We Both Need to Change

I came home from my lame job as a waitress, when I heard my mom and dad arguing again. When I came in, my little sister Abby was huddled by the stairs crying and covering her ears. She saw me and came to my side and hugged me by the waist, I slowly led her to my room and we locked ourselves in – making the shouts and accuses muffled.

She was crying and I was rubbing her back, “I couldn’t handle it K, they were so mad at each other. Then one minute, they were shouting and… and…”

“Shh… it’s going to be ok,” I told her as my hand ran up and down her back.

Moments later, we heard a shattering sound, that’s when I knew I had to jump in the fight. I slid Abby’s hands slowly away from my waist, “Stay here, ok? I’m just going to see what’s going on.”

I closed the door behind me and courageously approached my parents’ room, I opened the door wide. And the sight before me was horrible; mom was shoved in a corner, her face covered in blood, and dad taking a drag a lamp on his other hand.

“What’s going on here?” I said, baffled of the situation.

Just then my father’s hand touched the skin of my face sharply and I stumbled side ward, “How dare you, join in the grown up’s fight!”

I held my cheek and hot tears were bolting out my eyes, “Dad, I can’t believe you’d do this to me and mom… I, I never thought…”

“Yeah, you never thought! Because your mom hid it from you,” he took one look at me and mom and frowned in disgust, “You people make me sick!! I’m a saint for letting you guys stay in my home.” He grabbed his jacket from the bed and turned back at us, “Now, I’m going to a club and when I get back, you better clean this up and make up a sorry excuse for our nosy neighbors.”

With that he left. It took a moment before we could stand up; we waited for the sound of my father’s engine before me made any move.

I stood up first, “I… I guess we should clean this up now mom.”

“No,” she said firmly, “Go pack up, pack up all your clothes and some of your valuable stuff but leave the rest.”

“Wha – What?” I stumbled over my words; I literally didn’t know what was going on, “Mom, what’re you talking about?”

“We’re leaving, now get packin’ before you father gets back.” She told me.

&&

Later on, Mom, me and Abby took a cab to the airport, carrying our entire luggage. As we waited to board the plane I asked mom, “Mom, where are we going?”

“To my hometown,” she told me. I didn’t really know were that was, because mom never talked about her parents or where she was from. And whenever we asked, we always got the same answer, that dad found mom in the streets of America and took her in and they both fell in love and they had us – but those were just lies, lies made by my dad and followed by my mother.

Abby sitting on her other side was swinging her legs because her short legs couldn’t reach the white tiled floor, she looked up and smiled, “Where’s that?”

Mom smiled, “In Sheffield, honey. That’s in England,” she told her.

“So, you do have a home? You didn’t live in the streets, you weren’t a scared soul lingering in the streets of America?” I asked her, not in a mad way though.

She placed her hand of mine, “Kacy, your father and my father had conflicts, so he stole me away from home and I stupidly agreed. Everything was fine when we had you but when I got pregnant with Abby here,” she changed her tone to lower so that Abby couldn’t hear, “Your dad thought I was seeing another man, he thought and he still does think that Abby isn’t his but she is. And from that he always became very violent.”

“So, that’s where you got all your bruises,” I mumbled I faced her, “How did you get tickets so fast?”

“Well, I was plannin’ to leave for quite a while now; I was going to tell yeh tonight. But you saw what happened, and I didn’t wanna risk another night,” she told me.

Hot tears fell out of my face. I tried to hide it but mom still noticed, “What’s wrong hon?”

I hugged her tightly, “I’m sorry I let you suffer that long!! I’m sorry mom! I should’ve known!!!”

“It’s not your fault,” she whispered.

“Why is Kacy crying, mom?” asked Abby.

Mom faced her smiling, “Kacy’s just gonna miss her friends and she’s gonna miss Bridgeton.”

“I don’t have friends; daddy doesn’t let me have friends, maybe that’s why. Because he doesn’t wanna make me sad when we leave,” said Abby, then she started looking around, “Mom, where’s daddy?”

Mom was finding it difficult to say so instead I answered, “Abby, dad’s gone. He went somewhere, and he’s not gonna be back for a long time.”

Abby tilted her head, “Like one of those bissy trips?” what she meant by bissy is business. I nodded and she started swinging her legs again.

The speakers told us that we had to get on the plane and so we did. The whole trip there was quiet since we left around ten in the evening and we waited in the airport for about an hour, so when we finally arrived it was about two in the morning. Abby fell asleep during the plane ride, so I had to carry our entire luggage while mom carried Abby.

&&

When we arrived at our neighborhood, every house seemed the same. It made me wonder how mom knew which on was ours. She knocked the door with one hand because her other occupied with Abby’s body. The door opened, a woman was standing there, looking almost alike like my mom, but she had blue eyes while my mom had green but still they both still looked amazing.

“Alice!” squealed the woman and she hugged my mom. When they pulled away Kacy woke up and mom handed her to me. The woman spoke, “’S been a long, long time since I’ve seen yeh.”

“I know. I finally got the courage to leave,” she said in relief, she faced me, “Kacy, this is your Aunt Maybell.”

I nodded and smiled.

&&

Later on, inside – I met my Uncle Frank and their daughter Lexi who was my age as well. We let Abby sleep at couch while me, mom, Lexi, Uncle Frank and Aunt Maybell ate midnight snacks and they made me feel home.