belt hit me, it was like a good scratch.
ͳen, when my grandma came over, I was completely
dehydrated. I had scratched holes in my legs and my feet.
You know when you run outside after the ice cream truck in
the summertime and the bottom of your feet burn? ͳat’s
how it felt all over my whole body. My tongue had swollen
up. I was so dehydrated from vomiting constantly.
My grandma was not having this:
Grandma: “She need to go to the hospital. I’m taking
her to the hospital.”
Mama: “Don’t take her to the hospital. She don’t need
to go to the hospital. She faking. She faking.”
Grandma: “ͳis is why you gonna end up losing these
kids.”
My grandma ignored her and took me to the hospital.
Later on, they told me that if she hadn’t brought me in when
she did, I would have died that night from dehydration
alone.
I had toxic shock. ͳat was my mrst time getting a Pap
smear. I was thirteen. ͳey had to break my hymen, all that
shit. Two people stuck their mnger in my butt. It was the
worst.
But there was this sexy doctor that came in. I’ll never
forget that doctor. He was black and really strong and he
was scary handsome. He was pressing on my stomach and