Every other weekend I go to visit my daddy. My mom meets him at this gas station because she says she doesn’t want him to know where we stay. Deven goes with us, and she gets to sit in the front because she’s almost thirteen. I’ll be twelve next month and maybe then I can sit in the front. So I have to sit in the back by myself and I don’t say much because I know I talk a lot sometimes and it gets on everybody’s nerves. But Deven and Mommy sing together and I just listen to them.

My daddy says I’m his baby girl and he is nice, but he can never really do much because he’s always working. So, when I go over to see him, I have to stay in the bedroom a lot because he has company. Or sometimes he leaves me at home by myself and I get really bored and really lonely because I don’t have anyone to play with over there. A few times he has stayed out all night and I got scared but he tells me not to tell my mom because she would be really mad at both of us. So that’s our little secret. But he lives in an apartment, so he tells me I don’t have anything to worry about because he has really nice neighbors and they look out for me while he’s away. The only bad thing about my daddy’s house is that it always smells like smoke and it stinks but I don’t tell him because I don’t want to hurt his feelings. And he says he’s trying to stop smoking and he never smokes in front of me. Just on the steps outside with some men from the other apartments.

I love my daddy a lot. When he’s not working, we do fun things together and he buys me stuff sometimes. Like my dolls. I want to make clothes when I grow up and my daddy buys me all these doll clothes so I can dress them up. Now that is fun. I wish it was like that all the time.

I’m going over to spend the weekend with him, and he says he has a surprise for me. I can’t wait to see what it is!

Chapter Eleven - Before

Chapter Eleven

Before