Daddy Tam lay cowering on the floor, his arms up around his head, and Daddy George stood with his back to the sink. I saw Daddy Ivan pull his arm back, thon belt of his cracking like a whip, and he swung it at Daddy George, and here, didn’t Daddy George lift his hand up above his head and catch the belt in the air? He did, I saw him. And he grabbed a holt of it, and he turned his hand so the belt wrapped around it, and he yanked it right out of Daddy Ivan’s hand.

I mind Mummy Joy in the doorway, her gasping, her hand going to her mouth, her eyes all big and wide. Even Daddy Tam, down on the floor, his eyes were near sticking out of his head. He skittered away backwards until he bumped into the wall.

It went terrible quiet for a while, nobody saying anything, but the men breathing hard. All staring one at the other. Then Daddy George raised his hand, the belt hanging from it, the buckle dangling there. I mind the one thought I had in my head was, if he strikes Daddy Ivan, that’ll be the end of him. That’ll be the end of everything.

But then something else happened, and it near shocked me more than him taking thon belt. Here, didn’t Mummy Joy spake up?

Don’t, says she, and she stepped into the room, slow like the kitchen was full of sleeping animals that would ate her if she woke them. And she reached up and she took a holt of the belt, but Daddy George didn’t let it go. So she put her other hand on his shoulder, and she came between him and Daddy Ivan, and she looked Daddy George right in the eye, and spake low and quiet to him.

Give it back, says she.

And he let her take it from his hand, and she gave it over to Daddy Ivan, turning her eyes to the floor as he took it off her. He wrapped the buckle end around his fist, and he swung it terrible hard at her. She dropped her arm down to try and save herself, but the belt cut around her wrist and her thigh and to the backs of her legs.

I mind the way she howled. I could hear the pain. She fell to the floor in a heap, curling around herself. Daddy George stood still and his face, oh, his face, so much hate and anger in him. But he wouldn’t fight. He knew what Mummy Joy had telt him by taking thon belt out of his hand. But I could see the rage on him like it was burning the heart of him.

As Mummy Joy crawled away, crying, Daddy Ivan spake up.