Somnolent Strike

The Truth

Travis' father had been fifteen when Travis was born. Mom had been twenty one. Unity's father had been seventeen when she'd been twenty four. The only one who had been older than her was my Dad but he'd been thirty when she was eighteen and a groomer. Maybe that's why Mom became how she became. He was her first boyfriend after all. The boyfriends after him were all younger than her, and meaner. She'd gotten meaner too. She started playing around with Sam when he was about ten and hadn't stopped. Travis nine, Unity eight and I'd been the oldest, at fourteen. We'd all looked plain as kids, chubby and whiny with braces, but Mom had told us we were beautiful and showered us with praises and gifts. That was the really scary thing about my mom. She could make you feel so special - but then take it all back and tell you you're a mistake and a disgusting failure. I never knew how to relax around her or make her happy.

"Oh there's Uni. Did you get a nice snack darling? Let me see? ... What the hell is that? I told you to buy something like banana chips, something healthy. And you went and wasted my hard earned money on this?!" She snatched the packet of what looked like lollipops with a design of a green tongued man, slurping a lolly.

"They are really good, Mom. Lollipop Paint Shop are so in right now." Unity handed one to me but Mom whipped it out of my hands.

"These are full of chemicals. You don't need this. It's going straight in the trash where it belongs." She tossed it in a chamber pot under my bed, full of someone else's piss.

Unity gagged and ran our of the hospital room, crying.

"Honestly! She's such a drama queen. I'll have to catch her. Bye Vee, enjoy your Walkman." She ran out in her leopard high heels, running better than me when I wore jogging clothes.

I sometimes wished I was my Mom.