One of my earliest memories was the day that dad left.
Mum came home pissed[1], again, even though she had 5 pounds of baby meat hanging in her belly. At the time I didn't know that she was pissed, I didn't even know what it meant to be "pissed". She had become so selfish. She didn't care about what her drinking was doing to the baby's health, or what he drinking was doing to the family. She left it all to dad.
Although, dad was no saint either. Dad thought mum was stupid... he thought we was all stupid. We all knew... well, at least I did and mum did. Dad was seeing 'auntie' Ariette behind mum's back. I was 6 years old, Harley and Jess were 2 and Ellen was 1. You'd think that 6 years old is way too young for a kid to understand issues such as affairs... Not in my house! Mum and dad would argue, swear, scream and almost kill each other in front of us. I swear, the first word I learned to spell was fuck.
My dad was fucking Ariette, my mum had started drinking because of it and she couldn't stop. Even after she fell pregnant with Miles, she couldn't stop. Dad watched mum waste away into a shell of her former self and did absolutely nothing to stop it. He didn't even have the decency to stop sleeping with Ariette.
That night mum was super pissed. I can't remember in detail what she was saying, but she ended up arguing with dad about it. I'd never heard him scream so loud, Harley, Jess and Ellen were as scared as usual. I watched in amazement and I remember counting the number of times that the name Ariette was mentioned.
Dad could see that the other kids were frightened and so he packed us all off to bed. No effort, or sense of comfort in his voice - just a harsh "bedtime." He carried Ellen in his arms as he walked us into our crowded room. He placed Ellen into her cot and tucked Jess and Harley into their bed. I had no such luck. He didn't even talk to me. He just looked at me and expected me to know exactly what he was thinking.
I remember wishing desperately for super laser eyes that I could use to burn his body into dust.
"Goodnight kids," he mumbled, switching off the lights before we could reply.
After he closed our bedroom door, leaving us in complete darkness, Ellen, Harley and Jess started crying again - one by one. I didn't know what to do. There was so much noise. Dad and mum screaming, the babies - also screaming.
I sat, wishing, hoping, waiting for someone to come and save me. I needed someone to come and save me.
After what felt like forever, the noise in the room stopped. Everyone but me was asleep. The noise coming from my parents seemed to have stopped. I don't remember what happened after that, I just remember waking up the next morning to see mum asleep on the living room floor.
I also remember that I never saw dad again.
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Notes:
[1]pissed - in this sense we'are talking drunk, really really drunk.
The grammar is supposed to be rather poor as our character lacks education.
