Déjà vu

There were screams and sounds of slapping, loud enough that you knew that the neighbors were watching, listening.

A man and a woman.

"Come on, hit me! Hit me - HIT ME."

Sharon was scared; the woman was being pushed to ground, manhandled. Memories flit by, I hear her screaming. 

"Shouldn't we do something?" she kept asking Father and he said, "She's been egging him on. Let them handle it themselves."

And Sharon protest and frets and Father says, "What is wrong with you? Do you want me to do something?"

I realize then that having power is useless; doing nothing with it is worse, and I realize Father may not protect me.

But I hear myself bore disapproving eyes, muttering why I didn't do anything because unlike that time, this time I had power, too.

Haluk Turgut Menguc