I peeked around the corner at Momma who sat at the kitchen table with her brow crumpled;

yet her eyes showed nothing. Grandma Dot continued to yell as she stomped out the back

door, I turned and hurried back to the room.

​

Momma soon appeared in the doorway and I froze in place! I felt weak like my body didn’t

want to work anymore.  She walked heavily into the room as my ears pounded!  It was hard

to breathe.   Momma snatched up clothes that Grandma Dot had washed for us that were

sitting on the floor in a basket by the ironing board and started ironing.  “I can’t never do

nothing!” she mumbled as she looked over angrily at me; I looked down at the floor. “Ya’ll

get on my nerves!”  Momma said.

​

Momma was getting angrier with every mumble as she shook the ironing board back and forth.

“I wish ya’ll had never been born!”  “Ya’ll wersome ass” she growled. “I hate this” she said as

she banged the iron up and down on the ironing board!

 

Sand who was sitting on the floor started to cry! Momma’s head whipped in her direction as her hands bawled into fists at her sides… “Shut up” she yelled! Sand jumped and cried louder! “Please stop crying”, I thought to myself as Momma started pacing back and forth in the room talking to herself! She walked past me and then walked back in front of me and stopped with her back to me!

​

She moved forward like she was walking away, but I saw her arm swing forward as she leaned into her right hip! Before I could duck out of the way, she swung her arm backwards with all her might; and hit me directly in the side of my forehead with her bawled-up sideways fist! I was stunned as I hit the floor! Momma never looked back at me and continued to pace.

​

As I lay there, I watched from an angled view from the floor, as Momma picked up the iron from the ironing board, snatched the cord from the wall, bent down and grabbed Sand by the ankle!  Sand tussled and cried out as Momma pulled her leg.  “Shut up” she growled as she pressed the iron to Sand’s inside leg! Sand let out a howling scream like I had never heard before. Momma removed the iron and sat it to the side on the floor.  She came over and picked me up from the floor and placed me on the bed, as Sand lay screaming on the floor.  Momma then went and stood over Sand briefly watching her and as she bent over to pick Sand up, I heard Grandma Dot.

​

“What’s wrong!” grandma was yelling as I heard her feet running into the room.  “Lord Have Mercy!” she cried out, as she came into the room and saw Sand on the floor.  Sand’s little leg had pink and red meat showing with puss pooling on the top; her skin was stuck to the iron!

“What happened?” Grandma Dot asked as she picked Sand up off the floor; grandma’s looking at me, but my mouth will not work and my body won’t move, I just lay there looking. Momma looked at me and started crying, saying “Sand pulled the iron down when I wasn’t looking...“