Ty had learned from a very young age when it was a bad time to leave his room. Usually it was when his two brothers would usher him in and not let him leave as the sound of his parents fighting rang through the house. Anders and Mike were always bickering, but whenever things got scary they were inseparable. This time, however, things were different.
"He's a little wuss, he should learn that if he's going to be lippy around older and tougher boys, he should expect a slap!" Dad had just gotten back from the pub. He was always angrier when he'd had a few drinks. He was referring to Anders, who had gotten beaten up at school that day for saying mean things to some of the boys from up the road.
"A slap?! For Christ's sake, these boys could have knocked his teeth out or caused him brain damage! You're lucky he's not a lot worse off!" Mum would always yell back when Dad got angry. Ty didn't know why, because Dad would hit her when she yelled at him. Shuffling closer to the keyhole in his door, Ty heard the muffled sound of his older brother sniffling. This scared him the most – his brothers NEVER cried. They were the ones who would try to get HIM to stop crying. Ty's lower lip started to tremble and tears were falling down his face. He crawled over to his bed and climbed under the covers, but it didn't help – their old house meant that the doors did a poor job of concealing sound.
"Lucky?! Look at him! The little shithead got what's coming to him! Only it seems like them boys didn't do a good enough job at teaching him a lesson last time! That's supposed to be your job - you're the mother you stupid bitch!" Where was Mike? He was always around when Dad and Mum started yelling. Mike was good at making things less scary. He was probably with Rob and Valerie, his two best friends. Ty wished he had friends like that. There were kids who he'd play with at school, but they would never invite him round to birthday parties or over to play. And he was never going to ask people to come to his house because he didn't want people to be scared of his dad like he was.
"Shut up!" Anders' voice was shaky from crying but still loud enough to ring through the kitchen. There was a moment of silence. Ty stuck his head out from the covers to try and hear what was happening.
"What did you say to me?" Dad's voice was low and quiet. Had he stopped yelling? Maybe it was okay to come out now! Ty slipped out of bed and opened to door to creep out to the kitchen. He stayed by the doorway, thumb in his mouth as he watched the scene in front of him. Mum was standing by the sink, a tea towel between her clenched hands. Dad was still near the door from having got back from his short bender. Anders was by the table. He had stood up to face his father.
"I told you to shut up. Stop yelling at Mum, it's not her fault." Their father walked slowly and deliberately over to Anders; he towered over his middle son.
"Are you talking back to me?" Even Ty knew you weren't supposed to talk back to Dad. Anders was always good at making people think that what he was saying was true, so maybe he could convince Dad that it wasn't Mum's fault.
"N-no, I just…just leave Mum alone," Anders stuttered. Dad leaned down, gripping Anders by the shoulders. Anders was visibly trembling; Ty wanted nothing more than to go bury his head in his Mum's shoulder, but he was too scared to move.
"You listen here. You need to learn to toughen up. Don't be an idiot and go angering people who are bigger and stronger than you, because that'll mean you get the shit kicked out of you. Or at least learn how to throw a punch properly."
The sarcasm was strong with Anders; he had a habit of whipping it out even when under duress, which almost never ended well. It was developing into a defence mechanism for Anders. "Mum must give you greeeeaaaaat practice then!" Anders muttered under his breath. And on that day, he learned his father's tipping point first-hand. Dad shoved Anders backwards violently, causing Anders to stumble over the chair behind him onto the floor. He then pulled his belt from his trousers.
"How dare you!" Dad roared, and brought the belt down hard on Anders' face. The buckle had etched another long cut into Anders' cheek which accompanied the multiple cuts and bruises he had sustained that day.
"FOR GOD'S SAKE, HE'S ONLY A CHILD!" Mum screamed as Ty burst into tears. Anders was frozen in shock from both his fall and from being belted by his father.
Mum rushed over to her elder son to make sure he was okay.
"What's going on here?" Mike had returned. Dad didn't respond, he just shoved past his son out the door, slamming it behind him. Once Mike had surveyed the scene in front of him, he turned around and started heading back outside.
"Where do you think you're going?" Mum asked him sternly, grabbing a wet cloth from the bench and applying it to Anders' bleeding face.
"Out," snapped Mike. "I don't need to deal with this shit."
"You're not going anywhere; you're staying here and taking Tyrone to bed while I take Anders to the hospital."
"Ty's seven years old! He doesn't need me to put him to bed!"
"Mikael, I can't leave Tyrone here by himself."
"Why doesn't Anders take himself to the doctor? Clearly it was his fault for pissing people off, he should know better!" Mike didn't really mean what he was saying, but he was angry for having to always be around to clean up the mess. He thought that would be the thing to say that would anger his mother the most. It worked.
"If you say anything like that ever again, you'll be out on your arse in a heartbeat! You're supposed to care for your brothers!" Mum spat at her son, her voice shaking with anger. Ty had never heard such venom in her voice before.
