waves of steam arose

Waves of steam arose from the Spaghetti entangled and dripping in the rich bolognaise sauce. Mum shakily poured out dad another glass of wine. Four placemats were set out yet only 3 were at the table.

"Mikey! Come down please. Dinners here." Called mum. As expected, Mikey would shuffle down the stairs and mope about til he found his seat. Our usual routine consisted of Mum calling Mikey who would eventually come and then we could all enjoy dinner together as a family. Mum shakily poured out dad another glass of wine. Everyone was in a content silence as we all savoured the taste until dad broke it.

"And how was everyone's day?"

We all looked up and chipped in with the mumble of "good" or "fine", carefully picking words which couldn't offend him.

"Good. Why can't it be great? It's always good. It's always fine. God gave us words. Use them." He said looking at us all. We instantly looked down at our food. Someone would have to go first.

"Dad, my day was good because although I was tripped up on the way to school, Mary gave me a half of her twirl bar." I said. "Thanks for asking though." I added. "How was yours?"

"Oh mine?" Shit, I could feel everything was abut to go wrong. It was like a premonition or a gut instinct. Dad was going to end up shouting. Seeing his glass empty, mum shakily poured out another glass of wine.

"Give me the damn bottle." He shouted as he snatched it off her, "You pour as if I'm a child. Right, You want to know about my day. Ok, well, I woke up asking God why he blessed me with such a lousy, stingey-wine-pouring wife. Then I asked him why he gave me two ungrateful little gits for children. Then I asked him why everyone was so dumb as to not give me a job. Then I asked him why did he give jobs to the gits who wouldn't give me a job. Then I asked him why he would want to bestow me with bills that I cannot pay. Then I asked him why did..." he paused and took a glug from the bottle. "Why did he give me two kids who contribute to the expense of the bills. Then I asked him why did I have to be the unlucky sod whos contraception failed him twice, TWICE! Then I asked him to kill me before dinner time where I would have to sit and talk to you!" I winced as he emphasized his harsh, mean words.

And then it came. My word vomit. I couldn't help it. I had been wretching for months to say it and now it was going to come thick and fast.

"DAD... You ungrateful git! If mum wasn't so bloody scared of you, we would have been gone by now. You are rusting our family away and you don't even realize it because you are to drunk to remember! Mum should be praying and asking why she was blind to fall in love with such a completely drunk, lazy man like you. We shouldn't even consider you as a father. You can't get a job because you don't turn up to most of the interviews and if you do, you're too drunk to even have anyone take you seriously. Your contraception propbably failed you because you were probably too drunk to even remember it! And now I am wishing we could all die because I can't bear the thought of spending another meal time with you!"

"I thought you wanted children, Richy???" Mum whispered, tears brewing in her eyes.

Completely ignoring her, dad stabbed me with his eyes. "You wish you were dead do you? Congratulations darling, you're going to be!"

He launched at me. Crazy, he was. Mental. He threw his hands around my neck and hung on for dear life. "Devil's child" He screamed as he attacked me. I couldn't see anything. I could only hear mum screaming and crying, petrified. He was doing a good job for once as he put his all into seeing the death of me.

Smash! Mum gasped. Green shards of glass spattered everywhere. Dad suddenly became paralysed and lossened his grip as he fell to the floor. Mikey shuffled back to his seat and stared at his dinner.

Everyone imediately fell silent. Mikey turned to mum, "Thanks" he mumbled as he passed his plate to her before shuffling back upstairs.