Me with the Radio

by Denise Noe

Slug! Hoo!
Dad was calling Mom the bad words. I was in me and Mickey's room and the radio was on playing George Burns and Gracie Allen which is Mom's favorite show and mine too. George and Gracie are married even though Gracie has a different last name that's a custom of show business people my Mom told me about it.
You drunkin bum, I'll call the coppers!
Hoo!
I turned the radio up loud. I was crying, turning into a big baby like Mickey called me. A knock on the door inside the radio home and Gracie answered the door and said something silly so people laughed.
Harry, I'm gonna call the law boozehound!
Try it slug I dare you!
When I grow up I'm going to marry Mom and I know like everyone knows that little boys can't marry their mothers but I am anyway because I'm not going to tell the priest we're Mom and son—
He was hitting and she was crying she was gonna call the cops and he was calling her the slug he married the slug and—
When I marry Mom I'm never ever going to call her the slug I married the slug a slug is an ugly thing like a worm and Mom is the prettiest Mom in the world and—
if Mickey would just shut the door!
But I saw: Mom crying and Dad hitting and Mom spat right in his face—
You Bitch! Slug!
Drunkin bum!
Mom grabbed Dad's hair and Dad hit her—
Slug!
I'll call the law!
and George Burns loves Gracie because she is nice even though she is stupid she has black hair like Mom but Mom is even prettier and she's smart too so when I am Mom's husband I will love her like George loves Gracie but even more—
No! Please Harry! You're crazy!
The noise so loud and the noise was again the screaming was again Mickey screamed and I screamed but Mom didn't scream she was lying on the floor it was wet it was blood and Dad was crying loud like I do when they say I'm a big baby.
I never saw the gun because the place where Dad's hands were it was a white hole just torn away and Mom's face wasn't normal just a bunch of stuff mixed up and she was dead Mom was dead.
I was crying but I grabbed the radio holding it next to my cheek all the little tiny holes and I wanted to listen to George Burns and Gracie and the people laughing the people who see the show live that's what me and Mom will do someday, we'll see George and Gracie not just hear them but—
Mom was dead I didn't have a Mom anymore and I couldn't hear anything from the radio but I couldn't let go of the radio either even when people came coppers and neighbors I wouldn't let them take the radio away and Mrs. Riley came and Jan her daughter and they were crying even though Mom was not their mother and me and Mickey went to Mrs. Riley's house that night but I held onto the radio all the way over there I wouldn't let anybody take it away from me.