Short story from my past

An Experience As a Child: Child’s Point of View

            It is Fourth of July and mom, dad, Bobby and I are going on the boat to watch the fireworks. I’m afraid of the water and the monsters that live beneath, with the slimy ropes that try to pull at me every time I put my legs under there. I can hear them saying, “ Jaaaaaamieeee…. Jamieeeeee,” trying to trick me as they plot to swallow me up into their world.

            “Dad can we just sit on the shore and watch the fireworks”?

            Dad has a strong build and stands about five feet nine inches tall. I resemble dad the most, because we both have brownish-red hair and dark brown eyes. Every time I see Tom Cruise the actor, I think of dad, because they look so much alike. I love it when dad smiles, because you feel the warm happiness with every crinkle in his cheeks.

            “Ok Jamie, that’s fine. Why don’t you help get some chairs off the porch?”

            Dad doesn’t mind but mom, stubborn as usual, wants to go on the boat and she won’t have things any other way. Mom is getting really mad. She starts yelling at dad and me, “There is nothing in the damn water, and the boat I not going to tip over!”

            Mom has long strawberry brownish-blonde hair, which hangs perfectly straight just past the shoulders. She stands an inch short of six feet. Her eyes are bright hazel with a slightly sunken in appearance, but they are always hiding behind her thick lenses that she needs for her stigmatism. I have often wondered if her mysterious eyes are a symbol of a soulless body.

            “Kathy, Jamie’s scared; we can see the fireworks just fine from here”.       

            Mom turns to me with an evil grueling look in her eye, “We are going on the fucking boat you little whore, if you want, you can stay in the woods with the wolves”.

            “Kathy! Jamie is only six, she’s not whore,” dad say’s trying not to piss mom off.            But she usually just ignores dad.

            Her look is so scary; you can see her face changing into one of those slimy green polka doted brown bodied, red-eyed monsters.

Mom never seems to hear me when I talk, so I have no choice but to obey her. I usually cry when mom yells at me, because I am very sensitive and because I think mom might feel bad and hear what I have to say.

Mom insists we all start climbing into the tiny four-person row boat. It is so small that dad is holding on the boat so we can get in without it tipping over. As dad and Bobby start rowing out into the dark waves, things start to get worse. Mom and dad will not stop arguing. The more they argue the more the boat rocks.

“Look Jamie, Look!” Bobby points to the fireworks. They look like bright sparkling waterfalls drifting down from the deep darkened sky. One after the other like the beautiful flower garden that grandma plants. I wonder who planted the fireworks, maybe it was the monsters trying to coax me into a spell, they are trying to make me think they are good monsters,  but I know the truth, I know they just want to gobble me up into their underwater world.

Bobby often makes me think that he was put on this earth to protect me. If Bobby is around and situations get heated, he will put his arms on my shoulders and in a sincere and calm manner say, “Come on Jamie, let’s go play,” instantly making me feel safer and loved.

Mom is silent, bound by the fireworks. I wonder why she doesn’t like me. Is it because I’m younger, because I cry too much, because I’m a whore? Maybe someday mom will love dad and me, like she loves Bobby and the fireworks.

“Wow… look at that one Jamie, it looks like a star…. And and that one looks like a duck!”

I think Bobby is trying to distract me from the monsters. I know they are waiting for me to fall into the darkness. What if mom Is working with the monsters, what if she wants them to gobble me up? Then she wouldn’t have to look at me anymore. Look at me with those evil scheming eyes.

We are about 100 feet from shore when I spill my grape juice all over mom’s brand new white tennis shoes, “Oops…I…I’m sorry mom. I didn’t mean too”. Then, all of the sudden, “SMAK,” mom stands up, but not before she could back hand me in the face.

“You want something to cry about Jamie, well here’s something to cry about.”  While standing up, mom starts swaying her body back and forth. The boat is now rocking uncontrollably..

“How’s this, are you scared now, you think we are getting the monsters attention,” mom screams.

Now Bobby starts in, “Mom, you’re scaring Jamie, please stop!”

Then dad, “Kathy stop! You’re going to tip us over!”

Dad and Bobby start rowing us back to shore. Mom won’t stop yelling. I start crying again, but this time even louder.  My heart starts racing, I can feel the boat beginning to tip. SWOSH! SPLASH!

Franticly peddling my little legs and arms, trying to keep my head above the, I hear dad’s voice, “Jamie…. Jamie… I’ve got you! It’s ok, we are almost to shore”. I look up and see mom and Bobby swimming to shore. Dad has me securely wrapped up in his left arm and starts swimming us back.

I am still crying, and dad is panting trying to catch his breath. As we crawl our limp bodies back onto the slimy wet sand, mom says, “well that’s what you get you little slut, maybe next time the monsters will get you.