SEVENTH INSTALMENT

SEVENTH INSTALMENT 

We had months without Arthur living with us. My brother and I were so happy but Mum was miserable. Arthur used to come around and see Mum and beg to be taken back. Mum agreed and he moved back in.

Arthur went down to the pub almost every night after work and played in the local darts competition. Mum hated drinking as you can imagine with what happened to her. At about 7:30 at night Mum had a call and we were packet in the car to go and pick up Arthur from the pub. He had won the darts comp.

When we arrived we all waiting in the car out the front for what felt like forever and Mum was not happy as she had to go in several times to call him out. When mum went in the last time my little brother decided to sit on the car window sill and pretend he was in dukes of Hazard (this was one of our favorite shows ) his legs where inside the car but his body was out and he was holding the top of the window sill.

When mum returned to the car with Arthur she yelled at Barry and told him to get in to the car. Arthur was intoxicated beyond belief. They started arguing all the way home. Mum was furious.

We came to the corner of our street and turned left (we were only doing about 20km and hour as mum never sped). We drove for about 30 meters and our driveway was about another 10 meters up the road on the left when I looked over and my little brother wasn't there. I interrupted mum and said "Mum! Barry (my little brother) is not here anymore" mum was so angry she told him to get back up on the seat and stop messing around. Then Arthur in his intoxicated state looked over his shoulder to where my brother was sitting behind mum, I have never seen or heard someone sober up so quickly he turned to mum and said " he is not there!" Mum pulled in to our driveway and looked down the road she was in such a panic as what we saw was so frightening. Barry was laying on the road as Mum and Arthur ran towards him he got up not a tear to be seen or a cry to be heard and started walking up the road. Arthur reached him first and the whole left side if Barry's face was full of gravel and there was so much blood. Mum thought he had lost his eye and started looking for it (she was not thinking straight).

Arthur put Barry in the back of the car and he got in the drivers side and mum got in the back with Barry whilst I say up the front of the car. We had a V8 and I had never been in it doing that speed. The hospital was about 15 kilometers away and we got there in record time.

Arthur carried Barry in with blood going everywhere and Mum followed. I got out of the car and ran behind mum. When we got inside the emergency they took Barry and Mum in to a room straight away. All I could hear was mum crying and then I heard them say help her. Mum had passed out just as they had started cleaning Barry ready to stitch the area above his eye. I heard Barry scream and I have to tell you, all I wanted to do was go and hit the doctor and make him stop hurting my little brother.  I have never since that night heard Barry scream. 

We stayed there all night waiting in the waiting room. When Barry came out he had bandages all over his tiny head. Mum was beside herself.

When we go home mum took him to bed and to be honest I don't remember much more of that situation. I do know that my brother had a terrible habit of hurting himself. He used to fall up stairs not down them lol. 

I was always protecting Barry we use to catch a bus home from school. Barry was always back chatting bigger kids on the bus and they used to threaten to bash him. Because of what we had been through I used to say " don't hit him I will tell mum when we get home and she will smack him" for some reason they believed me. All the way home I would chastise him. 

Barry and I used to pull a small branch off one of the trees on the way home. We would peel off the outer layer and it left a white stick that was like a whip. We always had magpies swooping down on us so we used the sticks to deter them from attacking us by waving them above our head. 

One day after the usual walk home we went inside to find Arthur sitting inside. For some reason he was home early and had already had a few drinks. We said hello to Arthur as we went to walk pass and put our bags in our room. I don't remember why but he grabbed the stick I was holding and started whipping my with it ( I suppose I must have done something wrong but I really can't remember what) each time he swung to stick it sounded like a whip cutting to air before I felt the burning.  I can't remember how many times he hit me with it but Barry got the stick off him and broke it in to little pieces.

I ran toy room and closed my door to scared to come out and I could not stop the crying when I heard him get something from the kitchen. He then went in to Barry's room and all I could hear was a muffled sound and every now and then I heard Barry whence. No crying or screaming. I snuck out the front door and went to our neighbors house I was so scared and all I wanted was for them to go next door and help Barry. Our neighbor had mums number and she called her. Mum worked just up the road at the nursing home so she was home in about 5 minutes.

I saw her pull in to the driveway and then I heard screaming and something being thrown. I then saw Arthur get in to his car and take off.

My neighbor took me home to see my mum and to check that everything was ok ( I don't blame our neighbor for not going over she had 2 little kids and 1 of which had a whole in her heart so she really couldn't). Mum was holding Barry and still he would not cry. His eyes were bloodshot and I knew he wanted to cry but he would not give anyone the satisfaction of seeing him cry.

Mum had kicked Arthur out again... The next day when we went to school Barry had to wear the school uniform but long pants and I had to wear my winter tights and a jumper over my dress. The welts on our legs and arms were terrible. Barry told my Arthur hit him with a wooden spoon and when that broke he used the jug cord on him. I loved my little brother so very much but what could I do to protect him from that. I guess I could have stood in front of him and taken the beating instead of running next door. God knows he would have done it for me. I often think about this and what he has done for me over the years. He was a very brave little boy and he never showed fear. He was like a bouncing clown the type you knock down and they bounce back up. Oh how I loved him..