SNEAK PEAK EXCLUSIVE!!! When Little Girls Laugh (Chapter Five Excerpt)

When Little Girls Laugh
by L. Renee Roberts

Chapter V - A Bewildered Wife

Those who did have any encounter with my father knew
that love was not an accurate word to reference him by. He made
sure not to get swindled or cheated by others, so he did it to them
first. He always caught other’s attention just by his looks. So he
used that to his advantage. I remember the day he came running in
the house because he was so excited that the woman at the grocery
store fell for his famous twenty dollar bill trick. ‘That dumb girl
thought I gave her three twenty dollar bills ya’ll, I only gave her
two!’ He was so proud to show how he had somehow hidden a
ten dollar bill between two other twenty dollar bills. I still felt
disgusted memorizing how happy he was. My mother was so
naïve. She even cheered him on and called him ‘sharp’. But I’m
not concerned about that right now. She needed to here the truth,
and I was ready to give it.

“Mother, that man that you’re so in love with…is a great
pretender! To you he may have pretended to be a provider, a
supporter, and even a lover. But to us he became a stalker, a
pedophile…a molester…a rapist…and…even a murderer!”

“Oletta, how dare you! You will not sit there and lie, disrespecting
the man that has taken care of you all your life. I won’t let you.”

“But mama she’s right. You might as well say he murdered
something…our childhood. Each of us got a story to tell about how
he murdered us and the tool he used to murder us with.” At last

someone spoke in my defense. It was O’Nya. She spoke calm and
careful, which usually meant she was serious and sober.
But my mother had a dazed look on her face, in a world of her own
maybe. Were we finally getting through to her? After about a
minute she finally uttered,

“Look, I don’t know what is going on here…but…I don’t want to
hear another word of it. That man is lying on his sick bed, trying
to fight for his life. And ya’ll talkin’ like this!” She suddenly
stopped to hide the trembling in her voice.

“But mama, daddy has done things to us…things that has impacted
us in the worst way!” I don’t know how long O’Lela had been
standing in the door. I guess she finally had the courage to
confront my mother, possibly hoping to influence her thoughts.
She didn’t say much, but the look on her face said a
thousand words. When my mother rolled her eyes at her, O’Lela
stomped out of the kitchen. I then threw a quick buck-eyed look to
O’Kesia. To see if she would have something that would key into
our persuasions.

“Mama, it’s not that they’re trying to be disrespectful, but daddy
was something to deal with. He ridiculed me for the way that I
looked. The one thing we had in common was the love of food, but
that same common thing was used to curse me!” After Kesia’s
short monologue she quickly grabbed the last tuna sandwich half
from the porcelain platter.

“I don’t understand. How could ya’ll be so ungrateful? O.B. did all
he could to support this family. We live in a big five bedroom
house, fully furnished. Ya’ll don’t want for nothing. Sheila, he
even taught you how to drive…in his Cadillac. He don’t let no
body drive that Cadillac, but he let you drive that car. He wouldn’t

even let me drive that car! I couldn’t drive back then, but he
wouldn’t let me drive that car.”
“Mama, I didn’t say anything!” O’Sheila immediately defended
herself, trying to keep peace…as usual.
She never had the courage or good sense to express how she really
felt. She was just as naïve as my mother. I wanted to slap some
sense into the both of them.
“You all must realize, O.B. was a stressful man. When he’s
stressed, he drinks so much. He don’t know how to stop. And
when he drinks, he’s a totally different man. He might do things he
normally shouldn’t do.”
“Mama, he’s always doing things he should not do! Even when
he’s not drunk. He did things to us…and he did things to you!”
And that was all I had to say. I didn’t care how she, Sheila or even
my other sisters felt. All I knew was that I felt better. Now was the
time to tell the truth. And that was what I was giving her, the truth
and nothing but. The timing was right, perfect timing for her to
know how our daddy raped us.