Born a Crime

mom’s boyfriend. He wasn’t trying
to be my father or even a stepfather,
really. He was more like a big
brother than anything. He’d joke
around with me, have fun. I didn’t
know him that well, but one thing I
did know about him was that he
had a temper. Very charming when
he wanted to be, incredibly funny,
but fuck he could be mean. He’d
grown up in the homelands, where
you had to fight to survive. Abel was
big, too, around six-foot-three, long
and lean. He hadn’t hit my mom
yet. He hadn’t hit me yet, either.
But I knew he was dangerous. I’d
seen it. Someone would cut us off