The Last Time He Raised His Hand

My life was in danger. I needed a pay phone, but I couldn't leave the building with him downstairs, and the neighbors would bring me straight back to him; they didn't want any trouble. With my father downstairs and my mother upstairs, I had no choice but to go home. My mother would hit less hard. Behind our door, I heard her yelling at my brothers, asking where I could be hiding. I rang. She opened, and over her shoulder I saw my parents' bedroom: the biggest room in the apartment, always tidy, with the nice furniture, the TV, the stereo, and the phone. The phone! My mother grabbed at me and ended up holding my travel bag. One less weight. I ran into their room and locked the door with the key she'd left in it. My mother pounded on the door, ordering me to come out, threatening me with everything she was going to do to me. On her orders, my brother went downstairs to get my father. When I reached the phone, I remembered: my calling card and my teacher's number were in my bag. I started crying from exhaustion and fear. I had done all of this for nothing. I was going to get beaten tonight, and nobody could help me. My father came back up and pounded on the door too, promising I would die in that room. It was 11 p.m. Each side held its ground: me in their room, my parents on the other side with my brothers, who were almost happy that, for once, my father was going after me. Then my sister Angela, who had come home in the meantime, said she wanted to go to bed. I don't know why, but my father took it as disrespect. I heard him tell her to go to our room. He hadn't forgotten she had a beating coming. I turned on the radio so I wouldn't hear my sister scream. I had failed. I hadn't been able to protect her. The song playing was so sad that it still brings tears to my eyes today: the story of a child who died under his mother's blows because he never wanted to turn her in. I turned off the radio and picked up the phone. Then I waited ten minutes before I left their room and went to ours.