Member-only story
Vodka Mists
Lily rushed back to the caravan. She didn’t want to be late with the milk. She had to look after her two younger sisters. They didn’t understand what was happening. That their mum found happiness in the bottom of a bottle of vodka.
She remembered when the look in her mums eyes hadn’t been the glazed reflection of an alcoholic fog. She tried to help as much as she could, but she was only eight. Much too young to be a mother to two kids, let alone look after a mum who dripped with alcohol.
She shouted too. Generally at Lily. She was ordered to look after the younger ones. She also cleaned the ‘house’ and cleared up after everyone. She didn’t go to school. She was supposed to — she knew that, but there was always so much to do at home.
She cried herself to sleep every night. She always hoped that her mum would come and give her a hug, but by that time, she was always passed out in another oblivious stupor. She didn’t know much about her dad. He’d left them when she was only a year old. Lily could only guess that he couldn’t take her mum’s moods.
She didn’t know that she could take them really, but SHE had no choice. She couldn’t turn and run. Not that she’d leave Kimmy and Jamie anyway. Sometimes she hated her parents for giving her this lot in life. But then she looked at her mum, asleep…
