SWEET ESCAPE

I did not hear the last of it when I got home. I served detention, that was a forbidden word in Miss Mattie’s house. She did not even want to hear it.


“You fought at school, like those ghetto people are you crazy, we are church people and I believe the Lord you just gave the devil the chance in your life” she told me.

I looked at her, she is one of those churchgoers who just go to church and be a statistic in the church offering, if I was God I don’t think I would want to listen to her prayer, she is full of crap. Church people indeed.

“She attacked me first, Miss Mattie” I tried to explain defensively.

“When you get hit, you turn the other cheek” Miss Mattie responded hitting me with her whip. Turn the other cheek, it is not that easy.

Chanelle, her oldest daughter told her about the incident, and I skipped dinner that night and also got twelve strokes of her skinny little whip. My butt hurt so bad I was too scared to sit down. Luckily for me I had to do the dishes so I didn’t have to sit immediately, I dreaded washing those greasy pots and pans but I had no choice. Chanelle had cooked dinner and burnt most of it. She could not cook anything right, the last time she made fried rice they were as good as soggy. Her culinary skills just suck, period. Ashley her younger sister is so much better, we are the same age but she is one freak I know. She has a secret boyfriend who whistles to her from outside and she goes up the stairs like she forgot something only to come back through the front door. She usually leaves the house through her bedroom window, there is a ladder placed by her window since her window is on the side of the house within the fence. Her mom has never suspected anything on any occasion but I hope she really does get caught one day, I would be so glad because she has been terrorizing me of recent and I definitely do not like that.


When I was fifteen, I ran away. I plotted my way of escape very carefully. I had started packing up my stuff little by little, when I mean stuff its most of the scrap I had in their house. One day Miss Mattie called me.

“Gina” she hollered.

“Yes, Miss Mattie” I answered running before she called me the second time.

“I need you to go to the store for me”

“Yes Miss Mattie” I responded. She handed me a grocery list, I read it, she needed some Milk, eggs and butter. She gave me a fifty dollar bill. Sweet. Part of my transport money to get on the Greyhound bus. This woman has just made my escape a little bit sweeter and so much better.