A Father's Vengence

“Is it always different guys?”

“There’s usually different guys but she has one steady boyfriend.”

“Who? Do you know him?”

“Yes.”

“Who is it?”

I became scared then. I didn’t want to say. I was afraid he’d do something bad and since the boyfriend was a police officer I didn’t want him to go to jail.

“Please tell me Baby girl. Don’t be afraid.”

“It’s…it’s…Paul.”

“Paul? Our neighbor Paul?”

“Yes Daddy.”

He said nothing more but from the look in his eyes we knew he was red hot with anger.

“Thank you.”

“What’s going to happen now?”

“Nothing bad Honey. I promise.”

“Okay.”

“I think it’s time for you two to go to bed.”

We headed off to bed, both of us occupying my bedroom. We’d gotten so use to falling asleep together that the habit was hard to break. We lay in bed staring at each other, both of us wondering what was going to happen next.

Our sleep was once again disturbed by yelling but this time not just yelling but the screams of a mad drunk woman.

“They’re lying! I swear they’re lying! I’m not fucking around on you. I wouldn’t do that!”

“Don’t give me that line of bullshit! I know you are. I found this. Explain it if you aren’t cheating on me.”

My sister and I didn’t know what he had nor were we going to make the trip down the stairs to find out this time.

“I don’t know where it came from!”

We heard a slap and then a thump against the wall. We hugged each other tightly.

“You lying stupid bitch!”

“No please don’t! Please don’t hit me again!”

“Are you fucking around on me? Are you? While I’m out trying to make a living for us, you have strange men in my bed!”

“Please quit!”

From the sounds that were coming from downstairs my sister and I could only assume that our Father was banging our Mother against the wall.

“ANSWER ME!”

The next thing we heard was the most frightening thing in the world. A scream issued from our Mother as though she was a wild animal about to attack her prey. Then came a plea from our Dad.

“Put it down! Put it down now!”

The glass in the front bay window shattered so loud that my sister and I thought the house was coming down around us. The next sound was the sound of our frightened screams. We heard our Dad running up the stairs. He came barreling in the door.

“Shhh..shhh..Babies it’s okay. It’s okay. Do not be afraid.”

Our Mother’s frame was in the doorway.

“Look what you did you bastard. Look how scared they are!”

“You did it. Shut up!”

“Don’t worry. Everything is okay.”

I heard the small scared voice of my sister, “What happened?”

“Your mother threw an ashtray and it hit the window. See nothing to worry about. I’ll fix it in the morning. Now you go to sleep.”

He kissed us both and walked out of the bedroom pulling my Mother behind him. There was no more noise after that, but my sister and I still couldn’t sleep.

Our father was due to go out of town again but he told his job that due to family business he was going to have to skip this trip. It didn’t settle over too well with his boss but he was able to stay home.

My mother and father had quit talking to each other, and my Mother was spending less and less time at home. One day while my sister and I were outside my Father called to us.

“Come here guys. I need to talk to you.”

We entered the house and saw our Mother sitting on the couch. She looked awful, her hair unkempt, no make-up, and a cigarette dangling from her fingers.

“Sit.”

We sat on the floor as far away from our Mother as possible.

“Now I’m going to tell you something that’s going to hurt but you have to be brave for me okay?”

We nodded.

“Your Grandmother is on her way up here. She’s coming to take you to Missouri.”

That was no big surprise we went and stayed with our Grandmother during the summer.

“But this time you’re not coming back.”

In unison my sister and I said, “What?”

“Your Mother and I are getting a divorce. I cannot stand to see her anymore. She makes me sick.”

We looked over at our Mother with hatred. She was crying, but this time the crying was real.

“I cannot put up with a wife that does not respect me or loves me. And if she can go out and fuck around on me then she has neither for me. You two are going to your Grandmother’s because I do not want you around during this time. You’ve already been hurt enough and seeing your Mother and me go through a divorce will only make it worse.”

Though at this very moment we hated our Mother more than ever because it was her doings that had caused this we still had concern for her.

“Were will Mom go?” I asked.

“I don’t know and I don’t give a shit. She can go to her lover for all I care.”

I nodded my head and looked at my Mother again. Her shoulders shook with her sobs but I thought that it was her own fault that this happened to her.

Two days later my Grandmother, my Mother's Mom, pulled into our drive. She was all smiles for her granddaughters but showed no love for her own daughter. In a catholic family the last thing you want to be is the thing that causes a divorce.

“Are you guys packed and ready?”

“Yes, Mammaw.” She smiled at hearing the name that we had given her when we were too young to say Grandma, and as we got older we never changed it.

We looked around at the only house we had ever known, and now would have to abandon because our Mother couldn’t keep her pants up. We were sad and oddly happy at the same time since our Grandmother was with us. We had said good-bye to all our friends the day before, but now looking at them as they gathered in their yards made tears of heartache run down our cheeks. We would now have to find new friends along with dealing with a strange new life of living with our Grandparents.

