By: Marc McMahon

“Why are you doing this to me, I said stop it, stop, please, please, help me, somebody help me!” She screams. “Get your fucking hands off me, ouch, stop it, you are hurting me!” I hear screams come from the living room, shrieking cries for help, piercing my quiet. He is doing it again, why does he always do this to her, I think to myself? Terrified what will happen to her this time, I tell myself, you have to do something, Jimmy, come on Jimmy, you have to try and help her.
Seven years old and on his first day of summer break, Jimmy’s dad loads him, his backpack full of clothes, and the new PlayStation four he purchased for him for his birthday last week. Into the back of their new Hummer, for the two-hour drive over the mountain, to his mom’s house, in Green Valley. Little does Jimmy know, of the nightmare, that this day has in store for him.
I know Jimmy thinks, I’ll grab my sheriffs badge and my cap gun and I’ll go make daddy stop. He has to, cause I’ll be the lone ranger and everyone listens to him. As Jimmy rushes to his bedroom closet and throws open the door he feels an increased rush of adrenalin as he hears dishes smashing to the ground in the kitchen!
Flinging open his Winnie the Pooh toybox, he reaches in and retrieves his badge, cowboy hat, and Lone Ranger decorated, white and black trimmed gun holster and proudly cinches it tight! Jimmy slams the lid closed and heads for the door. Reaching to his right hip to dawn his firearm he realizes it’s not there, no he whines to himself.
The lid to the Pooh box is hastily tossed open again as Jimmy digs into the belly of the beast in search of his mother’s saving grace. The shiny fake metal six shooters that came in the Lone Ranger box set his grandparents had bought him last Christmas.
The screams from down the hall grow louder, then a thud, like the sound of a body slamming into a brick wall. He hears his father yell “bitch it is me or no one, you will not disrespect me like this again.” Jimmy’s mom’s voice cracks as her screams begin to turn to dull whimpers of pain.
Frustrated, scared, and beginning to shake uncontrollably with fear, Jimmy has an idea. A plan B, the last ditch effort to still be his mommy’s little hero and save the day. Across the hall, he sprints and into his parent’s bedroom. Jimmy races immediately to his dad’s pillow on the far side of the bed and pulls out the snub nosed 38 special that his dad always kept hidden under it to keep his family safe against home invasion.
Jimmy has a thought, “I wonder if daddy’s gun has caps in it to cause my little caps won’t fit in this big gun he tells himself.” With no time left for thought, Jimmy cocks the hammer on his daddy’s cap gun back and runs out the door and into the kitchen. As Jimmy turns the corner into the kitchen he notices his mom laying on the floor on her back. Blood gushing from both of her nostrils, and left eye blackened, and swollen shut!
His father standing over her brandishing the rolling pin that she had used to make Jimmy’s birthday cake from scratch with, just one week earlier. As mommy’s little savior enters the kitchen their eyes meet. Jimmy now completely overcome with terror wraps both hands firmly around the butt of daddy’s cap gun and yells “stop it right now and put your hands in the air daddy, I say you’re under arrest!” Jimmy’s father turns around and with a sinister smirk tells Jimmy to go back to his damn bedroom and now!
With tears streaming out of both eyes and mom scrambling to get off the kitchen floor to find a place of refuge. Jimmy shaking and lost in the confusion of the moment takes two of his tiny fingers and squeezes the trigger!
With a bang that could have been heard around the world, Jimmy was launched backward off of both feet slamming into the kitchen wall from the force. Mother scrambling to crawl out from underneath the now limp pile of human flesh that once was her husband. She snatches Jimmy up into her arms and runs out the front door of their home as if it were completely engulfed in flames!
As the two raced across the front yard, his mom swings open the gate to the white picket fence as a neighbor returning home from work happens by. Seeing the blood gushing down cassia’s face he slams the car into park and rushes to her aid. Frantically pulling off his flannel to apply direct pressure to her bleeding wounds. With his mommy sobbing uncontrollably Jimmy gently pushes his lips up to her ear and whispers. “Is that the last time I will see my daddy, mommy?”

                                  This writing was accepted for publication
                                  in an issue of Down in the Dirt magazine 

About the Author: Marc is a 48-year-old Author, Speaker, and Soldier in a war to loosen the grasp that Substance Abuse has on our society. He is a Father, Son, and friend to all those seeking refuge from this incorrigible disease. Marc resides in the beautiful Pacific Northwest where he enjoys, writing, hiking, and kicking the disease of addiction in the teeth, every chance he gets. As Marc always likes to say, “be blessed, my friends!”