The day her father left was the first memory Sidonie could recall. It was raining, a summer rain so there was a warmth to the air that would have made the wet day refreshing under normal circumstances. Unfortunately when you live in the Ouvrier, that refreshing summer rain does nothing but flood the sewers and spew feces and waste out onto the cobbles, filling the close quarters with a most unpleasant aroma. The windows of their hovel lacked any glass, lost years before she had always assumed, or perhaps it was never there to begin with. Without the glass to protect from the outside elements, it was the scent of human waste that greeted her nose when she heard her mother and father bickering yet again. She was a child, only six, but she was old enough to know that this was how it had always been, they scream and fight, sometimes they get a little rough but they always made up. It was obvious even to a little girl that her parents didn’t love each other, there was no affection or devotion. That wasn’t something one found in the Ouvrier.
Sidonie huddled in a damp corner, her hair a surprising golden blonde, lay flat against her head from the wet weather. Her feet were often bare, the luxury of owning shoes were not one she often had and the callouses in the bottom of her tiny feet were proof of that. She cried as she watched her parents argue yet again, shielding her eyes as she saw her father’s hand raise to his mother and she visibly cringed when she heard the sound of flesh slapping against flesh.
Sidonie knew what would happen if she tried to step in and help her mother, the last time she had she was unable to open her left eye for a week. The sound of her mother sobbing though was too much, she sounded so sad, so desperate. She begged him to leave, to stop hurting her, to never come back but he was seeing red at this point.
Sidonie clapped her hands over her ears, desperate to block out the sounds of the abuse happening on the other side of the room. She wanted it all to stop. Her tiny frame rocked back and forth in a frantic rhythm and the tears ran down her cheeks in streams.
“Papa! Please stop!” The little golden haired child softly pleaded. She wasn’t sure if he could hear her, she didn’t care, she just had to voice her wants. “Please leave my mama alone...”
As the little girl quietly begged the room went silent. She didn’t dare open her eyes. She didn’t dare breathe or hope. If he had heard her then there was a chance that she would be the next source of his rage. The room was silent though. All she could hear was the pounding of her heart in her tiny chest and the rain hitting the cobblestones outside. She didn’t dare open her eyes.
“Sid...Sidonie...” Her Mother’s voice rang through her ears, reaching the frightened little thing and finally she opened her eyes. They were alone, just the two of them. Her mother’s nose was freely bleeding and there were obvious bruises on her face but she was alive. Those blue eyes of the little girl searched frantically for the shape of her father but he was no where to be seen, the door to their run down home was wide open, the rain water seeping in.
He was gone. He had left, just like she had hoped. Was he gone for good?
Sidonie scrambled then towards her mother, her little hands and feet scratching along the dirty floors until she was finally safe in the arms of her caregiver. They held each other tightly and perhaps for the first time in a very long time they felt safe.
