The Strength To Leave

William laid on his bedroom floor playing with his toys, trying to drown out all of the noise. His parents seemed to be fighting a lot lately. He was ten now, old enough to understand what was going on. He would sometimes hear lamps being thrown at the wall out of frustration, and the smack of his father’s hand hitting his mothers face.
They would fight over the usual, not having enough money, the bills not being paid, and if his mother accidently burnt his father’s steak he would rage like a mad man. William figured this was all caused from his father drug addiction, which has recently become worse since he found out his sixteen year old daughter was pregnant and ran away from home.
He sometimes heard his mother crying herself to sleep, and he would go cuddle up with her and tell her everything was going to be alright. He knew it was a lie, but he didn’t know what else to say. He loved his mother more than anyone or anything in the entire world and it saddened him to see her this way. She was wounded, her eyes puffy and red like cherries from crying, bruises all over her body the size of tennis balls. William wondered when his mother would finally get the strength to pack up and leave.
He remembered when they use to be a happy family, when he could look at his parents and see the love in their eyes when they looked at each other. He remembered their summer vacation to Florida, when his legs would get tired while standing watching the Disney fireworks, his father would lift him up onto his shoulders. He wondered if they would ever do such a thing again, or if the memories he had of them as a family now were the only ones he would ever have.
William matured quickly for his age, he learned to stand up for his mother when she was in to much pain to do it for herself. However he still had the times that all he wanted to do was break down and cry. The whole situation hurt him emotionaly just as much as it hurt his mother physically. He sometimes thought about running away, but he didn’t have the heart to leave his mother behind.
Three months of screaming later, when his father was away in Cuba on a business trip, his mother finally got the courage and strength to pack her and William’s things and leave. They left the house with pride, leaving all the memories behind to haunt William’s father. They had a bright future ahead of them, and nothing was going to slow them down this time.