Friday, September 16th, 11:14 P.M.
With the hatred spewed by that talk show host still
resonating in my mind, I tried getting to sleep. I say tried because I've been lying in bed
for over two hours and I'm still awake.
It's hard to get to sleep when you can't get the memories of someone's
heated words out of your mind. It's
harder when you are hearing somebody's heated words presently being said. Two somebodys. Specifically, Mom and Dad.
Dad came home today with a deep cut in his arm. He was bleeding, the wound wrapped with the
sleeve of his dress shirt, but not treated any more than that. As she was treating it, Mom started raggin on
Dad about how his bravado was causing him not to take care of himself
properly. Dad stopped Mom almost
instantly when she started in on that.
It turns out that Dad had tried to get his arm looked at right after one
of his co-workers stabbed him with a pen.
Dad had gone to the ER to get treated and was promptly told to get
out. No, to be more exact, Dad was told
to "Take his freton ass and get the fuck out."
This is what spurred the argument Mom and Dad are
having right now. They held off on it
untill they thought Sakoshi and I were asleep, but once they thought we were,
it was on. I've never heard them argue
like this. The way they are arguing
concerns me. It also concerned someone
else. I was lying in my bed in the dark,
straining to hear the muffled sounds from the kitchen, when I saw a small
sliver of light pierce the darkness. I
arose to look at the source of the light, the slowly opening door to my
bedroom. There was a figure in the
light, a figure that slowly made its way, quietly and cautiously as he can be,
to the foot of my bed. Finally, the
figure spoke. "Hato? Are you awake?"
I addressed the figure. "Yes, I am Sakoshi. Are you okay?"
"No. I
hear Mom and Dad out there. They're
yelling at each other, and I can't sleep."
I could barely make out my brother's face, but I could see that he was
sad and very tired.
"Come on, let's get you to bed." I picked up Sakoshi and took him back to his
room. I tucked him into bed, gave him
one of the stuffed animals Mom had given him, and stayed with him untill he
fell asleep.
As I sat in a chair next to Sakoshi's bed, I could
hear something Dad said. "Don't
worry. Situations like this come and
go. Eventually, people will find their
minds and peace will be restored. We
just have to persevere. We can't let the
racists win." It's nice to say
things like that, but when you feel threatened, when you do not feel safe, when
you are physically attacked in a place you should feel safe, things change.
Hato Shurtleff
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