The Perfect Man

About Last Night

This is the beginning of everything... the first heart break, the first disappointment, the first foot print on my heart.

I was a little girl, Abigail Montes De Oca, 7 years old. I grew up in a little neighborhood located in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I had many friends, or so I thought. My parents loved me, or so I thought. I had a loving family, or so I thought. Everything was in my head... but then... reality hit me hard.

It was a late night and the arguments from the other room of the house had wake me up. "What's happening?" I thought. I saw my sister on a deep sleep, I was the one who heard everything.

"Stop it!" I heard mom yelling, "You're too drunk to think!"
"Shut up, you a nasty bi****!" My dad answered with a drunk voice.

And the fight continued until...

*Smack!* "Don't even try to touch me again! Get out!!" My mom told my dad.

I was so confused, I didn't know why they were fighting, I didn't know why my dad was so drunk, I didn't know who hit who, I didn't even know who they were anymore! All I did was cry, afraid of what might happen. And then, *TUNT* I heard the door. "Daddy left us?" I asked myself. My mom came to our room sobbing quietly after a bit, so I just controlled myself and acted asleep. She slept with us that night.

The next morning I woke up, it was a sunny Saturday and the first thing I did was go to my parents' room and check if they were okay. I saw my dad sleeping like a baby, but I didn't see my mom and I freaked out for a second, very confused at what happened last night. For a couple of seconds, a hurricane of questions ran through my head: what happened? Where's mom? Who left last night? Was it dad who slept with us last night? Should I ask my parents what happened? And so on...

I heard some light movement in the kitchen, so I slowly walked to it, unsure of what I was going to find. I felt a strong relief; I saw my mom making some juice for us. Her smile lighted my whole world. I was so happy she was fine, I was happy to see my parents so calm. I ran to her and gave her a hug, it was a tight, long hug.

"¡Buenos días mi niña!", said my mom.
"Good morning mami!", I said. "How did you sleep last night?"
"I slept well darling, why? Did you sleep well?"
"Mmhhm... I'm going to take a shower."
"You woke up early on a Saturday and you want to take a shower!" Mom said surprised.

While I was taking a shower, I couldn't concentrate, I was trying to figure out what happened.

My dad slept the whole morning, until 12:10pm and when he woke up, he had a sore throat, which confirmed his drunken state last night. I was scared that an argument was going to start... but it didn't.

"Good morning swertheart!", my dad said.
"Hi daddy.", was all I answered.

My parents looked at each other as if they were enemies for life. I didn't understand what happened to them, but I was ready to figure it out.

My mom finished cooking around 12:30pm and told me to wake my sister up to eat lunch. I usually didn't want to wake her up, unless we were going somewhere, because I wanted her to rest well, but I didn't think it twice when mami told me to wake her up.

"Andrea!! Andrea!!" I yelled, in my effort to wake her up.
"Hmm...", Andrea answered.
"Lunch is ready, wake up."
"Give me five more minutes."
"Come on! Please wake up!" I said in a desperate voice.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?", she asked as soon as she noticed the urge.
"I'll tell you later, after we eat. But you have to wake up first."

I didn't have to say anything else, she jumped out of bed and went straight to the bathroom. She was a very loving and protecting sister, she was a year older than me. If it would've been for her, I was never going to be in trouble. However, if I was in trouble, she managed to help me out of it.

As soon as we finished eating, we ran to the backyard. Our big, beautiful backyard, full of hens and roosters, with our two dogs, our cat, our parrot, our dove and our beautiful trees. Mango, guava, avocado, orange, and corn trees. That was our favorite part of the house. We went to our unfinished "tree house", we called it a tree house, but it was being built on the ground. My parents, 3 neighbours, Andrea and I were working really hard on it and expected to have it ready for the summer. We were so happy to have a tree house, even if it was on the ground. We often saw American kids on television with their cool tree houses, but never saw a person in Dominican Republic with one, so we felt very fortunate.

I told my sister everything I heard last night, and as usual, she told me that everything was going to be okay.

"Sometimes when adults drink alcohol, they cause trouble.", my sister said, "That's why kids don't drink it."
"Adults shouldn't drink it either." I answered.

My sister agreed, and calmed me down. She was really good at calming me down, I was the scary chicken of the two.