Spilled Milk by KL Randis
How is a child to know that words forbidden in conversation should be spoken when they describe the unspeakable? In her late teens, KL Randis testified against her incestuous, pedophile father in court. His abuse had been going on for years, but it wasn’t until she had dinner with her boyfriend’s family in her teens that she realized her family life was horribly abnormal. Her fictionalized account, Spilled Milk, reveals the excruciating pain of “outing” a relative. And shares the happiness of living life through hard-won success.
The main character, Brooke, unusually makes studying and academic achievement her way of burying reality. As she much later states in court, the only time when her bedroom door could remain locked was if she were studying. One night her father ripped the door off its hinges, because she was not studying but hiding.
Brooke’s mother lives in denial, aided by severe back pain dulled by strong drugs. So addicted, she has no shame in making her children turn over all their money to her, whether from birthday gifts or part-time jobs. Even with two parents and working children, food for dinner is not a given. Because her mother is disabled, Brooke is expected to and does keep the house clean, providing her father with one less reason to get violently angry. She cares for her younger siblings because there is no one else who will. She teaches them to hide. When Brooke is accepted to a university away from their semi-remote home, she is horrified to realize that this will expose her younger sister and brother to the abuse she absorbed for many years.
With the sympathy and help of her boyfriend’s mother, she seeks counselling. Calling on her personal iron-strength, Brooke brings charges against her father and withstands the brutality of court investigations and hearings. Sitting exposed in the witness box, she writhes with the embarrassment of speaking about sexual and family matters in front of a room full of adults, her extended family, her disdainful father, and his lawyers. Thanks to her court-appointed support worker, she speaks her truth, regardless of tears. Slowly, truth does set her free.
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