across the floor as he did so. With his head held high, and an angry expression plastered on his face, he stormed loudly into the kitchen. Everybody sat in complete silence, nobody doing anything. I looked up to notice everybody staring down at the table. "Antony get your stuff together, I'm dropping you home to your mums." Malcolm shouted from the other room. Antony quickly left the table and hurried upstairs, not making eye contact with any of us.

My mum got up from her chair slowly, and crouched down to where the food was splattered everywhere, keeping her head low and avoiding the gazes that she had now gained from me, Liam and Daniel. I noticed that Liam and Daniel looked shaken up, and had puzzled, but scared looks upon their faces, whilst I had streams of tears on my face.

My mum began to place the splattered food that claimed it's new home on the floor, back onto the plate, in an attempt to clean up.

As Malcolm walked past the living room door, I noticed he had a bottle of recently opened spirit in his hand. I was sure that it was brandy, I recognised the bottle; I had saw him drink from a similar bottle many times before. He stopped for a moment and began to drink it from the bottle. My mum looked up when she heard him in the doorway. "You can't drop Antony home when you've been drinking." My mum stated. "I can do what the fuck I like, don't you dare try and tell me what I can and can't do you bitch." Malcolm was becoming increasingly aggressive now, and was taking small but progressive steps into the living room where me, Daniel and Liam were still sat in fear at the table. My mum brushed his response away and continued clearing up the mess.

Malcolm seemed to be nearing my mum, she seemed aware of this, however she wanted to act oblivious to it. I knew that she was trying to avoid a confrontation.

"OI" Malcolm shouted down at my mum, hovering over her. My mum suddenly froze.

Panic was rising through my body as I didn't know what was about to happen.

Daniel and Liam didn't know about what had happened the previous night, but still they carried worried looks on their faces. I could tell they felt useless, because I did too. They were older than me as well, I was nearly 6, Daniel was 8, Liam was 10.

Antony suddenly appeared in the doorway looking puzzled. "I've got my stuff ready, dad. Ready to go?" He asked. Malcolm seemed hesitant, and the anger was still evident on his face, but after a few moments he took a step back "Okay, get in the car." He said, moving away from my mum and heading for the front door. As he left, he slammed the door shut behind him with such great force that things began to shake on the shelves.

It felt as though we all took a sigh of relief in that moment. He was gone. For now, anyway. My mum had finished clearing up the mess, and placed the plate onto the table, whilst sitting down. I couldn't see what she was thinking, she carried a blank facial expression.

"Mum...what was that all about?" Liam muttered nervously. Me and Daniel both looked up curiously.

"Nothing sweetheart, he's just having a bad day, he's been stressed out lately at work. Don't worry." She managed to say.

"I thought he was going to hurt you again mum" I said, my lip trembling, as I started off crying again.

"Again? What are you talking about Josie? Mum?" Liam asked, I could see that he was getting afraid now as well.

"He didn't hurt me Josie, you had a nightmare." my mum snapped at me.

"NO I didn't!!" I wailed.

I then quickly told Liam and Daniel everything that happened last night, before my mum could stop me. Tears rolled quickly from my eyes as I began to stammer towards the end of my explanation.

"Is that true mum?" Daniel asked, taken aback, a lump forming in his throat.

My mum sat sheepishly, overcome with emotion, and nothing to respond, her face began to sadden, and her eyes became wetter as she put her hands on her face, with her elbows on the table. She began to sob to herself. We all immediately got up from the table and crowded round her and had a group hug. We was all crying at this point. She welcomed us into her arms and hugged tightly.

"You mustn't say anything, or he will make it worse. Okay?" Not knowing what else we could do, or say, me and Daniel agreed. We didn't want to make it worse. We didn't want it to be our fault.

"I don't want him hurting you mum." Liam sobbed. This just seemed to make my mum cry harder. A few seconds later, she tried to compose herself, and carried the plates into the kitchen, ignoring Liam's comment.

We all followed after her, she soon turned around and noticed us. "Go upstairs now, go and play or something." she quickly said. I noticed the serious look on her face and knew that she wanted to be alone. I couldn't do anything anyway, I was useless. I made my way up the stairs, and into my bedroom, shutting the door firmly behind me as I did so.

I crawled into bed and pulled the covers over my head, I found sandy under my pillow and clung to her closely. I began to cry out all the emotions that were built up in my body. A sudden tiredness took over me as I succumbed to sleep.

I was woken by a sound of voices coming from downstairs. Eager to know what was going on, I climbed out of bed and made my way to the top of the stairs on the landing. I sat on the middle of the stairs where I couldn't be seen but could hear what was being said.

"You don't have too go, but I'm not sure if here is the right place for you to be right now. " I heard my mum say awkwardly.

Yes!! Was this it? Was my mum making Malcolm leave? We could all be a happy family once again. Dad could come back, and we could forget everything bad that Malcolm had done, and let go of all the bad feelings he brought.

I peered over the banister to see my mum speaking to Liam. Malcolm was no where to be seen.

"I should probably go, Malcolm doesn't like me and I don't want to make things worse for you. I'll go. Don't worry." I heard Liam's young voice say emotionally, as he tried to be grown up.

" What's going on?" I asked, heading to the bottom of the stairs and standing in the hallway alongside my mum and Liam.

"I'm leaving Josie, I'm moving out."