I shared a room with my brother. We would pretend we were asleep when father would come into our room. We learned this because other times we were awake, he would either beat us for anything or talk bad about mom. We would hear the floor creaking and we would close our eyes. I would tell myself to just stay quiet and it will soon pass. He would come into the room and we would hear his feet shuffling. He would whisper our names and make noise to wake us up. We would lie still and eventually, he would leave. We knew we would have another gray night because he would go and bug my sisters too. They would be sympathetic to his behaviour. I was so scared of that drunken man that would creep into my room. I hoped that morning would come fast. The morning brought another clean slate, only to have a gray night again.