New to Liberty by DeMisty D. Bellinger

Author:DeMisty D. Bellinger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Unnamed Press

Greta’s pickup truck bounced on every pebble on the road. Each bounce shook me, and each shaking hurt. “Slow down, sis,” Lucky said.

I sat between them, and I couldn’t help but touch and be touched by both Lucky and Greta during the trip. I kept crying from the physical pain and the fear I had of my parents. Every time I cried, Lucky and Greta would pat my thigh.

“They are not going to hate you,” Greta said. “They will be upset, probably more with Lucky than with anyone else, and of course the rapist—”

“Greta, put a little something sweet on that, okay? Let’s not talk about those guys so graphically right now. Nella’s still here.”

“I didn’t say anything graphic, Lucky, I just called him by what he is. He raped her so he is a rapist.”

“Okay, sis, get to your point.”

“The point is that they won’t hate you. You didn’t do anything wrong, really. Why didn’t you two call the cops again?”

“Because she’s black, Greta.”

“Well,” she said, then added, “I suppose so,” and I wasn’t sure what she was talking about. “Guess it was best to call me or someone like me. It worked all right, yeah?”

I started crying again.

“She still has to tell her parents,” Lucky said. I nodded my head up and down. Even that motion hurt.

We were quiet for the rest of the trip, except for me navigating the way to my house here and there. When we pulled onto my street, I started crying. I let a thick sob escape, and again I was throttled by the tears. When we were about two blocks from my house, I said, “I can’t do this. Please pull over here.”

“We have to,” Greta said, but she pulled over as I asked. Lucky didn’t say a word. He didn’t touch me or comfort me in any way. I looked at him, almost angry with him. I could see that the muscles in his face were tense, that his jaw was clenched. I could see swelling all over from the fight and bruises the color of old fruit.

“Maybe I should go in alone.”

“If you go alone,” Lucky said, “I would never see you again.”

“Why do you think we’ll see each other if we all go together? Oh, hi, Mama and Daddy, this is my boyfriend, Lucky, and his sister, Greta. Lucky and I were just beaten by three strange men, but now, they’re just dropping me off.”

“Raped, too,” Greta said.

“Greta!” Lucky said to her, yelling. She sighed. She shut off her truck. We three sat in the cab not talking, but I could hear how loud our thoughts were. After some time, Greta asked, “How far is your house from here?”

I pointed up the road. “About a block and a half.”

“Should I drive up? I could talk to your parents.”

“Do I look bad?”

“What do you mean?” Lucky asked.

“I mean that I’m not that beat up in the face, am I? I can say I fell. I can say that it got too dark and I fell.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.