Seeing her father kill her mother

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4.2.3 Seeing her father kill her mother

Finally the custody battle between Gayle’s parents has been won by Gayle’s mother. Gayle should be happy, but all she feels is a rising sense of panic. She believes that something awful is going to happen until the fearful moment comes. When her father is angry, his face is terrifying, his eyes are red and he looks possessed. This is a kind of signal for her mother to save herself and Gayle. Then her mother pulls Gayle out of the house so that both of them can run, but that is useless because her father is too strong while Gayle and her mother are too weak in facing father’s cruelty. When Gayle and her mother meet the father at home, looking at her father’s face she knows that he is going to beat her mother because of the custody. It happens as her father finally manages to yank Gayle and her mother into the house by still holding on Gayle’s other arm. Then her father throws Gayle into the hall and she lands against the wall at the bottom of the stairs. She hits her head on the wall, but she feels no pain because the event is too scary to notice. I knew that we were both going to be killed. I watched as my father grabbed Mum and began punching her head from both sides, using first one fist and then the other. I saw her face being slammed from side to side as he hit her. Then he began punching her all over the body, raining blows on her stomach, head, legs, and arms. She fell to the floor and he began kicking her, barely pausing between one vicious kick and the next. I sat crouched in the corner, watching, as my father dragged Mum by her hair out into the front garden, and she called out, ‘Gayle, please call the police’ She managed to say it three times before he climbed on top of her and began strangling her Sanders 116. Actually Gayle knows that her mother is begging her to call the police to save her life, but Gayle cannot do anything and she feels desperate because the phone is still padlocked. Gayle can only watch her parents fighting. She watches PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 40 her father on top of her mother. There is blood on her mother’s clothes and lots of blood on the grass. Her mother’s eyes are rolling and at the moment Gayle’s mother screams in a high – pitched voice. It is a painful and haunting scream. Her mother can only say and gasp two words “’You murderer”’ 117. The scream “’You murderer”’ are Gayle’s mother’s last words, and they have haunted Gayle since that day. After that Gayle sees that her father drags her mother into the house and grabs one of the nooses. Gayle’s mother looks heavy and limp. Then her father begins to hang her mother on the banisters. He dragged her back into the house, past me, and grabbed one of the nooses. I don’t know if she was still conscious – she looked heavy and limp. He pulled her over to the stairs, put the rope around her neck and began tying the other end to the banisters Sanders 117. Here Gayle is only silent and paralyzed. She knows that she will be the next victim and so she begins to run in order not to die. She runs down the road to her friend’s house. Later, the two policemen arrive and one of them says that her mother has died on the way to hospital. To sum up, Gayle becomes a witness of her mother’s death. This event will stay long in Gayle’s mind. According to the theory of Davison G-26 about trauma, that event will also influence Gayle’s mental life, this is normal for people who witness something like this. Again, the analysis above shows Gayle’s courage when seeing her father kill her mother. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 41

4.3 Gayle’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder