Nasty people. Shelley A Dewar
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 and what I wanted to do because I was so unhappy. I had no choice but to leave school and get a job; that being a shop assistant in a deli. She understood and told me she would stand by me in my decisions even though I was only fifteen.
This would keep me out of the house during the day and that meant I wouldn’t have to put up with his crap, or so I thought. It didn’t make much of a difference after all because the times I was home, the crap was still going on. I was so over it and I knew I had to get out of there permanently but what were my options? Where was I going to go? The only choice I had was to ask my sister and her boyfriend if I could move in with them. I told them what was happening at home and how it was affecting me. They were a bit hesitant at first because it was only a one bedroom flat and there wasn’t much room and they also wouldn’t have much privacy. This made me feel bad but I had nowhere else to go so I persisted with my sob story and told them I would try my hardest to not to get in their way. I also told them, I could sleep on the lounge and that anything was better than where I was. They thought about it for a while and eventually gave in. What a relief! This was the best thing that had happened to me in a long time. I now felt safe.
Meanwhile Paul, along with my Mum and younger sister did move into a flat. My Mum still visited me but I had to distance myself from her as it hurt too much to see her in a situation that she could not get out of. I was also afraid that if I saw her more regularly, she would turn up with a black-eye or something to that effect.
Eventually they moved back into the house and mum asked me to come back home. My sister and her boyfriend were moving to another place so I thought I should go and be with my mum. As soon as they settled back in, I then went back home but for some reason things were different. He seemed to be a lot calmer and happier. Why? Something was going on with him but what? I wanted and needed answers so off I went to my mum to get some.
She told me she had come across some needles in the glove box of the car and that they obviously belonged to Paul, This meant he was a drug addict and this would explain many things. I am still not sure whether she confronted him about this though but I reckon she must have at some point because he seemed to have changed thus: being a lot happier and he even started looking for another job.
It took him a while to finally get one but it was up north somewhere which meant he had to go away for about four days out of the week. This is what he told us any way and at the time we believed him.