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Bramley, three neighborhoods away, before I stopped. I found a hiding place in some bushes<br />
and crawled inside and huddled there for what felt like hours.<br />
You don’t have to teach me a lesson twice. From that day until the day I left home, I lived<br />
like a mouse in that house. If Abel was in a room, I was out of the room. If he was in one<br />
corner, I was in the other corner. If he walked into a room, I would get up and act like I was<br />
going to the kitchen, then when I reentered the room, I would make sure I was close to the<br />
exit. He could be in the happiest, friendliest mood. Didn’t matter. Never again did I let him<br />
come between me and a door. Maybe a couple of times after that I was sloppy and he’d land a<br />
punch or a kick before I could get away, but I never trusted him again, not for a moment.<br />
It was different for Andrew. Andrew was Abel’s son, flesh of his flesh, blood of his blood.<br />
Despite being nine years younger than me, Andrew was really the eldest son in that house,<br />
Abel’s firstborn, and that accorded him a respect that I and even my mother never enjoyed.<br />
And Andrew had nothing but love for that man, despite his shortcomings. Because of that<br />
love, I think, out of all of us, Andrew was the only one who wasn’t afraid. He was the lion<br />
tamer, only he’d been raised by the lion—he couldn’t love the beast any less despite knowing<br />
what it was capable of. For me, the first glint of anger or madness from Abel and I was gone.<br />
Andrew would stay and try to talk Abel down. He’d even get between Abel and Mom. I<br />
remember one night when Abel threw a bottle of Jack Daniel’s at Andrew’s head. It just<br />
missed him and exploded on the wall. Which is to say that Andrew stayed long enough to get<br />
the bottle thrown at him. I wouldn’t have stuck around long enough for Abel to get a bead on<br />
me.<br />
—<br />
When Mighty Mechanics went under, Abel had to get his cars out. Someone was taking over<br />
the property; there were liens against his assets. It was a mess. That’s when he started<br />
running his workshop out of our yard. It’s also when my mother divorced him.<br />
In African culture there’s legal marriage and traditional marriage. Just because you<br />
divorce someone legally doesn’t mean they are no longer your spouse. Once Abel’s debts and<br />
his terrible business decisions started impacting my mother’s credit and her ability to support<br />
her sons, she wanted out. “I don’t have debts,” she said. “I don’t have bad credit. I’m not<br />
doing these things with you.” We were still a family and they were still traditionally married,<br />
but she divorced him in order to separate their financial affairs. She also took her name back.<br />
Because Abel had started running an unlicensed business in a residential area, one of the<br />
neighbors filed a petition to get rid of us. My mom applied for a license to be able to operate a<br />
business on the property. The workshop stayed, but Abel kept running it into the ground,<br />
drinking his money. At the same time, my mother started moving up at the real-estate<br />
company she worked for, taking on more responsibilities and earning a better salary. His<br />
workshop became like a side hobby almost. He was supposed to pay for Andrew’s school fees<br />
and groceries, but he started falling behind even on that, and soon my mom was paying for<br />
everything. She paid the electricity. She paid the mortgage. He literally contributed nothing.<br />
That was the turning point. When my mother started making more money and getting<br />
her independence back—that’s when we saw the dragon emerge. The drinking got worse. He<br />
grew more and more violent. It wasn’t long after coming for me in the pantry that Abel hit my