Free Daddy Dearest by Kevin Bullock

that Ching bought her.
    Fannie strolled through the front door dressed in a nurse’s uniform. She seemed startled by Cataya’s presence. “You scared me, child.”
    “Sorry.”
    “Where’s Dee?”
    “She went out with her friend.”
    Fannie sucked her teeth. “Her fast self. She better not come home pregnant, I ain’t raising no more younglings.”
    Cataya remained silent. She felt as if she had said too much already.
    “I see you’re going through my old photo album.” She sat down beside Cataya. “These were the good old days.”
    “Y’all look so happy in them. Especially my mom.”
    “She was the life of the party. That’s how we met that …your dad, at a house party. We walked in and he was all in her face saying how he had to have her. LeLe ate it up. I wasn’t impressed. His persistence spooked me. You know, set off an alarm. I begged her not to talk to him.”
    “She didn’t listen?”
    “No. LeLe was always her own person to a fault.”
    “Maybe he treated her good. She seemed very happy with him in these pictures.”
    “Oh! Best believe, he was very charming. He took us out clubbing almost every night and exposed us to all the finer things. It was the best time of LeLe’s life.”
    “All soon changed after our mama died. He started trying to control every aspect of LeLe’s life, and I watched the light gradually fade in her eyes.”
    “I mean, tell me some of things he was doing?”
    “He stopped taking her out; wanted her to stay in the house all the time. She couldn’t have no friends. A couple of male friends that she grew up with mysteriously disappeared. It was terrible. It’s hard for me to talk about most of it.”
    Cataya stared at the pictures of her other until she felt her throat constricting. Fannie tried to console her when the tears came.
    “It’s okay, baby. Let it out if it makes you feel better.”
    “It’s…It’s not fair!”
    “I know. But do you know what keeps me going when I feel like it’s all too much?”
    “What?”
    “Knowing that God is good, and He doesn’t like ugly. It’s only a matter of time before that fucker gets what he has coming. Mark my words, Taya.”
    Cataya realized then that her tears were worthless. She decided right then that she couldn’t sit around any longer and wait for God to avenge her mother’s death. It was time for her to play the leading role, and prepare a cold dish. Her father had a high bill to pay…

 –—Chapter Nine–—
     
    School had been let out thirty minutes ago, and while most kids were long gone, a crowd of twenty gathered in the student’s parking lot to hear a rap battle.
    Ching listened carefully to June as he rapped for five minutes straight. He had to admit, June had skills. His only flaw was he said the same thing too many times. It reminded Ching of Mike Jones.
    He waited until the crowed quiet down before he started rapping:
     
    “My name Ching-a-Ling I a super duper star-
    if I clubbed, I probably buy the bar.
    Your girl on my dick, but I careful what I hit-
    ‘cause if she cucked you raw then she probably got that shit.
    I rich, man. Fuck banks, I approve your loans-
    And you pissy poor broke the dirty imitation of Mike Jones…”
     
    The crowd when into an uproar once Ching finished his freestyle, minutes later. June wasn’t in the least impressed. He was actually infuriated because not only did he thing that his verse was better, he was also infuriated because all of his so-called friends was cheering Ching on.
    “That wack ass verse! You can barely speak English, muthafucker.”
    “Don’t be a sore loser,” said the boy with the large gap between his teeth. “You got roasted, Mike Jones.”
    The crowd laughed.
    “Bullshit! You’re just saying that because you last week, piano mouth.”
    “Just pay up like I did last week. Piano, that.”
    June handed Ching a twenty-dollar bill, against his better judgment. ‘I at you and you know it.”
    Ching stuffed the money that held