Another night at the top of the stairs. Two men enter his mother's bedroom
together. The sounds are the same as usual at first, but they get louder. He hears the men saying things to his mother. “Shut up and take it like a good little bitch” and “Stop fighting. You'll only make it worse.” And he hears sounds of a struggle and it sounds like someone is being slapped and his mother is squealing and crying out and he can't take it anymore. He runs down the stairs and into the room to protect her.
He
flinches in memory from the feeling of the belt as one of the men
beats him. His mother doesn't do anything. She's naked and just
trying to cover herself.
“Leave the boy alone. Stop it.” The man
picks him up and throws him out of the room into the hallway. He
stands outside the door until finally his mother peeks her head out
and talks to him. “Are you crazy? Get upstairs and go to bed and
don't come back down here.” “The past is gone. Stop thinking
about it.” But it won't leave him alone.
