Brookfield, Georgia, Sunday, 16 August 1987, 16:55
Christine sits on the porch at her uncle’s house, a small suitcase beside her. She’s expecting her parents to arrive shortly to pick her up and she’s not looking forward to going home with them. Her cousin, Vanessa, is seated beside her holding her hand.
Vanessa’s brother Tommy exits the front door and sits with them.
“You going to be okay, Christine?” he says. “I saw how worried you was when Mama told you your parents was on their way to get you.”
“I wish I could just stay here.”
“I wish you could too,” Vanessa says. “It’s always real nice when you come to visit.”
“Yeah,” Tommy says. “You always seem happier when your Mama and Daddy ain’t around.”
“I am more happy. ‘Round the house, they tell me to stay quiet and not get in anybody’s way. ‘Specially Daddy.”
Vanessa gives her a squeeze. “How do you stand it?”
She shrugs. “I guess I’m just used to it. All I ever known.”
Tommy looks at his feet and seems to be considering something. “Do they ever hurt you, Christine?”
Christine shifts uncomfortably and won’t face him. “Sometimes Daddy tells Mama to punish me if he’s not happy with something I did.” She looks down, then up at Tommy. “Usually he just ignores me.”
“Did they really pull you out of school?” Vanessa asks. “I heard Mama and Daddy talking about it.”
“Yeah. Daddy said he didn’t want me learning anymore of those worldly ways, whatever that means. They say they’re going to send me to church school next year.”
“You been going to school in Houston County for all your life.” Tommy says. “Why they worrying about it now?”
“I think it was because one of my teachers started asking too many questions about how they was treating me.”
“How do you even live in that house?”
“I got stuff that helps me get along. My friend Jodie give me this little transistor radio for my birthday one year.”
“I’m surprised your parents let you keep that.”
“I got it hid it in my room. Someplace they ain’t never going to look for it.”
“What do you listen to on it? Ain’t many stations around here that play at night.”
“Sometimes I can pick up radio stations from Atlanta.”
“Atlanta? All the way in Perry?”
“Yeah. I’ll lie on my bed with the lights out and the earpiece in, listening to all these songs I ain’t supposed to hear, dreaming about what it must be like to be somewhere different or even somebody else.
“Who could blame you?” Tommy says.
“If I ever got the chance, that’s where I’d go. I’d run away there and never come back.”
“I’d miss you if you did.”
“I’d miss you, too.”
Zachariah’s Buick Regal rounds the corner. Christine watches with trepidation as it moves toward the house and into the driveway. As usual, they pull up and neither Selma nor Zachariah gets out, nor does Zachariah blow the horn.
“Guess it’s time to go.”
They all stand up. Vanessa and Tommy encircle Christine in a group hug and Vanessa tells her, “You do whatever you need to do, Christine. Just be safe.”