Sheri
My whole life, I've just been tired. No bullshit, I think I was born yawning. Not out of boredom. I mean, I've definitely been bored as there's not much to do around here. Especially for a black girl.
My grandma's been running, my mother's been running and she held my hand to make my little legs go just as hard as hers. But we can never outrun hate and pain. It's in our history. In our blood. Forever and ever amen. Still, we let the fear take us all the way to Dover, Delaware, for a fresh start. More opportunities and all that. Mama says it'll be better up here, but I don't think she means the people. I think what's going to be better is her ability to forget about what happened to Daddy. She doesn't talk about it, which I understand I guess. I mean, talking about it won't bring him back. There's nothing to do, nothing to say. It's just the way it goes sometimes.
Uncle Schroeder drove us to his boarding house. It's a nice, big, stone red town house. Mama and I would live on the top, Uncle and his family would live on the bottom. Mama got a job working for a family in New Castle. I'm going to school up there, too. Schroeder got me in. He didn't even ask me what I wanted. I wanted to go to the all-black school. I mean, I wouldn't have any friends, probably. No one trusts the way I speak and the things I like but at least I'd just feel different and not look it. I could blend. I could survive. I would take the bus in with my mother in the morning but she doesn't leave the Bakers' home until 5. One day I was sitting, waiting and Bryce Walker and his vultures were lurking. I felt their presence linger and in my head, I was as good as dead.
"Sheri-baby," his voice was so charming, just like the devil he is. "Sitting all alone?" Bryce took the space on the bench beside me, spreading his legs and arms. He wanted to let me know I was in his territory. Little did his simple-behind understand, I knew this every day. I lived this every day.
And then, not soon enough but just in time, you came along.