TAINTED LOVE

1 “Where were you last night? Who were you out whoring around with?” I heard my Dad yelling as I opened my eyes first thing in the morning. “Oh no, he was already drinking and yelling at my Mum,” I thought. I rolled over and covered my head with my pillow and tried not to hear. But it didn’t work. He was so loud and the house was so small; you could hear everything. “I told you where I was. I took Blanche to bingo. I’m not telling you again,” my Mum answered. “Who were you whoring around with?" I heard Dad yell again. “I told you, no one,” she answered. I lay awake listening and waited for a while hoping that he would just go back to bed and it all would be over. He ranted and raved for a bit longer but he did go back to bed eventually. I got out of bed and crept down the stairs as quietly as I could. A few of the steps creaked and I thought Dad would yell at me, but I got down without any yelling. I didn’t want to wake him up and have him come downstairs again. He would have his mouth going, yelling at Mum again. Then it would be our turn after hers. The boys were awake now too. We had eaten our breakfast and turned the television on to watch the Saturday morning cartoons. I was around twelve I guess by then. My oldest brother Joe had moved to Toronto so that he didn’t have to put up with Dad’s drinking and hitting anymore. My brother Pat was planning to move there this summer also. So there would only be the three of us there then. I hated it at home when Dad was drinking. You never knew what was going to happen. This morning he was just hateful and taking it out on Mum. We knew to stay in our beds and to be quiet when he was like that. If not he would take it out on us.