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August Town 22, Jamaica
Walking out of my father's room, I set the black medicine bag down on the table. He had just finished his food so I had to give him his insulin after testing his blood sugar.
"When Lacey a fawud back?" I asked him, wiping his arm with the sterilized cotton ball.
"Weekend sah," He replied with his phone in one hand.
"Uno nuh feel uno wah sell the house and move come up suh wid me? Know mi nuh too fool 'round dem part yah again eno," I enquired and he laughed.
"Mi nuh know eno. Years mi live yasso and up a fi uno part nah nuh likkle size house. Mi cya afford that," He said, using the lancet to prick his finger.
"Mi can afford it. Know some a dem youth yah gwaan wid dem foolishness and mi wah know uno deh near and uno good," I said, picking up the blood on the strip.
Slipping it into the machine, I waited a few seconds for the result before taking up one of the syringes and the insulin from the fridge. I quickly injected him with the right amount before dropping the used syringe in the bin along with the cotton.
"When Lacey come we chat 'bout it," He told me.
My mother died when I was 14 years old. She and my father parted ways when I was around 10 and she was dating this man. Daddy had me and my older sister full-time because she couldn't manage to finance us or have anywhere for herself. We were good staying with him either way.
Likkle bit after she deh wid one man and the whole time mi never know seh him a beat her. She move in wid him and we used to look fi her every weekend until one day she seh we can't come there.
Eventually, she cut us off completely and my older sister Dezirae saw her in town sporting a black eye. The woman we knew as our mother was long gone and we couldn't do anything about it. Daddy tried to get her to move out but she turned against him.
One evening, her sister called us and told us she was dead. Turns out my mother told her man she was pregnant and since he didn't want the child, he started to beat her. My aunt went over there with the police and they couldn't do anything.
It fuck up because she not even did a try talk sense into her. Mi nuh understand how Mommy leff Daddy weh me witness treat her good fi man like that. Glad him dead still 'cause if police never shoot him dah night deh, him would'a affi dead.
When I was about 13, Daddy met Lacey and she moved in a year later with her little son. He's currently 16 and lives in Montego Bay with his father and his stepmother. Recently he called his mother and told her he wanted to leave because he no longer felt welcome.
Know mi nuh understand how some man put dem woman pitney over di dem own. Aydan is good likkle youth and the man take custody a the youth make him barely see him mother, only fi a mistreat him. Some man just naave nuh fucking style, bredda.
