Daddy Save Me

L I L Y.  My tiny finger runs down the foggy window as I shakily write my name. It's raining hard outside today. I don't like it when it rains, it's like the whole world is crying with me. I used to like the rain. Whenever it would rain Mommy would take me outside and we would dance in circles with our mouths open wide, catching raindrops on our tounge, and then Daddy would come out and hug Mommy real close and kiss her sweetly before wrapping me into a big hug. But that was before Mommy changed. Daddy always says that Mommy is just stressed and that she doesn't mean to hurt me, but the abuse has been going on for three years now. I remember the day it all happened.

It was a warm June night and I had just turned five a week before. I was sitting in my room, playing with Mommy's makeup and trying on her beautiful satin dresses when suddenly I heard Mommy screaming at Daddy. She was telling him to shut up and leave her alone and then I heard a sharp slapping sound and saw Mommy running out through the door in a white cotton dress to get into a car I didn't recognize. Suddenly I got really scared. My hair stood up and my spine was tingling as I tried to hurry and wipe off the lip stick before rushing down the stairs. When I finally made it down stairs, I saw Daddy standing at the door holding it open like he was in shock.

"Daddy?" I asked, scared. He turned around at my voice and I could see a hand print on his left cheek. He closed the door and scooped me up into a hug.

"It's alright Lily Love." He whispered into my hair using my nickname. Being the little girl I was I believed him and rested my cheek on his strong shoulder and waited with him for Mommy to come back.

She didn't. Not for two whole days.

When Mommy finally came back it was seven o'clock. She stumbled up the steps in the same cotton dress she left in with one of her high heels in her hand along with a dark brown bottle that sloshed out some liquid when she tripped over herself. She walked straight through the door, blowing a kiss to the strange man in the car outside and then looked at me. I could smell her all the way from the couch. She smelled strong and stale and I guessed it was the drink in her hand. She had red marks on her neck and her dress was ripped in places with stains all over it. Her hair was a tangled mess and she had lipstick smeared across her face. Suddenly she stumbled towards me with a look of hatred in her eyes.

"What are you looking at you little bitch?" she asked me before slapped me hard across the face. "Go to your room."

I looked at my Daddy horrified before running up the stairs to my room and locked the door. I pressed my self against the door so I could listen to what Mommy and Daddy were saying. Mostly it was a lot of screaming. My dad was demanding to know where she had been and screaming at her for hitting me, and my mom was just rambling on about things that didn't make sense and finally I heard her tripping up the stairs to go into her room. I gently pressed my palm against my cheek and wimpered when it stung. I stood up and looked in my little mirror and saw that my face was red and swollen with a tiny cut from where my mothers wedding ring scrapped across my skin. I cried and curled myself into a ball on my bed.

About twenty minutes later I heard a soft knock on the door and I knew it was Daddy because Mommy was loudly vommiting in the bathroom. I ran to the door and threw it open jumping into his arms. He patted my hair and tucked me into bed.

"Don't worry Love," he whispered to me, "I will never let Mommy hurt you again." He started humming and I curled into his soft body and drifted to sleep, knowing my daddy would keep his promise. 

I was jerked back into the present moment when my bedroom door was thrust open. My mother marched across the room and yanked me back from the window and slung me into the bed post.

"How many times have I told you to stay away from the window?!?!" She screamed wildly at me, her blood-shot eyes bulging.

"I don't know." I wimpered sliding down to the floor by her feet. God, she's had too much to drink. I thought to myself. She got right up in my face and I gagged as I inhaled the alcohol scent that clung to her body like the shirt she was wearing.

"Get up and clean all these windows you worthless piece of dirt!" She snapped at me before kicking me hard in the stomach and stumbling out of the room. I laid there and cried thinking again of how when it rains it was like the world cried with me. In my head I cursed my mother. I cursed my father too. I cursed him for having to go to work and leaving me with her. I knew he couldn't stand having me home alone with her, but he had to go to work. He had to get money that he could save up to get the both of us out of this hell hole.

Slowly I sat up and tried to get my breathing to normal. I got up and examined my damaged body. Tomorrow I would have to hide the bruises before I went to school. My dad always tell me how I'm so grown up and mature for being so little and that one day he will get us away from my mom, but I just have to be strong until he can. So I do. I do because I can't wait to leave and whenever I show the pain that my mother inflicts my father cries and hates himself for breaking his promise he made many years ago.

I don't blame him for it though. No one can keep that witch from hurting me.