Ah tell yah, ah go beat yah and put you in the hospital”. Those words, that so easily rolled of my mom’s tongue, the evening I called her on her job after spending six hours at the port of Spain general hospital alone. I was calling to let her know that the doctor in the ER said that my middle finger on my right hand was broken right at left tip of the bone. She laughed after she after made that statement.as I hung up the phone, I could feel this intense pain in the center of my chest and my in the pit of my stomach, felt like an oil barrel filled with rocks. Closing the front door of my aunt’s house , to walk those 20 feet across the yard that separated the two sisters’ houses, seemed so much longer than usual due to being exhausted from lack of sleep the previous night The beating with a piece of 2 by 4 my mom got her hands on when she was on her way into the room I shared with one of my sisters. As the first blow came down, I raised my hand in defense and upon impact, my finger nail split into two uneven prices my screams of agony, only infuriated her and that intensified the beating. To be honest I don’t remember how long it lasted ,but I thought for sure that I was going to die that night. Mostly because she kept saying that “ah go kill yuh girl”.
Earlier that day I went to my grand mother’s house ,to meet with my uncle who as a member of the Trinidad and Tobago cancer society because at thirteen, he lost his leg to bone marrow cancer. Every year they, have different events for people with and survivors of cancer. This included the annual Christmas party which, is what I was chosen to attend with him, as his invited guest.
This was something I did not want to attended due to the fact that my uncle was a pedophile, who possed as the favorite uncle, very giving to us, until it was his turn to collect. Unbeknownst to my mom and him, I invited my best friend ,who was oblivious to the fact, that her presence would bring this trip to a very abrupt end. So upon our arrival, to his shock and dismay, I brought a buffer.the trip was cancelled and I decided to wait for my grand mother to finish cooking diner as is a custom for us in Trinidad, for house wives to be done making diner early.
It was nearly 2pm