"Why should I?! It's not like you do a good job of taking care of us!" Mike shouted in frustration, before marching off to his bedroom. Ty was still whimpering in the doorway. He watched as his mother dropped to her knees and started sobbing.
Ty was too scared to approach his mother while she was crying this hard, but he desperately wanted a hug. "Anders?" he asked meekly. Anders was wincing in pain.
"Piss off to your room, Ty," he groaned.
"But-" Ty tried to protest, but he was cut off by his brother.
"Go away, Ty!" Anders shouted. Ty started crying again and he ran off to Mike's room. He knocked on the door, and as he waited, he could hear Anders in the kitchen pleading "Mum…Mum, please don't cry. It's fine. I'll be fine."
Mike sounded irritable as he called out "What?" to the knock on his door.
"Mikey?" That was the one magic word he needed. There was a pause and an audible sigh, before Mike opened the door.
"What do you want, squirt?" Ty wasn't crying as hard as before, but he ran to his brother, gripping him tightly.
"Oh, Ty, you're seven, not seven months!" Mike moaned, but he hugged his brother back.
"When will Dad stop hitting Mum and Anders?" Ty mumbled into his brother's shirt. Mike pulled his brother away to look at him with a look of shock on his face.
"Did Dad do that to Anders?" Ty nodded miserably. Mike grimaced as he realised why his mother was so upset at what he had said to her.
"Oh, Jesus. Hey. Look. It's going to be okay. Why don't you bring your homework in here and we can get it done before bed?" Mike had a lot of homework to do himself, but he sure as hell wasn't going to be able to focus now that his Dad had finally started hitting his brothers. He had hoped that it would never get to that point. Ty obliged and brought his schoolbag into his brother's room.
The two brothers settled down on the floor and Ty handed his brother his spelling list. "Alrighty. Ty, you're going to have to stop sucking your thumb while I test you on these words," Mike said exasperatedly. Ty looked up at his brother with innocent blue eyes.
"I have to write them down. So I can still suck my thumb," Ty replied softly. Mike let out a chuckle in spite of himself.
"Okay, then, mate. Let's do this." He started testing his little brother on his spelling words, who obediently and slowly wrote them down in his notebook. As he was doing this, Mike was listening carefully to what was going on in the kitchen.
It sounded like his mother had stopped crying, thankfully. But he couldn't relax until he heard the sound of the car outside, which meant that Mum had taken Anders to the hospital. Mike breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He knew that once they returned, and once Dad got back it wouldn't be pretty. But he at least had a short while to enjoy the peace in the household as he helped his youngest brother.
Ty already looked happier. He had a little smile on his face as he wrote down his words, thumb still absent-mindedly in his mouth. Ty didn't often smile, so when he did it was a big deal. In that moment, Mike wanted nothing more than to ensure that Ty stayed happy forever.
"Mikey, will you say sorry to Mum?" Ty asked as he finished his last word. Mike really did not want to have to face his mother again that night, especially as Dad was likely to come home and drag her off to their bedroom; rendering her useless for the rest of the night.
"Yup. When she gets back and you and Anders go to bed, I will say sorry. Is that okay with you?" Ty shook his head.
"No, because I want to make sure you say sorry and that you're not lying." His brother was smarter than everyone gave him credit for. Mike was in disbelief.
"You think I'd lie to you? Do you not trust me?"
Ty eyed him warily. What Mike didn't know was that Ty's trust in Mike had been tarnished the minute he wasn't there to make sure Ty and Anders were okay while their parents fought.
"Fine," Mike relented. "I'll call Mum in here once she and Anders get back."
Two hours passed before they returned home, with no sign of their father.
"Mum? Anders? Can you come in here, please?" Mike called. The two of them entered Mike's room, confused. Anders had stitches in his face, but he looked a lot better than he had done earlier. Mum also looked calmer; Mike suspected she had smoked a cigarette while Anders got fixed up (even though she had promised him she would quit!). Ty was curled up in Mike's bed, almost asleep.
"Mum, I'm sorry for what I said before. I didn't mean to make you cry. And Anders, I'm sorry, too." Mum teared up at this apology and went over and hugged her eldest son tightly, who was sitting at the edge of his bed. She leaned over and stroked Ty's hair.
"I love you, my boys," she sniffled. She seemed strangely wistful for reasons that Mike couldn't fathom. She wiped her eyes and tried to regain her composure.
"Right. I think, Mister Ty, that we should take you off to bed!"
"No, I want to sleep here tonight. Anders should too," Ty mumbled, his eyes barely open. His mother glanced towards Mike, who shrugged.
"I don't mind." She nodded in approval.
