12 & 13

awhile back.

  On 12 I was nothing but a little girl chasing after hidden treasure with a little boy. The sun was shining and I wore a pretty pink dress covered in flowers, a smile of white pearls to compromise my waist length dark brown hair. I would fill you in with details of the rest of that day but I simply don’t remember.

  The evening came quick and I was in my night gown tuckered out from a long day of play with the little prince, he had gone to sleep, and I had my words with the queen. She told me of the princess before me, unborn, cold and limp in her arms, still born. I couldn't understand, but it didn’t matter, she shared the sadness of princess Isabella with me. And that was more than enough

  I lay awake listening to the escalated voices of my intoxicated parents fill the neighborhood silence. I wish they would stop, just be nice to each other, I couldn't sleep. He had no more than 6 beers, but he acted as if he had 20, he fell only to scare the queen and out of anger she grabbed a hose and wet him from head to toe. I could hear her scream and the sound of his wet hand against her cheek. Blackout. The lights are off and I hear my mother scream my name 

“Mia! Mia! Mia! Wake Up!” . 

By then I was already crying “Mama whats happening what is going on why is daddy so mad!”

 I stood at the open front door with the sleepy little prince in my arms, the cold air penetrating the houses bubble of warmth. 

“If anything happens you run okay? You run to Ms. Nancy’s and you call 911 okay? Everything is going to be okay.”

The light outside the sliding glass doors shines bright, the backlight to an anguished silhouette. The queen in what is left of her regalness steps forward “Turn on the electricity Alfred. You are scaring the children, please just turn on the electricity.” 

“YOU ARE SCARING THE CHILDREN, YOU DID THIS. THIS IS YOUR FAULT.” and he smacks her again, harder this time.
“You come back in here, don’t listen to your mother!” 

“Don’t listen to him Mia, you stay right there!” 

“F**K YOU, I WILL MAKE SURE YOU HAVE NOTHING. I WILL MAKE SURE YOU HAVE NO WHERE TO GO.” he stomped his way into the bedroom shattering the glass door to shards across the terra-cotta floors. Black and blue my mother took us into a room, a dresser pushed against a locked door. And a sleepless night followed.

The next morning was like any other morning, my mother made coffee and got us ready for our school day. We piled into the car, and began to drive, and drive, and drive. Right past my school, right past our neighbor hood super market and my best friends house.
“Mama? Where are we going?” I didn't understand, I thought we were going to school.
“We are going to a special place where special people are going to make sure your daddy doesn’t hurt us anymore, everything will be okay. I promise.” 

We parked the shiny new black car in front of a tall building that said “Broward County Clerk of Court.” in big capital letters.
We went to the top floor where a lady gave us papers to fill out for something called a restraining order, which means that daddy has to stay fifty feet away from all of us.

It was a vary scary day. I knew that mommy and daddy were never going to kiss and make up. 

We went to uncle winfields house and stayed there for awhile, until uncle winfield told us we had to leave because the police would be mad about his pot plant. I didn’t know why the police would be so upset that uncle winfield liked to put his plants in pots, but I guess they are pretty strict about that kind of thing. 

Daddy called me 26 times that day and he called mama 126 times. The one time that I picked up at the end of the day, he told me that he had a sharp kitchen knife on the table and that he was going to use it, and that he just wanted to say goodbye. I screamed and cried and my shaky hands dialed 911; the police got there and put silver bracelets around daddy's wrists and put him into a police car and drove him away. Daddy wasn’t sorry, but I am. I am Sorry daddy, that things didn't go your way.

Reviews

[Michelle Chiafala]

You have captured the naivety of a young girl perfectly. I could feel the fear that you must have felt, and I'm very sorry that you have had to experience this. It's rough at any age, but even more so the younger you are.