“Get away from that door!” my mother screeched andI saw the shadowed man jolt as she shoved him to the side.
He came back, hand up, finger pointed in her face.
“Chill,” he bit off.
I wanted to close my eyes but I didn’t.I never could intimes like these.Times like these, it was impossible to build castles.I knewthis sure as certain.
Seeing as I’d tried.
His head swung back to me.
“Igottago, girl.You needsomethin’, all yougotta—”
“She don’t need shit!”my mother snapped.
His head turned to her again.He hesitated and I watched ashis body moved when he took in a deep breath.
Then he looked back to me.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he whispered.
So was I.
I was young, only ten, but I understood why he was sorry.
But he wasn’t sorrier than me.
“You tellheryou’re sorry.You treat me likegarbage and you tellheryou’re sorry?”Momma shouted and the shadowedman jolted again because she’d shoved him again.
He reached in, grabbed the knob to my bedroom door, andpulled it to.
He did stuff like this too, a lot, because they fought, alot.He tried to make it so I wouldn’t see.Coming down the hall and closing mydoor.Or when they were in the middle of it and I was in the living room orkitchen, telling me quietly, “Maybe you should go to your room, sweetheart, andclose that door, yeah?”
But he could never make it so I wouldn’t hear.
With that, he disappeared.
But she didn’t.
Her voice still came at me.
“That’s it?You’re just leaving?”
Nothing from him.
But more from her.
“You can’t be serious.You cannot be freaking serious!”
He didn’t reply.
“You’re such an asshole.A totalfreaking asshole.”
He wasn’t an asshole.
He was a good one.
Theonlygood one.
