UPS

We arrived home, and mommy started preparing some dinner. All the while she made us sit at the table, as she rustled up some grub. She talked the whole time, "that woman is bad for you. She took daddy away from us, she broke up this family. You think daddy would have left if she would not have showed up at our door? Of course not, she flaunted her wares, and your dumb father followed her, like a dog coming to the dinner bell."

"What are wares Mommy?" Tommy asked.

"Wares are something you'll find out about later. You don't need to know about that stuff. Ask daddy about them. He'll know.

"What I am trying to tell you two is that woman was not a nice woman. I know she seems like one, but that was like a disguise. You know like one people wear for Halloween. People sometimes dress up as devils or scary things. Well, she's a devil dressed up to look nice, don't let her fool you now."

Mommy was just trying to convince us that the UPS lady wasn't nice. I knew she made most of it up, she was focusing towards Tommy. It didn't matter, I had already made up my mind; living with daddy would suck.

The next day a policeman came by, asking to talk to mommy. I had to go get her, and she told me to watch my brother, he was all I would have for awhile. I didn't really understand what she meant, but it didn't sound good. When the policeman came to get us, mommy was in handcuffs. He told us we had to go with another police officer back to daddy's house. We gathered up our stuff again for the second straight day and left. Tommy was whining about Mommy going away. I had to calm him down on the trip to Daddy's house. "Where's Mommy going?"

"With the policeman, Tommy, don't worry about it."

I was worried. I knew deep down Mommy had done something bad yesterday.

"I don't want to go back to Dad's house, the lady is not nice," Tommy said.

"I don't want to either, but we probably don't have a choice, ok."

"But the lady is not nice, Mommy said."

"She might not be there."

The man in front looked back at me after I said that. Returning his stare made him turn back away. I guess I should not have said anything.

Daddy was not in a good mood when we arrived. The house was a mess, empty bottles were rampant, and a pizza box lay out on the kitchen table. Daddy was drinking. He said thank you to the policeman, and turned back to us. "Well, your bitch of a mother has done it again. Stolen something that was mine, this time my girl, instead of my freedom, at least I got you two back."

"Mommy said you were stolen," Tommy said.

"Your mommy was wrong, she stole from me."

"What did she steal Daddy?"

"My woman, I told you that already," daddy said, his voice straining with anger. "She killed her in my backyard." He was yelling now, he never yelled. "Why would she do that? I'll tell you why, 'cause she's a fucking bitch."

"Daddy," I said calmly, "have you been drinking?"