by Suzi George

Created on: July 09, 2009

Sarah dreaded that knock on the door with passion. She knew it would be him again, Bill. Bill was her mother's boyfriend. It wasn't so much that Sarah didn' t like him but even at the tender age of five she knew something was wrong. Sarah was wise beyond her years, she had no choice. When her mother was married to her daddy Joe as she had called him, things were great. Sarah didn't mind living above the club and falling asleep to the sound of her mother singing and playing guitar with her band. One day, Sarah heard yelling and arguing.

"..and I know it can't be mine, you know it Ramona!" Daddy Joe yelled. Sarah ran to her older brother and sister in tears.

"Momma and Daddy Joe are fighting, come quick," Sarah pulled her brother out of bed. He groaned and ran his fingers through his tousled head.

"Come on Sarah! It's too early to be up," her sixteen year old brother yawned. Her twelve year old sister followed suit and they were all wide awake and alert while listening to the fight. Sarah's eyes grew wide and she turned to whisper to her brother, "what's a samectomy?"

Her brother shushed her and kept listening. They all knew it was over. Her mother had been having an affair with another local club owner and was now pregnant. Joe insisted it wasn't his, he'd had a vasectomy. Soon, Sarah, her siblings and her mother were out on the street thanks to her mother. Daddy Joe insisted they stay but her stubborn mother refused. Sarah cried when she left her Daddy Joe. Her own father lived states away and Joe had been an excellent father figure. Ramon peeled Sarah off of Joe and drug her out of the club. Sarah soon realized Bill was married to a woman named Dottie. They had a daughter that was a little older than her. Sarah was quite adept at eaves dropping, it had saved her many a night when her mother came home drunk and angry.

"I don't like Bill," Sarah announced to her sister. Her sister promptly told her to shut up and popped her on the head. Her mother gave birth to a little girl they named Mona Lisa. Sarah loved little Lisa as she was called. She loved to feed, dress and change her and because her older sister quit school and slept all day and her mother slept until she went to work, Lisa's care was left to little Sarah.

Sarah hated when Bill came to see 'his' baby. She sat quietly and wondered why they had to use the paper things to get food and sometimes didn't have any. She knew Bill was very rich, she knew by his wad of money and the car he drove. He owned the club her mother headlined and she sometimes sang at on weekends with her. Sarah was far too intelligent to not understand that her mother was nothing more than a mistress with a baby. Bill never provided for his own child and had no intention of leaving his wife and posh lifestyle for them. Her mother's boyfriend was no Daddy Joe and how Sarah missed him.

The day Sarah's mother died when she was just nine would be forever ingrained in her memory. The most striking thing she would remember about her mother's death was Bill's display of emotion but lack of financial assistance in burying her. Her mother's service was non-existent and her casket was placed in the back corner of the funeral home with folding chairs. They service at the grave was okay but somber and strained.

The worst moment of Sarah's life came when the service was over and she watched her mother's boyfriend walk away with her little sister never to be seen by Sarah again.

Her mother's boyfriend was officially a jerk.

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