I remember when we used to turn all the lights out and watch out of the window. We were waiting to see if Robin was drunk. If he could walk straight. He’d been at work you see. Only he hadn’t. He’d been in the pub all day. Mum had found out he’d been sacked days before. He was an alcoholic and he’d been pretending to go to work. I can’t remember how she found this out, but I think he kept it up a few weeks before he was finally busted. She’d found loads of empty cider bottles hidden at the back of the shed.
It must have been round about this time that things started getting violent. We slept in the same double bed, me, sis and mum with the door barricaded with the chest of drawers to keep him out.
I don’t ever remember seeing him hit my mum but I do remember when he tried to strangle our cat out in the back yard. We were all screaming and it pissed all down him.