Wednesday
It was 10 p.m. Wednesday night and I was in my room, on my bed, reading more of White Oleander. Dad, who had been home from work for an hour, was downstairs and Mom was in the kitchen.
"Savannah!" Dad called.
I put my book face down on my bed.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Come down here I need to talk to you."
I couldn't imagine why my dad would need to talk to me.
I went out of my room, down the hall and down the stairs, where Dad was waiting for me. Instead of talking, he hit me on my face.
"Wha what?" I said, shocked.
He hit me again.
"You said you wanted to talk to me, not hit me. Talking is not hitting."
He hit me again.
Mom came out of the kitchen.
"Kevin," she said to my dad.
He turned and looked at her.
"I thought we made an agreement when we got married to never hit our kids," she said.
Dad walked forward and hit mom. I went into the kitchen and got an ice pack from the freezer then went upstairs to my room and called Matt.
"Yeah hello?" he answered.
"Hey, its Savannah."
"Oh hey Savannah whats up?"
"Dad just hit me."
"He what?"
"Dad just hit me," I repeated, slower; "and he's still hitting Mom."
"Oh god. I can't believe this!"
"Matt, is everything alrite?" I heard Elizabeth call.
"Um no, not over there its not," he called back.
"What's going on?"
"I'll tell you later."
"Ok."
"Sorry about that," Matt told me.
"It's ok."
"Ok."
"I know, I can't believe it either. And I don't want to."
"I thought they'd made an agreement."
"That's the point Mom brought up. And yes, they had."
"Oh. Is your mom there?"
"Yeah but you'll have to call her cell."
"Ok. Bye."
"Bye."
We hung up and I called Jennifer's house.
"Hello?" her mom, Morgan said.
"Hi Morgan is Jennifer there?" I asked.
"Yeah hun hold on."
"Ok."
I waited a few moments.
"Hello?" Jennifer asked.
"Hey."
"Oh hey Savannah whats up?"
"Well……….Dad just hit me."
"Um what?"
"My dad just hit me."
"Oh god. Are you ok? Stupid question, of course you're not ok if your dad just hit you. Sorry."
"It's ok. I'm just………in shock right now, I guess. And scared."
"Do you want me to come over or ……..?"
"Yeah could you?"
"Yeah I'll be right over."
"Ok bye."
"Bye."
We hung up.
"Savannah," Mom called.
I guess she and Matt were done talking.
"Yeah?" I replied.
"Matt will be staying with us for the next few days."
"Ok. And Jennifer's coming over."
"ok."
The doorbell rang. Mom answered it.
"Hi Jennifer," she said.
"Hi Lucy," Jennifer replied.
I went downstairs.
"Hey," I greeted Jennifer.
"Hey," she said.
"You wanna go up to my room?"
"Yeah ok. It's so nice to be out of our house."
"Yeah."
Pause.
"See, thing is, Savannah," Jennifer said.
I looked at her; "yeah?"
"We can't turn your dad in to the police because he is the police."
"Yeah that's true."
Dad worked for the police force.
We went up the stairs down the hall to my room.