disbelief in her face. This had never
happened to her before in her life.
She got right back in his face and
started shouting at him.
“Did you just hit me?”
The whole time, in my head, I
kept thinking the same thing Abel
was saying. Shut up, Mom. Shut up.
You’re going to make it worse.
Because I knew, as the receiver of
many beatings, the one thing that
doesn’t help is talking back. But she
wouldn’t stay quiet.
“Did you just hit me?”
“Mbuyi, I told you—”
“No man has ever! Don’t think
you can control me when you can’t