Swing High

4. dirty counter

10 years ago

Holly-ann knew that her parents were going to counselling. She and her sisters were always told that they were in 'meetings', but Holly and Hazel were smarter than that. 

They knew that every Thursday, their Daddy was a little angrier than he usually was. 

They knew that every Thursday they went to bed earlier than any other night of the week. 

They knew that the danger of being alone with him was now much greater, but their mom didn't know that.

Rosa, Macy and Rei had no idea. They were simply too young. 

Holly-ann wondered if it was wrong that her parents were going to counselling. Like, wasn't that for families that didn't believe in God enough? Families who were on the path to hell? That was what her father had said. Everyone at church talked about families with marital problems in the dark and all hush hush. 

So Holly and Hazel didn't tell anyone what they knew, and they didn't ask questions, and they didn't bring it up to anyone. Holly felt that it was her responsibility to make sure that no one found out and that to everyone on the outside, they were an absolutely perfect family. She and her sisters already had gotten in trouble for misbehaving at church, and the pressure was sure to be too great once other people found out about their family. 

Holly climbed into her bed and turned off the lamp in her and Hazel's room. She was glad the day was over. They had survived the evening with no major incidents -

"Holly-ann!" "Hazel!"

Holly froze. Her father's voice rang from downstairs. Doing a quick recap in her head, she tried to think of something she had forgotten to finish while cleaning up the kitchen after supper. 

"Hazel! Dad is calling us from downstairs", Holly said, looking over at the brown-haired girl who was nearly asleep. Hazel got up and began walking to the door. Hazel had left her ponytails in, again. 

"Don't sleep with your hair like that, the line in the back of your head will get bigger," Holly scolded.

"Holly-ann and Hazel get down here right now!" The two scrambled into the hallway and down the stairs, passing their mother in the closed bathroom washing the two youngest. 

"Let's go!" Their father demanded impatiently, standing at the bottom of the stairs and pushing the two of them towards the kitchen, past the living and dining rooms. 

"Look at this mess!"

Holly looked. She didn't see anything, so she just stood there in silence. 

"I said, look at this mess!" Grabbing Hazel by one of her ponytails, he dragged her to the top kitchen counter and forced her hand to feel the back of the countertop, where she could barely reach. Holly winced. She could tell from the way Hazel's hand came off of the counter that it was sticky. She immediately wished she had double checked everything before going upstairs after dinner.

Hazel began to cry. "I'm sorry Daddy, I didn't notice."

"You are supposed to wipe everything down, how could you not NOTICE?"

Hazel wailed and reached for the washcloth hanging over the sink, beginning to run some new soapy water to wipe with. 

Holly noticed that one of her ponytails was a lot looser now. 

She wasn't sure why she was called down as well, except for the fact that ultimately she was supposed to see that everything got done properly. 

Holly couldn't bring herself to say anything to her father, to apologize, or to speak out against her father's actions. She just stood there in silence. She felt that saying anything would make it worse.