Color Blind

Chapter 7

"No. You don't understand!" I cried, and reflexively covered my stomach when she swung again.

"Don't understand what? That my daughter's a whore? How dare you sleep with that boy after I told you not to even be around him? You have no idea how you just ruined your life. He could have anybody! Why would he want you, Rica? You know you'll never be more than just another toy to him." She looked at me in utter disgust. "I can't believe you did this to yourself. You need to get rid of that baby soon, but I want you out of my house right now."

"Please ma! Where am I gonna go? I don't have anywhere to go."

"Why don't you call your little pimp?" Now she was just talking crazy. I had no idea where she was getting this stuff from and knew that at this point there was no use in trying to reason with her. "Since he wants to turn you into one of his hoes, then he can just take care of you like one, too."

I couldn't do anything but shake my head. The woman wasn't making any sense. I had always known that she was a little high strung, but this was ridiculous! For the first time in my life, I realized that my mother, my own flesh and blood, hated white people more than she loved me. Giving me one more look of disgust, she stormed up the stairs. There was nothing left for me to do after that but wipe the blood from my mouth and walk the two blocks to Tia's house.

"What happened?!" My aunt exclaimed when she opened the door and saw me standing there with puffy eyes and a bleeding lip.

She put her arm around my shoulders and sat me down on the couch. I took one look at Aunt Rachael and burst into new tears. Tia heard me crying and came out of her room to see what was going on.

When I finished telling her what had just happened, Aunt Rachael sat back and looked at me. Then she sighed deeply, started to speak, and then sighed again. Tia and I both watched her, waiting to see what she was going to say.

Finally, she leaned forwards again and said, "So you're pregnant?" I nodded. "Have you been to the doctor?" I nodded again. "Didn't your mom ever talk to you about safe sex?" I just looked at her. "I mean, you girls shouldn't be having sex at such an early age anyway, but to be honest with you, I lost my virginity around Tia's age. I know that sometimes things do happen. Guess your mom wouldn't have thought to get you any condoms or anything when you started having serious boyfriends. She was always the type to ignore a problem until it went away. Hmm..." she said thoughtfully. "I guess we need to have a little talk then."

I looked at her, then at Tia. None of the adults in my life seemed to understand what was really going on.

"But Aunt Rachael," I interrupted, "I'm already pregnant."

She just looked at me and blinked, then looked down at my stomach. After a minute, she sighed again and sat back in her chair.

"I don't know what to say. We have to go talk to your mother. She was just angry, sweetie. She didn't really mean that you had to stay out of the house."

"Yes she did! You know how she feels about white people."

"White people!" Aunt Rachael sat up and looked at me incredulously. "Who's baby is that?" she asked and looked from me to Tia. "Not that little boy that's always coming around here?" She peered over at Tia. "No wonder she was so pissed. Rica, honey, I didn't even know that you two were dating."

"We're not," I said slowly, trying to think of a way to give her "the story" without having to actually tell her what happened.

"Then what in the world? Oh Rica," she whispered, her shoulders slumped in disappointment. "You can't just be randomly sleeping with boys. And he's not even your boyfriend. Sweetie..."