Diary of A. . . Read Online Free Page B

on his ass. I didn’t care. By the time I
was eight though, Momma told us Uncle E had died and that was
it.
    “You think Uncle E raped you?”
    “Yes!” Lauren hissed.
    “And you’re just remembering it? Have you
told Momma?”
    “I did, and she said I was talking crazy.
She said pregnant women always had crazy dreams.”
    I was shocked again. “You’re pregnant?”
    “Yes,” she replied, as if I should already
know. “But I really don’t think it is that.”
    “Okay, so what did Momma say about Uncle
E?”
    “She said I needed to put it to rest. That
whether it happened or not, I needed to put it to rest. But you
know what that means, right?”
    Shaking my head, I really didn’t know what
that meant. “What?”
    “That Mitchell’s not my first. All this time
we relished the fact that we were each others’ first, but as it
turns out, he’s not mine after all. I know in my heart that Uncle E
took my virginity.”
    I sighed and tried my best to comfort her by
rubbing her back and arms. “I think you should go to a doctor,
Lauren.”
    “I don’t want to.”
    “What about a preacher?”
    “Sheryl, don’t play with me. If I was raped,
then Uncle E could have raped you, too, and you’re repressing the
memories.”
    “I’m not.”
    “You are, but its okay.”
    I hated being accused of something that
wasn’t true. “I wasn’t raped. All I remember about Uncle E was that
he would try to buy me stuff all the time and I wouldn’t let him. I
never understood why Momma made us visit him so much.”
    “What do you mean you never understood why?”
Lauren asked frowning. She snorted in disgust. “Please don’t tell
me that you don’t know why Momma forced us to do that. You’ve been
ignorant all this time?”
    She was pissing me off. “Okay, Ms. Smarty
Pants, why?”
    “Uncle E was our father, stupid.”
    If I had been standing up, I would have
fallen down! “Our father?!”
    “Yes, the other contribution of your DNA.
Momma just made us call him Uncle E because he wasn’t worth being
called a Daddy.”
    This was news to me. I stood up, frowning.
All this time and I never knew. But why wouldn’t my mother want to
remind me of something like that? And how had Lauren known?
    “How did you find out?” I asked.
    “When Momma decided not to send us over
there anymore, I started crying about it and I told her I hated
her. She slapped me and told me I should hate Uncle E instead since
he wouldn’t live up to his responsibility of being a real father
like he was supposed to. And then she covered her mouth like she’d
let the wrong thing fall out. That’s when I knew. Well, I put two
and two together, looked around the house, and saw stuff that told
me that Uncle E was indeed our father.”
    “So you think you were raped by our
father?”
    Lauren stood up. “I know I was raped by our
father.”
    “And Momma just said you were talking
crazy?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then if you feel that way, Lauren, you need
to find a way to prove her wrong.”
    “That’s why I came to you.” She reached in
her purse and pulled out some papers that were printed off the
Internet. “I want you to help me find this man.”
    “What man?” I took the papers she handed
me.
    “Uncle E.”
    I wanted to ask her if she was smoking
crack, but then Lauren could go off the deep end.
    “He ain’t dead, Sheryl,” Lauren said. “Momma
and I went toe to toe last night and I know he ain’t dead, just by
the way she was talking.”
    “Let me talk to her.”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “I don’t want her to know I’ve involved
you.”
    I handed the papers back to her. “I don’t
want to be in a tug of war with you and Momma, Lauren. You go on
your crazy hunches by yourself.”
    She shook her head. “He’s alive and I want
you to find him. I don’t have the resources, but I know you can do
it. Anything you’ve put your mind to you’ve done it, Sheryl. And I
don’t want Mitchell to know, either.”
    “What? That