The Breaking Point of our Family

My Aunt passed away 6 months ago, and this caused a lot of hatred between our family. I wrote a story about my Aunt's daughter Adi, and what happened between her father and my family tonight.

The shrieks and roars is what caught my attention. A deep rush of sadness grew all over my body. I couldn’t bear listen to this any longer. Was anyone going to do something? Neighborhoods miles away could hear her bowl. I wanted to do something, but what? What if he hits me? I rush down the stairs thinking i'm taking her back inside. I wanted her away from that horrific man who's causing her to feel the way she does. I called my dad's voice with rage, praying that my cousin could stay the night with us. Seconds later, my sister bolts down the stairs reaching for the door handle. Looking into her eyes, I could see the fear, and the frustration she felt in that moment.

“See Adi, they killed your mom!”

As my sister and I heard these words come out of my uncle's mouth, we jarted down the stairs of our front door to see what had happened.

Adi wished that she could go home. It was 10 pm, and all she wanted to do was sleep.

“Poor Adi..Poor Adi!”, I thought.

I thought about what her mom is thinking about in heaven watching her daughter squeal;squeezing her father’s hand so tightly, begging him to get inside the car. My parents approached Mark hoping to hug Adilyn, and take her away from him. They could tell that Adilyn wanted to go home, and told Mark to please take her inside the car. He would not listen. He pointed his hateful finger in my dad's face and threatened to call the police. Oh how I wanted to hurt Mark in this moment. He caused so much pain and frustration to my family. I could tell my parents were falling apart. They were always so different when Mark was around. My parents hated him and I wanted him to be gone. Mark called the police a few seconds later. One police car showed up after another until neighbors stood on their front porch wondering what all the fuss was about. The police officer talked to Mark and my family and I tried to stay out of the way. The next few moments I was so thankful. Adilyn had to go to the bathroom, and thank god for that. Mark asked me to take Adilyn to go to the bathroom inside, and make sure she was ok. Adi rushes to the bathroom still sniffling, and tears rushing down her face. I come in to see her crying on the toilet. I just wanted to hug her. I wanted to tune out the conversations outside, and just hug her; her small body in my big arms. My mom tried to calm her down and tell her everything was okay, but all Adilyn wanted to do was rush to her dad to make sure he was okay. Oh how bad I felt for this poor girl. Who knew bring six years old could be so difficult. My mom convinced Adilyn that I could read her favorite books to her until her dad was done talking to the police officer. My feelings inside me changed right then. I knew I had to step up and not cry for Adilyn's sake, even though that's all I wanted to do. I took Adilyn to the living room with her favorite books. We read the Lorax and talked about all the funny characters we noticed. I tried to read loud so she couldn’t hear the conversations in our front yard. I knew that when she would get home, she would be hearing all night long about the events that occurred tonight so I wanted her for at least a few minutes, to forget. My goal was to make her smile again, and for her to feel safe in my arms. I wrapped my arms around her ever so tightly and I never wanted to let go. Until, the moment I was interrupted when my sister told Adi she could go home now. She leaped from my arms and rushed for her dad. From now on, our only transaction with Mark will be in public places with limited contact. I guess it was good he called the police because they were on our side, not his.

I started to imagine what Mark would do to Adi when they get home. I imagined that he would hit her for no apparent reason. He would hit her because of the anger he felt.

Tomorrow, Adi will be at camp happy as can be, and I will pick her up with such open arms and love. I hope when I look back at this, Adi will be living with us and the name “Mark” won’t sound as familiar as it does now.