"Okay. You boys look after each other. Night night!" She gave Ty a kiss goodnight, who reached up and gave her a hug. Mike was at that awkward teenage boy stage, so she refrained from giving him a kiss, instead ruffling his hair ("Muuuuum!" he moaned). Anders was still standing by the door, a stony look on his face. She gently kissed his cheek, but he made no effort to reciprocate.
Once the door closed, any unity the three brothers once had was officially broken.
"You're turning out to be just like Dad," Anders said stiffly to Mike. Mike stood up and walked slowly over to his brother, just like their father had done earlier that night. Anders had a horrible flashback to earlier on in the evening, but through a scared, scrunched up face he stood his ground.
"How the hell do you figure that?" Mike was insulted that after all he had done for his brothers that one would turn around and fling that in his face.
"Threatening to bugger off and leave us with the mess? I know you keep threatening to go away and live with Rob and Valerie, and you may as well!"
"I've done more than enough for you and Ty, I can't believe you're comparing me to that sick bastard!" Mike growled.
"Oh yeah?! Where were you when the Collins boys were beating me up?! I could have used my older brother to come and help me out!" Ty buried his head under the covers. He hadn't expected Mike and Anders to start arguing with each other.
"You have to start accepting that I'm not always going to be around for you and Ty! I have my own life that I want to live, and it doesn't involve you!" Anders walked over to the bed where Ty was sleeping and perched on the edge.
"Don't say that stuff in front of Ty, he'll think you're serious." Ty was the most gullible kid Anders had seen. Or at least, he was until that evening.
"Maybe I am serious," Mike retorted.
"If Mike doesn't go away, I'll go away," Ty mumbled through the covers. Anders tugged the covers off his brother's head roughly.
"What?! Why would you say that?!" What had Mike been saying to Ty?!
"You told me to go away, Anders, so I thought that you wanted me to leave for good. You never tell me to go away when I want a hug." Ugh, why did the kid have to take things to heart?
"Ty, I didn't mean it like that. I just didn't want you to see me and Mum like that."
"I don't trust you anymore," Ty said stubbornly. "Or you, Mike!"
Normally such comments said to Mike and Anders would be disregarded by them. But to hear their little brother say it was chilling.
Before they could question their brother, however, they heard the sound of their Dad returning home.
"ELIZABET!" they heard him bellow.
"Shhh, you'll wake the boys!" she pleaded with her husband. They then heard the sound of her struggling and protesting as he was no doubt yanking her into their bedroom.
Mike and Anders were old enough to know what the subsequent sounds of her whimpers and his grunts were from their bedroom, but Ty was too young. Normally when this happened, the three brothers would all curl up on Mike's bed while he told them a story to try and distract them from the noises.
Ty pulled the covers off his body and walked towards the hallway.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Mike hissed. Ty looked defiantly and sleepily at his brother.
"I'm going to bed." And without another word, he went to his bed alone. Anders turned angrily to his brother.
"You may not want to look after me anymore, but what about Ty? He needs you!"
"He needs his parents, not me," Mike snapped. Anders climbed to his feet and watched his brother mournfully.
"I see how it is," he said sadly, and he too left for his bedroom alone.
It was nearly nine months from that night that their youngest brother Axl was born. Ty knew that now Mike and Anders weren't going to be there to protect him anymore that it was his turn to be the protector. During the eight months following Axl's birth, Ty vowed that he would protect his younger brother and his mother from Dad. Mum would never let him openly defy Dad, but she allowed him to care for baby Axl once in a while.
And after that eighth month, their Dad finally left for good. Mike was upset, because he truly loved his father deep down. Anders and Ty were secretly jubilant. They didn't show it for fear of upsetting their mother, but it was as though a huge curse had been lifted from their household. The departure of their father did nothing to bring the brothers any closer, however. Whilst each of them would take turns at helping their Mum with Axl, they spent very little time with each other. And it was almost better that way. Anders had started pulling away from the whole family, and this allowed him to branch off and do his own thing without worrying about too many moral obligations to his family. Mike of course had Rob and Valerie, who became his second family.
Ty, however, stayed close to home. He was very close to his mother and he was happy being there for her and Axl - which is why he was so devastated when Mike had told them that she had died on the tramping expedition she and Mike had gone on for his 21st birthday. He fell into a depression, which added an additional strain on an already broken family. The dynamic between the brothers were never the same again. The brothers were united out of necessity, not out of love. That love had been sapped away with memories of their father.
They still possessed an innate brotherly love deep down, but they never seemed to express it anymore, especially with Anders taking off as soon as he turned 21. It wasn't until Axl's 21st birthday that the four brothers could finally be completely truthful about their family past and history with each other. Now it was safe once again for Ty to leave his room of isolation and depression to rejoin the real family he had valued so much when he was seven. And that family didn't need any parents. They all had their separate lives and differences of opinion, but the four brothers could now all sit in the same room together without the noises of the outside world pulling them in different directions. And that was a start.