A good day gone bad

AUDLA BUCHAN

Jimmy had had a great day at school. When he was there he found out that it was class party day. When he thought the day couldn’t get better, it did. His teacher handed out the math test results. He got the highest mark in the class. Nobody even bullied him at recess.

When he went home, even his mom and dad were happy. It seemed like a perfect day. But that was before he found out why they were happy. It took him a while to figure out why, but when he went to the fridge to get juice, he saw the beer. That was why they were happy. Their beer came in.

He went to all his friends’ houses and asked if he could stay with them. They were all going to the dance but he didn’t have money so he couldn’t go. That night when his parents started drinking, Jimmy stayed in his room. They had only been drinking for 20 minutes and they were already drunk. After about half and hour they started fighting. He wanted to call someone, but the phone wasn’t working, because his parents hadn’t paid the phone bill because they spent all their money on beer. He was very scared. Finally he managed to get to sleep.

In the morning, he woke up and found that his mom had a broken arm, and his dad had a bloody nose and a black eye. After his mom got back from for her cast his parents decided not to drink anymore.

Audla Buchan is the winner of a short story contest in Kugluktuk for the Kitikmeot Family Violence Project.