The Greenhouse Chronicles

Chapter 3 - For Worse or For Worse

He was perfect at first. He was always really nice, he cleaned up after himself, he never complained about having to cook, and was great. I cant tell you when, but he started drinking, heavily. At first he would just be clumsy and extra handsy. But soon he became violent. But I dealt with it because in the morning it would all be ok and he'd apologize for the bruises, or the things he broke the night before.

It slowly got worse. He drank every night instead of once a week. He broke more things, and the bruises became hard to hide and I started running out of excuses. People asked questions and I fended them off with just me being accident prone. Some guessed. Most ignored.

He stopped apologizing. He began blaming, and I accepted it. I must have done something somewhere to make him start drinking. I was most of the reason he became angry. Like not having dinner ready, or not doing his laundry, for telling him no. I would always say I was sorry for provoking him, and he'd say it wasn't good enough, raising his hand up, striking me.

Two months ago I messed up, I accidentally broke his bottle of scotch and he became furious, He punched me hard and I landed on my side. He kicked and kicked until I was coughing blood. He realized what he did and picked me up. He held me by my collar and angrily mutter, "You tell no one what I did, You say you fell down the stairs the wrong way that I found you. OK?"

I nodded holding back tears. He drove me to the emergency room and they told me I had three broken ribs. They questioned me hard about the real reason I got hurt, but after they treated me and began asking again, I left.

He had been good after that. He stopped drinking. He went back to the loving man I always knew.

But it all changed when he came home, he was wasted and angry. I tried to run up the stairs and hide, but he chased me, and grabbed my waist at the top of the stairs. This time I really did fall down the stairs. When I landed at the bottom of the stairs, he pulled me up by my hair and threw me against the wall, crushing my windpipe under his arm. I kicked him hard in the gut and ran. I didn't stop, I took off into the woods and kept running, until I ended up in front of this greenhouse.