From the distance I could hear the faint sounds of dogs barking and someone loudly cussing them out. That was my sign; my sisters and I had exactly thirty minutes each day to be free, to sit on the couch and relax or talk on the phone with friends, which weren't many since we weren't allowed to go anywhere, but those were the thirty minutes we valued the most. And once the dogs barked the freedom would end.
For years I heard the same bedtime story every night, the one where my parents would argue for hours until one of them got hurt. I couldn't stand to hear it any longer, and I guess my mother couldn't either, because one day she gave up on him and quit on us. That's how it all began; when my mother walked out on us, my father's life seemed senseless. Soon after he started drinking.
He started going to a bar called Bazzi Bar once or twice a week, and soon after that he became a daily customer, or should I say an alcoholic? From work he would go straight to Bazzi and after being......
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Approximate Word Count: 1082
Approximate Pages: 5 (260 words per double-spaced page) |