Melody 5 - Rising Stars

3 (v) - Kat

“So where have you been, eh?” he yelled, not bothering to lower his voice at all.

“I had to go somewhere.”

“She had to go somewhere. You hear that everybody?” he yelled, as if announcing it to the whole neighbourhood.  “She had to go somewhere.  Not to college.  Not to work like me.  But to somewhere.  Where the hell is somewhere?”

“Papa,” pleaded Kat, desperate for him to quiet down.

“I want my eldest daughter to tell me where the hell she’s been all day,” he carried on.  “Hmm.  Where?”

“Nowhere,” said Kat.

“Nowhere?” said Andrzej.  “Make up your mind.  I thought it was somewhere.

“I went to London for an audition,” said Kat, finally deciding to brazen it out with the truth.  She flinched, expecting Andrzej to go berserk. Instead he said nothing.  He just gripped the back of a chair to steady himself and looked at her coldly.

“Just like your mama eh?  Rushing off to the big city with dreams of being a singer. Puh,” he mocked.  “You know where she is now?  Shacked up with her loverboy, desperate and penniless, just like the whore I always knew she was.”

“Papa, don’t...”

“Don’t you defend her!” he yelled again.  “She’s a whore and you’ll end up just like her if you carry on embarrassing yourself with this ridiculous notion.” 

“Papa, it’s not ridiculous!”

Suddenly Andrzej lunged at her and grabbed her by the arm.  “I’ll tell what is and is not ridiculous.  What do you know, eh?  You’re 17 and you think you know bloody everything.  You know nothing.  You know nothing.”

Andrzej started to shake her as though she were nothing more than a rag-doll.  Kat could hear Dani’s footsteps racing down the stairs.  She didn’t want her sister to get caught up in this.  She’d caused this mess, it was up to her to sort it out.

“Go back upstairs,” yelled Kat.

“Papa, stop it,” pleaded Dani, from the doorway.

“Go to your room,” shouted Andrzej.

“No Papa, stop...”

“Go to your room,” he yelled even louder.

“It’s fine, Dani,” begged Kat.  “Go!”  But Dani stayed rooted to the spot.  Kat knew how she felt.  It’s exactly what she’d done when she’d stood there watching her Papa and mama fight, all those years ago.  She’d pleaded with her papa to stop hurting her mama, but he wouldn’t.  He just carried on as if she hadn’t even existed. 

Spurred on by the memory, Kat did what her mama used to do.  She let all her anger and rage course through her veins and she broke out of Andrzej’s grasp and wielded on him.

“You stupid man!” she screamed.  “You think mama would be proud to see you like this?  You think Anna would want to come back if she saw you carrying on like this?”

The mention of his ex-wife’s name stopped Andrzej in his tracks.

“No, she wouldn’t.  She’d stay away because she’d see that in five years nothing has changed.  You’re still the same drunken bully you were when she left you.”

“Stop it, Kat,” yelled Dani.

But Kat couldn’t.  It was as if a force bigger than her had taken over her body. 

“No wonder she left,” spat Kat.  “No wonder she took up with another man.  Any man would be a better husband than you.”

“Kat, please,” begged Dani.

“Any man would be a better father!” screeched Kat.

Thwack!  Kat barely saw the blow land on her face, but she certainly felt it.  As she dropped to the floor, the pain burst through her skull like a grenade.

“Kat!” screamed Dani, racing to her sister.

“Leave her,” yelled Andrzej, clenching his fist.  Whether it was to restrain himself or hit her again, Kat couldn’t tell, but as she stared up at him, she could see he was bright red and his temple was throbbing.

“Mama!” cried Lucas, from the top of the stairs.  “Mama!”  When he woke in the night, Lucas always called out for his mama, even though it was Kat who answered his cries.

“Coming sweetheart,” called Kat, as she staggered to her feet.

“Katya, I’m sorry,” gushed Andrzej.  “But you pushed me, you pushed me too far.”

Katya stumbled to the door, still dizzy with the force of the blow.  She couldn’t bring herself to look at him now.

“Mama!” called Lucas again.

“I’m coming,” she said, as she started to climb the stairs, with Dani following closely behind.

She picked up her brother and carried him back to his room.  “It’s alright, sweetheart,” she soothed, and with Dani’s help, she tucked him up in bed.  She looked over at Stefan, who was still sound asleep.  There could be a hurricane outside, and he’d still snore on.  He was a much heavier sleeper than six year old Lucas.

She assured Dani that she was okay and went to the bathroom to check out her face.  It was swollen and sore, but the bruising wouldn’t show up properly for a couple of days – she knew, because that’s what she’d seen happen to her mum. 

This was the first time Andrzej had punched her in the face.  He’d shaken and pushed her and she was forever telling him to stop slapping the boys on the backside when they were naughty, but this was the first time he’d actually beaten her.  But then, it was the first time she’d told him she wanted to be a singer, just like her mama.

As she pressed a cold flannel against her cheek, she could hear sobbing.  She poked her head out of the bathroom and leaned towards the boys’ room, but it wasn’t coming from there.  She went to the top of the stairs and listened again.  It was coming from downstairs.  Quietly she crept down.

“Where’s my Anna?” she heard Andrzej sob.  “Where’s Anna? Where’s my Anna?”

Katya tiptoed into the kitchen and saw her papa hunched over a glass of vodka, his head in his hands. 

“She’s gone, papa,” she said softly.  “She’s gone.”

Andrzej continued to cry, as Katya remained rooted to the spot.  The violent and angry man of earlier had been replaced by a sad and lonely husband.  Suddenly he reached out for Kat and pulled her close.  “My beautiful Katya.  I missed you today.  I missed you and Anna.”

Kat wanted to pull away, but Andrzej was holding her too tightly.

“Don’t leave me Katya. Don’t leave me like she did.”

As Andrzej continued to cry, Kat eventually gave in to his embrace and held him close.

“It’s alright, papa.  It’s alright.”

But Kat knew that it wasn’t alright.  Once her papa had started to hit her mama, things had never been alright again - it had been a slippery slope to more and more abuse. 

Kat knew she’d have to get herself and her siblings out of this house, if things were ever going to be alright again.