The End of Innocence

Walking down the stairs after getting out of bed I saw my parents talking with my Aunt Denae and her husband Randy. I couldn't really tell what they were talking about because I had just woken up, but I did see they all had beers sitting by them on the table! It normally wouldn't surprise me to see that but it was only ten in the morning! I turned around and headed back up to my sister's room after hearing voices coming from her room.

I opened the door to see my cousins Shandolyn and Goldy visiting with my sisters, Codi and Ashley. I asked what everyone was doing here so early and they responded that my aunt had to talk with my mother...still to this day I have no idea what was so important they had to come and have drinks so early in the morning. We decided to go outside and play hide-and-seek for a while, but eventually we went inside to play what I thought was going to be board games.

As I walked into my house I could hear screaming from my parents and thought "oh no, not again...not this early" but it was too late, they had already drank too much. I saw half empty whiskey bottle on the table as us kids headed up the stairs. Wondering why adults always argued with each other I told the others that we should play Monopoly but the others didn't like how long the game took so we ended up playing "house" and of course...me being the youngest and seven years old I was given the role of the "baby." Awesome.

The screaming didn't stop as we played our game, in fact I could swear it was getting worse by the minute. Last time my parents fought I told them I would scream as loud as I could telling them to stop, and that's exactly what I did. I went to the stairs stopping about halfway down and started yelling for them to stop. Their heads turned to me and their arguing stopped for just a second...that was until they decided to direct their screams towards me. I was so scared I ran back upstairs!

My father called Codi downstairs and she looked at me and I could tell she didn't want to go down their. A few minutes passed and a crash came from the hallway, I peeked out the bedroom and my father had thrown my sister halfway up the stairs! I asked her if she was okay when she got up to the room, but she was crying so I already figured the answer. I was so pissered at my father.

I told my sister and cousins that it would be better if we went outside until everything settled down. On our way down my mother called me over to her, so I told the others to go outside without me.

My mother was in the laundry room between the kitchen and the front door. She was sitting on the floor and started asking me if I loved her. Of course I did! I felt bad for her for having to put up with my father, but at the same time I could smell the whiskey on her breath and told her she shouldn't be drinking. Ignoring me she asked if I loved her again...I told her yes and turned around to go out the back door where my sisters and cousins were. My mother grabbed my leg and pulled me down to the floor as I was trying to wrestle from her grasp. By this time I was crying because I wasn't used to my mother hurting me or acting so strangely. Finally, after crawling away from her I got up and ran outside.

I sat down on the steps leading up to my house us kids started chatting about how much we hated our parents. A few minutes had passed when Aunt Denae rushed out of the house telling us "run! run to the neighbors! GO! They've got a gun!"

We didn't question that as my sisters, cousins, and I bolted for the neighbors house. I looked back for my aunt but she went back in the house to try and calm my parents down. Halfway into the neighbors yard I tripped as a loud crack came from my house. The gun had fired and I was as scared as I had ever been. Who shot the gun? Did it hit someone? Was I going to be orphaned if one of my parents was dead and the other was in jail?

Once we got to the neighbors house my sisters begged for them to call the police. I looked out the window and saw my mothers car speeding off. Then, I started thinking about a future without my father, who was probably dead, and with a mother in jail. I didn't know what to do with myself. I sat down on the floor and curled up as I started bawling.

I sat there for the longest fifteen minutes of my life before the cops showed up and my sisters told them what had happened. The police went over to my house and another hour had passed before my father showed up at the neighbors apparently unharmed. He told us the bullet had just missed his head, but the police were looking for mom. They had found her car crashed a few miles outside of Sumner, but that was it.

My sisters and I didn't see our mother for another two months after that incident. Even then, mom wasn't let out of jail until a year after that.