He didn't tell anyone...

It was midnight and he woke to the sounds of him stumbling down the stairs to their apartment.  He was drunk and he knew by the way his footsteps hit the ground; he was going to hurt her again.   As tightly as he could, he shut his eyes and put his hands over his ears to drown out the horror he knew was going to take place in the next room.   The nightmare was starting again and the monster was his dad. 

The all too familiar sounds of her cries filled the silence of the night.  He could hear his dad screaming at her, telling her she was worthless, he heard his mom cry out when his dad struck her, he knew she never fought back because if she did, it would be worse.  Sometimes when he couldn’t take it anymore he would slowly get out of bed, with tears streaming down his cheeks he would whisper, “dad, please stop”. 

The next day, they all pretended like it never happened.  They went about their day, getting ready for school not saying a word.  He tried not to look at the fresh bruises on his moms face or to even notice the ones that hadn’t yet healed. That was the way it was back then but they all knew it was wrong.  

 He felt so helpless and full of shame.  He never told anyone and tried his best to be a good boy and work hard in school, to never draw attention to himself.  The worst part of the day was walking home from school; he never knew what shape his mom was going to be in when he got home. 

When his dad wasn’t drinking, he was a completely different man.  He was kind and thoughtful; he would give anyone the shirt off of his back.  His dad would often say to him, “son, never hurt a woman”, but when he was drinking, he caused havoc in their lives and became violent and verbally abusive.  He hated living there, it was hell but he didn’t want his dad to lose his job or for his family to be separated from each other, it would be worse for all of them, or so he thought. 

 Those days are long gone now and he doesn’t often dwell on the past, the cycle of abuse stopped with his dad, he made sure of that.  His dad thankfully quit drinking for the last 10 years of his life.  He passed away at the age of     and during that time, he never hurt his mom again.