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THE BRAT FLIPS!
Mommy just up and left one day. She never said why. But I guess it was her drinking.
We'd all been through hell with her drinking. She drank like a fish. And she'd get into these tantrums at night.
She'd scream at all of us for just being alive. It was God awful.
And here's the thing. We'd always thought it would be Daddy that left us. Never Mommy.
Why?
Because Mommy was our biological mother. But Daddy, he came along later, after our biological father had already up and left us.
When I say us, of course, I mean me and the twins. It was just me, and my two baby brothers.
It was like this though.
Daddy had always had a crush on my Mommy. Since high school. They'd even dated for a while. But Mommy had always felt too important for Daddy.
Instead of marrying him, the guy who really loved her, she married some college boy. That college boy was supposed to be her ticket out of "bumfuck".
Yeah, that's what she called our hometown, "bumfuck."
But that boy, my biological father, turned out not to be Mommy's ticket out of here, after all. Instead he gave her three kids and then just plain went out and dumped her.
We never heard a word from him again.
Mommy almost fell to pieces then. But Daddy stepped up. He'd never lost that flame he had for her.
He started coming around the house doing all he could to help out. Soon, my mommy became totally dependent on him.
And the next thing you know, she was marrying him.
But I think down deep she always saw him as less than her. He was never good enough for her.
But I always loved our daddy. To me he was the most perfect man ever.
He was big and burly the way a man ought to be. He had natural muscles from working at the steel mill. He had rough calloused hands.
Oh, God, I always loved it—the way he'd pick me up and give me a big bear hug!
He'd say, "You're alright, Chipmunk."
Chipmunk was what he always called me. It always made me feel special.
And did I tell you he hunted? During the season we always had plenty of deer meat. It was delicious!
But the way Mommy treated him. I always thought Daddy must be awfully lonely.
It started as just a few nights now and then, but then more and more, Daddy started sleeping on our sofa. Eventually, that became his bed.
He and my mom just stopped sleeping together.
I felt so bad for him. I knew that wasn't the way a wife should treat her husband.
Daddy might have been forty, but those other women, they were always eyeing him wherever he went. He was handsome as hell!
So we all thought Daddy would just up and leave us one day. Given the way Mommy treated him. It wouldn't have surprised any of us, anyway.
Instead it was Mommy that left. I remember that day, because it wasn't long after my eighteenth birthday.
Hell, I'd only been eighteen for a few weeks. I was so excited about it. It meant I was an adult!
But then, there up and went Mommy. So long. See you later. She didn't even leave us a note.
She did though take all the alcohol we had in the house, and a hefty portion of our savings.
Daddy sat us all down in the living room.
"Listen, the mill owes me weeks of vacation time." He said. "And I talked to them today. I'm gonna take some time off, okay? I'm gonna take care of you guys. You ain't gotta worry about nothing. We'll take our time, and we'll figure this all out."
The next morning Daddy was in the kitchen cooking us breakfast.
"Daddy, let me help you," I said.
"I can do it," he insisted. "If I can handle hot molten steel, I can handle pancake batter for God's sake."
Daddy nearly started a fire in the kitchen though. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and put out the burning frying pan!
"Daddy!" I said.
