when I told her a bit of what happened and what he made us girls do, Mum realised it really wasn’t that funny after all so we had to be quiet in case he heard us. We then went back to sleep for a while but then Mum woke me up about an hour later, this time sitting on the edge of my bed. It was alright for her to sit there because he would never walk in my room without knocking. Gale was now awake too but she just lay there and listened to Mum and me. I told her I was so relieved to see her and that she was alright but I couldn't resist asking her, "Where the fuck have you been all night?"
She told me she had seen the car and had hidden in a garden until we had passed. The rest of the night when the coast was clear, she decided to go and hide in Margaret’s back yard, who was one of my school friends where it would be safer. She knew she couldn’t come home until the coast was clear and our house was quiet. It was just as the sun was coming up and she could see better, she came home and climbed through my window and hid under my bed. One has always been a heavy sleeper so I heard nothing obviously! In doing this she would feel safer, warmer and could rest, even if it was on a hard floor under a bed. I felt so sorry for her having to do this, but at least she was home and not out there on her own.
Gale and I then told Mum more in depth what had happened while she was gone and she couldn't believe someone could do this. Finally she got enough courage to go and talk with him but as she left my room I was in fear for her but I knew she had to face him one way or another. He obviously woke up when he heard her enter the room and he sounded fine as far as we could tell from where we were and that was a relief. We were waiting for him to start abusing her but all we could hear was both of them laughing about what she had done and where she had been. She didn’t dare comment on anything he had made us do just in case it set off a spark of the too well known. He never mentioned anything of what had happened the night before and neither did Gale or I. We didn’t dare in front of him but we will never forget it. That night traumatised us for life!
Another crazy incident happened, when one night I had my friend Margaret over and we were doing what normal friends do, just hanging out in my bedroom chatting. We only stayed in because it was rather cold and pouring with rain so we really had no choice. Everything seemed fine in the house at first, but out of no-where we heard my Mum screaming. Margaret and I immediately stood up and flew out my bedroom door to see what was going on. We were horrified to see Paul had my mother bailed up against the kitchen sink with his hands around her neck, trying to strangle her. The only thing I could do was to scream at the top of my lungs for him to leave her alone.
Then all of a sudden for whatever reason, he decided to let her go. He turned around and stormed straight towards us with this silly dazed look on his face like we were his next target. We both just stood there stiff not saying a word and thinking the worst. I thought we were goners but to our dismay, he stormed straight past us cursing and swearing and disappeared to another part of the house. This was when my Mum ran toward us and whispered to get in the car as fast as we could go.
We quickly scrambled our things together, raced outside in the pouring rain and jumped in the car as quickly as we could, locking the doors. Mum making sure the coast was clear to leave and followed about a minute later.
When she got in the car and because she panicked the door had not closed properly but it was still enough for her to put the lock down and hold it secure. Just then we saw the front door of the house fly open; almost to the point it was coming off the hinges. Oh my God, Panic! It was Paul!
He stormed towards us yelling and cursing for us to get out of the car but we knew if we did what the consequences would be. Margaret and I yelled at Mum to hurry up and start the car so we could get out of there but as she was trying to put the key in the ignition he by now had reached the door of the car cursing and swearing trying to yank it open but he couldn’t. Even though it wasn’t closed properly, having the lock down was enough to secure it and it only rattled but it was still enough to make Mum and us panic because we knew he could have quite easily smashed the window if he wanted to. Because he couldn’t open the door he was getting angrier and this was making Mum’s hands shake even more which was making it difficult for her turning the ignition but eventually she got her act together and started it. Her still shaky hands managed to get the gears in reverse and as she was reversing, he was still yanking at the handle as hard as he could and moving with the car cursing at the top of his lungs like a mad man. He was now out of control and I thought, “My God, he is going to rip the door off any minute if we don’t get out of here.”
I yelled at my Mum to plant it and as she put her foot down and accelerated harder, for some reason he just disappeared. Where did he go? We did feel a bump! Oops!
It wasn't until we pulled out of the drive that we saw him standing there doubled over and holding one of his hands with the other. He looked as though he was in complete pain but it still didn’t stop him yelling at us to come back. It then occurred to us what had happened. Because it was raining so heavily he had slipped down by the car and we ran over one of his hands. Just before we drove off we sat there just looking at him and because we knew he couldn't do anything, to annoy him even more; we then glared at him and started laughing as loud as we could.
Mum then took off down the street as fast as she could go almost giving us whiplash. Mum looks back on it now and wishes it were his head instead of just his hand. Never mind, maybe next time! Don’t you just love Karma!
One other time and I don’t remember the details fully as to why he attacked my Mum this day but when they were on the front porch of the house, he had punched her to the ground and began kicking her in the head like she was a dog. This time she was so severely beaten she had to be hospitalized.
Even though she survived this, she had problems with pressure build up in her eyes because of nerve damage which destroyed a lot of her vision but through treatment of late, she now sees better than me, which is great!
There were many other instances that happened along the way as you can imagine but these incidents was just to give you an idea of the type of man we were dealing with and how it affected me.
The last straw came when Mum told me that Paul (who was standing next to her at the time) wanted her, me and my younger sister to go and live with him in a flat. I asked why? Mum told me that Paul never felt like it was his home and that if we moved somewhere together then it would be theirs. I looked at the both of them and told them I didn’t want to go. This didn’t go down too well I can tell you. There was no question as to why I didn’t want to go and out of nowhere he just started on me, telling me I had to go but again, I flatly refused. He then started yelling at me but I wasn’t going to back down this time and I was standing my ground for once. I yelled back and told him I wasn’t going to live with him because he would have more control and it would be like living in a prison. He just stared at me so I just stared back at him. I’d had enough of his intimidation and I wasn’t about to give in and he knew it too and by the look on his face, he didn’t like at all. He almost looked like he was ready to explode but what happened next, I was expecting. Instead, he walked up to me, looked me in the eyes and then spat in my face like I was some dog. I just looked at him with disbelief and contempt like he was the dog and then started yelling at him. I told him he was nothing but a fucking pig and how he had made me feel degraded and worthless. Mum couldn’t belief what she had just seen either and told him what he just did was uncalled for but he told her he didn’t care. This was the icing on the cake for me so I decided I’d had enough of his intimidation and bullying and I wasn’t going to keep living in fear anymore so I had to do something about it. But what was I to do?
I was so upset I stormed out of the house and went to my best friend’s. This is where I felt safe and could think more clearly. I had to think of what I wanted to do and I eventually came up with a solution.
When I went back home, I spoke to my Mum and explained how I felt
