Legacy

25

"How you feeling nugget?" My mom asked. It's been two weeks now. Mason is our the house. He's living in a small apartment big enough for him. My moms, twins, and Dinah were all in the living room. Triplets in the backyard playing. "Sad. Mad. I don't know." I was confused on how I was feeling. But I've learned over the years to talk about my feelings. Instead of bottling it up and exploding on everyone. I didn't want to do that to my kids. "Well lets start with this. Why are you mad?" She asked. "I'm mad because of the way he's treated everyone. Let alone his family." I told her. "He kinda acts like you." Ma (Ally) said this time.

"Yes but I wasn't this bad. I had a reason. I lost my father. Mom wasn't in my life at the time. That's how I got my anger out. Yeah I ran away sometimes. But not to another country. I never stole from anyone, beat up anyone unless there was a reason, or disrespect women the way he does. Especially mama." I ranted. "That's true. You knew your boundaries. If you stepped over that line mama would almost kill you or pop a pencil in you balls." Mom said. I gasped and my eyes watered up. "Why would bring that up? Dinah..." I crawled in Dinah's lap and laid my head on her shoulder.

"It's ok baby. The bad pencils gone now." Dinah said and rubbed my head as she rocked me. "Wait. So that story was actually real? The tootsie roll pop?" Malachi asked. "How you know about that?" I asked. "Abuela told us that story all the time before we went to sleep." He pointed to my mom. She pretended to be on her phone. "Come on mom really? That's a forbidden story." I whined. "It was funny. I'm sorry." She said laughing. I rolled my eyes. "Anyways next. Why are you sad?" Ma asked.

"Um... I don't know. I guess I feel like I didn't try hard enough. Like if I pushed him more he would have straightened up. I gave him multiple chances because I wanted him to do right. I wanted to fix whatever he was going through. But I couldn't. I felt that if I kicked him out I failed as a parent. So I tried everything I could. But when he hit Carla that was the last straw. So Dinah and I agreed that kicking him out was for the best. Yeah he hit the twins. But y'all always beat the shit out of his ass." I explained to everyone.

"Can I say something?" Malcom asked. "Go ahead Mal." I said. "Well for one I don't think you failed as a parent. Mason didn't have a reason for what he did. He just want to fit in and be cool." He said. "Yeah. Kicking him out was the best thing you did. Who knows what he would've done next. He probably would've hurt the girls and Calvin. Well maybe not Cassidy. She fights like a grown man." Malachi said. Everyone laughed at the last sentence. "She does. Thanks boys. I needed to here that." I thanked them. They came over and hugged me. "Aww I need a picture of this." Dinah said. "Me too." Mom said.

~Paradise