Drunken Life

She comes home every night smelling of whiskey and sex. She's a whore you know. Not the type to take no for an answer. She comes home to her husband and 3.5 kids. They know the truth, even 8 year old Johnny. The kids pick on Johnny everyday calling him "Whore Spawn and 24 hour Mommy." The words coming out of 8 year olds. The teachers aren't any better. Some of them are even regular customers. Take Principal Canon, he met mommy last night. Gave her the black eye and the bruises on top of the black eye and bruises of the previous night. Principal Canon is best friends with the husband of the "Mrs.". They play poker every Friday night while having a beer. The husband himself is an alcholic. He sees nothing different in his wife's appearence yet he continues to play poker with his child principal and wife's pimp without even knowing. Tonya comes in the room to grab her homework for school. Tonya ignores "Daddy Dearest" and leaves the room. Tonya is the oldest and basically the mother of the house. Cleaning up the house, going to school, and tending to her siblings. She dreams of life with a fence, a dog, a house that is a home, a loving family, and a gun. She feels that if life is this hard now then what's the point in waiting for a harder tommorow. But then her younger sister comes in and puts a smile on her face. Michelle is her name. Tonya likes repeating the name because it sounds great. Michelle is the most curious of the bunch. A genius at the ripe old age of 10, she has seen everything nobody has seen. She cherishes life and feels the need to take it away when needed. Just look in the backyard full of dead animals she refuses to bury. She sees 2 people in the house she still can't recognize, her father and her mother. She never talks to them and they never talk to her. She believes they are strangers and her sister told her never to talk to strangers. The baby starts to cry and Tonya runs in the room to console her. Tonya starts to cry herself wishing somebody would just do something. But nobody hears her cry except the 2 strangers in the other room that tell her to SHUT UP! It's 9:00 pm and Johnny and Michelle sleeps in Tonya's room. Tonya comes in an hour later holding the baby and lays down on the bed to go to sleep. She cries herself to sleep again and realizes that she could not runaway and leave her sibling behind. So another day begins another misery. Today is Tonya's birthday. Johnny and Michelle give her a cupcake that they bought together with their money they found thrown around the house. The look that they give Tonya makes her the happiest she has ever been. She realizes that this must end. Tonya decides to run. Their "so-called parents" are both out, the father is passed out drunk again and the mother is out again either drunk or getting laid to pay for another drink. The children run for miles. Its as if they were running to find a new life. They ran for miles on that winter morning. It snowed 9 inches that night before so they were cold and they were very hungry. They finally found somebody to help them. It was the sheriff. He looked at them and felt like it was his fault that they look like this. The sheriff called over his wife and she took care of them and fed them. Tonya told her the story and by the time she finshed the entire station was staring at her. During the time she was telling the story, a couple of cops went by the house to press charges. When they went in there they were shocked at the fact that the father didn't even know they left or where his wife is. They arrested him and waited for the wife who came in that night and arrested her. The children are now living with the sheriff and his wife. Tonya now has dreams of being just herself. Years later the father broke out of prison and was killed instantly by a speeding car. The mother is in rehab but still finds ways of getting her fix by now doing drugs.