Our Dad came out then with suitcases filled with brand new clothes that he had bought yesterday. He kissed my Grandmother on the cheek.

“How are you Midge?”

“I’m good.”

“Great. Well here are their clothes and their beds and things will be shipped out later today and should be there by the time you arrive home.”

“Okay, great. I have their room all ready for them.”

“Good.”

He turned to us and opened his arms. We ran to him and hugged him as tightly as we could.

“You girls be good for your Mammaw got it?”

“Yes Daddy.”

The tears streamed down my face now, “Daddy, when will we see you?”

“Soon my little duckling soon, I promise.”

“Okay.”

He let go of us then, kissing us both on the top of the head.

We turned to see our Mother holding her arms out to us. We reluctantly went to her and hugged her half-heartedly. We got into our Grandmother’s big conversion van and started off to our new life.

A few weeks later a friend of my sister and I called us. It was the first contact that we had had from anyone up there, including our Mom and Dad.

“You’ll never believe what happened.” She said in an excited voice.

“What?”

“You know Paul?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Well, your Dad produced evidence in court that showed that he was the one your Mother was cheating with.”

I remembered back to the fight my Mom and Dad had when my Father asked my mother to explain how she wasn’t cheating on him when he had found whatever it was he had. I now knew that it was correspondence from Paul and my Mother. Little notes that they’d slip to each other when no one was looking to tell each other where to meet and on what nights.

My voice was much less excited then hers was, “And?”

“And….Paul’s wife went nuts. She cursed him and vowed vengeance. Two days later all his shit was lying out on their lawn and two police officers, buddies of his from the force, were waiting on his front porch for him when he got home. They arrested him the minute he pulled into the drive. Ain’t that something?”

“What they arrest him for?”

“Guess he was dealing drugs on the side and his wife knew about it.”

“Hmmm…..So, how’s my Dad doing?”

“Oh I don’t know. Haven’t seen him. I think he went out of town.”

“Oh.” I started crying. He had broke his promise of seeing us soon. That was two now, one that nothing bad would happen if we told the truth about our Mother and now this..

“Look I gotta go.”

“Okay.”

I hung up the phone before she said good-bye.

That same night my Mother called. My sister sat with the phone in the living room and I with the one from the kitchen. We weren’t too excited about hearing from her.

“Hi girls.”

“Hi.”

“Well, he left me with absolutely nothing. Nothing, no alimony or nothing. He took my fucking car away from me. I have nothing now. And because I have nothing it’s going to take me a long time before I’m able to get down there. I have to find a job and save money.”

“Okay.”

“Why aren’t you sad for me? I got nothing!”

I spoke up, “You are nothing but a greedy little bitch! You cheat on your husband and you think you should get something for that? I hate you. I mean it, I fucking hate you so much that if I saw you right now I’d fucking kill you!”

“Don’t you fucking talk to me that way! I’m your Mother.”

“No, correction, you are the woman that spread her legs long enough to get pregnant with me. If you were any kind of a mother you wouldn’t have done this to me. You wouldn’t have ruined my fucking life. I would be in my own home right now and not worrying when in the fuck I’m going to see the only parent I love, my Dad! You make me sick!”

I hung up the phone and my sister soon followed. I could hear my Mother pleading with us not to hang up before my sister’s phone went down on the receiver. My Grandmother looked at me wide eyed but she said nothing. She understood where I was coming from.

It has now been twelve years since the divorce of my parents and to this day it still affects me. After a couple of years my Mother got the money to come to my Grandparents house and lived there off and on. She’d run off sometimes to go live with boyfriends of hers, but she’d come back when they got tired of her. My mother’s, sister’s, and my relationship never mended. My sister and I have no respect for our Mother since her screwing around caused us the loss of our Father. When my Grandmother became ill with cancer and eventually was released from her pain by death, my sister and I turned to our Grandfather for parental guidance. This never settled with our Mother and finally she moved out for good.

As for my Dad, he never came through on his promise. I saw him, finally, three years after the divorce. He had remarried and had a baby on the way. We had talked on the phone several times before that, and still do at least three times a month. But his work keeps him from making the trip to see me.

I blame this on my Mother. I blame everything on my Mother. The fact that my Father did not see my graduation, or was there when I was married, or has never seen his own grandchildren. I have always been secretly glad that her life has been hard. My Dad was acquitted of giving her alimony since she had commit adultery. He had everything taken away from her, threw away all her clothes, and returned her car to the dealership. Leaving her with absolutely nothing, and to this day she has never gotten back on her feet. But that is her own fault. Her sinful ways came back to her tenfold, and now she has to repent for what she did, though I do not believe that she has ever realized this.