A Woman's Flight Chapter 14

Lizzy had always wanted to say something. She would always blame herself later on for not saying anything in the beginning when she first saw him start to go downhill. One night in particular she came downstairs and saw that he had opened a flask of vodka and was in the process of finishing it off after they had settled in for the night. She could obviously see that he was already drunk to begin with. Not really knowing what else to say she went to him and knelt beside him; picking up the flask he had dropped and asking him to come to bed. It was at that moment he snapped.

With a wild and angry look in his face he said, " Woman I don't need your pity and I don't need you to pick up my flask. Just go back to bed and mind your own business. I never wanted to marry you anyway, and now you are always stalking around like a mouse with that damned kid. I should have known better but you were the one that wanted a family and now you have one. Aren't you so happy now? Aren't we a happy family? Are we the family you wanted? What about me? I never wanted this and I never wanted you or that kid. Just go away and leave me alone."

At that moment he began to break down in tears and sobbing uncontrollably. Lizzy took him in her arms and started rocking him and said, "I am so sorry. I should have said something earlier when I first saw you were hurting yourself. Don't worry. I will take care of you. I promise. I can make it better for you and for us. You will see" What they both didn't realize was that Rebecca had heard the whole conversation.

She already had felt something change in her dad for a long time coming. She was just young enough to remember her grandfather visiting but still not old enough to truly understand her father's relationship and past history with his father. All she knew was that her father was ultimately changing for the worst right before her eyes.

Rebecca began to blame herself and internalize a lot of the negative changes that she saw happening in her father and seriously began to wonder if life would have been better for her mother and father if she had never been born. It didn't help that she was feeling more and more disconnected from her mother as her mother was trying her hardest to keep her husband from losing control completely.

Even though things were deteriorating in her family all around her, she never had reason to fear that her father would actually hurt her or her mother. She had no idea of the abuse her father had suffered at the hands of her grandfather and at that point she had no real conscious idea of what abuse could really look like.