My Lover Is A Maid

“That's right, please... have mercy on us. Please have mercy on us!" I'm begging dad who is full of emotions. My voice was hoarse from exhaustion and constant crying while pleading for papa to stop hurting us. I'm broken and closed but I'm still trying to protect my sister who is only seven years old and my mom who has a weakness from the pillar of our home that is making us suffer right now. The same thing always happens at home every time dad comes home. He is always angry and pours it on everyone. Dad wasn't like that before but when he learned to gamble and get into vices that's when our complicated life started. I can't even count how many times he almost killed us because of his beatings. Times where we almost looked like dead because of the bruises and pale bodies that dad had done. I want to defend them. I want to protect them but I'm just a humble man with a small body because of our state in life, that's what they call our condition 'poor' and what about me? Maybe I can say that I'm a man who gets patted down and gets weak easily because of not being able to eat properly. Even if I wanted to run away, I couldn't. Even if we want to fight, we can't. Even if I want to rebuke dad, be brave and be a man even for one time, I can't do it, I can't. I'm disgusted with myself for thinking that even once I could be a man, a complete man who can defend my loved ones, but no, I'm just a very useless man. I could not save them from the hands of my father who was swallowed by annoyance and anger. I want to keep mom and Abi away from dad's hands so that we can be safe and live happily and peacefully but I can't do it either, I can't because mom still believes that dad will change too which I just believed because he was taking a risk I know that when we make dad feel how much we love him, he will return to the way he was before, our dad who is so sweet and caring. My dad always smiles when he comes home because he is greeted with a bag of noodles that my brother and I will run to get at the same time as greeting him, kissing him, shaking his hand and giving him a hug. I miss seeing papa being sweet to mama, the type where they are like stars in a telenovela where there is no conflict, just full of love.”