I don't know why, but the following song makes me think of my aunty.
I say I don't know why, because the song wasn't inspired by anyone in particular.
It just came to me one day when I got caught in a downpour.
My aunt's first husband died young of a brain hemorrhage. He died too young for his two young children to remember him.
She remarried. The kids got a new dad.
We've long known he's a drunk.
But it wasn't until the ghost of my aunt's dead (murdered) father spoke to my aunt's sister that we found out that my aunty was being beaten.
(That sentence is waaay too confusing without calling my aunt's sister my aunty as well, let alone having to go off on a tangent about ghosts...)
Anyway. My aunt's sister confronted my aunty, who tried to say she'd just fallen down some stairs, but when pressed, she confessed, but begged her not to tell anyone, and I don't know whether anyone did anything about it.
I later found out that he also beat his kids.
My cousin told me in recent times how after his 21st party, his stepfather threw him to the ground and dragged his head across the concrete floor. Happy birthday.
My cousin probably still isn't strong enough to fight his father.
I have no idea whether his dad still beats his mother. It's not really a topic suitable for family reunions.
But the sickest thing is that I don't hate my uncle.
I'm wary of him when he's drunk (which is pretty much every time I see him) and one day I may have to kill him, but I still like and respect him, despite him being a creature unworthy of such things.
What does that make me?
OK. Here's the song.
Lyrics:
