Fear. It swelled inside Harvey, making his hands shake against the banister and his knees crash together as he fought to stay on his feet. In darkness he stood at the top of the stairs, listening to a couple arguing in one of the rooms below. He recognised their voices; how could he ever forget them? His father was shouting obscenities, and going by the violent bangs and smashes, throwing his weight around with reckless abandon. His voice, manic and fierce, sliced through Harvey like a steel knife slipping between his ribs.
His mother was begging for reason, her voice growing evermore shrill with each thud and wallop. Desperate to act, to intervene, Harvey braced himself and yet did not move. He was too afraid. He was too frightened of what he might see by going downstairs that he found himself frozen to the spot, woefully ineffective and hopelessly conflicted. And then his mother began to scream.
The sound, so startling and piercing, seemed to kick-start Harvey’s limbs. He was compelled down the stairs, leaping three steps at a time until he reached the narrow hallway below. Following the screams, he turned right and raced towards the closed door at the end of the hallway, almost tripping in his hurry. Shoulder-first he barged into the door, but instead of breaking open, it held firm and Harvey was knocked flying off his feet. Winded and now having to support a dead arm, Harvey clambered to his feet and snatched at the door handle with his right hand. It would not turn.
As he wrestled with the handle, his mother’s screams began to ebb away, until the only sounds issuing from beyond the door were those of his father’s heavy panting. Harvey knew he had little time left to save his mother. Concern for his own wellbeing pushed firmly aside, Harvey thumped the door with his fist and lashed out with his bare feet. The pain was staggering but he persisted, even when he felt the bones in his hand shatter and the blood pouring from both feet and pooling on the carpet. The door, wooden and old, could have been made of steel for all Harvey’s blows did to even dent it.
Bloodied and broken, Harvey fell against the door and slid to his knees. He shouted out for his mother, screamed at his father, pleaded to no one in particular, but there was no answer. His mother screamed one last time, and Harvey felt his world turn upside down.
