Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
“Damn! I was hoping you’d forget what we were talking about, and I was off the hook,” she said, half-kidding. They smiled at one another, then she continued. “Anyway, I played with the other children just fine, and I really liked it there. But then things changed.” She sighed. “After a while, one of the teachers started pickin’ on me. It was little things at first. Sayin’ I didn’t hold a pencil or spoon right, and snatching it from me, making me hold it the right way, and if I didn’t, she’d take it and I wouldn’t get to eat.
“Then the name callin’ started. She said I was stupid because I wasn’t keeping up like the other kids with the lessons. I thought I was following along just fine. The other teachers used to tell Huni how smart I was. I knew my alphabet and numbers, and I was readin’ well above grade level ’cause my mama and Huni would read to me all the time. Then it got worse. This same teacher would start yankin’ my arm, and yelling at me for every little thing that I did. I was in the bathroom too long. I wasn’t eating all of my snack. I was eatin’ too fast. I peed on myself because she wouldn’t let me use the bathroom, so, I got in trouble for that. I was talkin’ out of turn. I was takin’ too long to respond. It was always something. She’d get so upset with me, but when other kids did the same things I was doing, she was sweet as pudding to them.”
Kage’s face twisted up in a strange way. His nose wrinkled, and his eyes got small, as if he’d smelled something rotten.
“You okay?”
“Mmm hmmm. I’m just fine.” He didn’t seem alright, but she kept on talking, nevertheless.
“As the abuse progressed, she made sure she didn’t do this stuff in front of other teachers. Like slappin’ me. Pulling my hair. It got so bad that not one day went past where I wasn’t gettin’ hit, smacked, taunted, made fun of, or verbally abused by this woman. I started to withdraw. Aunt Huni noticed I was talkin’ less and crying more. When she asked how’d I get a bruise, the teacher would tell ’er I fell off the swing, or was playin’ too rough with the other kids. I never corrected the story. I never told her why.”
“Why was that?”
“The teacher told me that if I complained to my aunt about what she was doing, it would show that I was a big baby, and I could cause Huni to lose her job ’cause nobody would be around to watch me while she worked. No other preschool would want to take me because I was Black and bad. That’s exactly what she said. And then we’d be homeless and livin’ on the street. She convinced me that is exactly what would happen, so,” she shrugged, “I kept my mouth shut.”
She watched his reactions, trying to gauge what he was thinking. Wrapping his legs around hers, she leaned in and listened as Heartless Bastards’ ‘Only For You’ entertained them.
“Go on, baby. Finish tellin’ me what happened to you,” he urged.
She nodded. “…So, uh, where was I?”
“She brainwashed you into thinkin’ that if you told someone, mainly your aunt about the abuse, there would be terrible consequences.”
“Yes… yes. So,” she tossed the blade of grass down and wrung her hands, “the abuse got worse and worse. She would sometimes grab a fistful of my hair and bang my head against the wall.”
“She’d do what, now?” His tone was cutting.
Something changed in Kage’s appearance then. His eyes darkened to a weird color—a flash of deep red, like old blood. It happened so fast she thought she was seeing things. Her heart pounded in her chest as he glared at her. He looked damn near wild. Taking a deep breath, she repeated herself. Kage spotted another dandelion, snatched it, and popped it in his mouth. After he swallowed, he took a deep breath as Janis Joplin’s, ‘Summertime’ started in the background.
“…And what did you do when she’d abuse you like that?” This time, his voice was deep. Dark. Cold.
“I’d cry and she’d yell out, ‘Poet stubbed her toe again! This silly child is so clumsy’—things like that. Just lying her ass off. Then, she started playin’ with my mind. She’d act real nice to me all of a sudden. Like, give me one of my favorite cookies. Tell me how pretty my hair was, things like that. She liked to play with my hair a lot—treat it like I was some attraction at the zoo. Told me that my hair wasn’t as nappy as that of some of the other black kids she’d seen… and she wondered if my uncle was really my father, and maybe that’s how I got this hair. None of that shit was true, either, obviously. She was just bein’ cruel. I didn’t notice that she was only doing nice stuff when she was in front of other folks though. I didn’t put two and two together until I was older. Then, she even upped the ante.