Hoodwinked

by Desiree Granger

  “Baby?” He called out. “Can you hear me? I asked what am I supposed to feed baby girl tonight while you’re out?”

  “I have everything labeled Piru, do not start this again like you’re suddenly handicapped, and can’t take care of your daughter without me,” Francesca’s voice came through as I immediately grabbed a pen, and paper. Realizing what he was doing.

  “I’m not, just making sure I got everything since you decided you feel like you need to go to a club---.”

  “Here we go…”

  “You never told me where you were going, who you’re going with----.”

  “Pia, Nevaeh, Delilah, and Jasmine are coming with us, and we’re going to meet up with some other girls----.”

  Piru’s eyes cut towards mine in the screen, playing it cool like he wasn’t using two phones right now.

  “Jasmine?”

  “Yeah, Delilah invited her out. Just going to Delilah’s house, then from there, Ben is going to drop us off at the Underground. I told you about this place before.”

  “At Five Points?”

  “Yes.”

  I started to scribble notes down, before getting on my laptop to look up club names in the area.

  “I’m sure Ben will tell you every move I make anyway,” she retorted. “But we’re going to the Underground to walk around for a bit. It’s called Esme Lounge, but I’m sure Ben ran and told you that as well. You’re just calling me to annoy me into not going.”

  “When I’m not there, Ben takes my place so yes. Behave yourself, that’s all I ask,” Piru stated with a cool undertone of no remorse for his words, but the sound of a click let me know his wife didn’t find that amusing.

  “She hung up on you didn’t she?” I asked with a laugh. “You talk to her like a child.”

  “Mind your wife, don’t mind mine. Is that all you need?”

  “Nothing more,” I smiled proudly at my notes before hanging up. Esme Lounge… So that’s the place. Just want to know who Jasmine is with, and then the scales will be balanced once more, in my favor.

  Pia Milton

  “Be quiet Berry,” I whispered softly as I poked my head out the bedroom door late one night. I was around nine years old wearing a Minnie Mouse long pajama shirt with my hair wrapped when I looked up at the high ceilings. House seemed so big. Stretched so tall. Pictures that hung on the wall seemed to stare down at me in shame as I tiptoed with my stuffed bear locked in my arm. My stomach gurgled, and growled once more but I squeezed my bear tight, punishing him to be quiet. “You’re going to wake up everybody.” I whispered against his ear before stepping out into the hallway.

  The wooden floors were so loud and creaky. Each step letting the house know I was walking to the kitchen as I passed my brother’s room. Side by side they slept. Percy, the baby in the family slept like an angel wrapped up like a burrito. Sheets covered his entire body up to his neck on his Nascar themed bed while Piru was next door. The oldest, slept halfway off the bed. Naked except for dingy underwear and a head full of hair that stuck out in different directions.

  My stomach started to rumble again as I held on to my bear tight, and made my way to the steps. Holding on to the wall with my other hand, I took one step at a time. Going down sideways so I don’t fall. Scarred up skin on the side of my body from the accident stretched, and pulled gently with each movement before I turned and hit the last set of steps. I was so close to the kitchen. I could smell the left over dinner. Somehow...only happened a few times but my mother would forget to feed me. My brothers ate. She ate, but I was either in my room when they decided to eat or she would bring my food to my room, and simply...forget.

  Yet as I started for the kitchen, I heard a small jingling noise that made me stop before a low groan.

  My father, Howard Milton. Just the smell of the cooked meat made my stomach cry so loud, that I gasped. Covering my mouth when the light in the kitchen popped on, and he stood in his red pajama set. Stomach stretched out like mine with a round face. Cheeks puffed out with no glasses on. We were shaped like two giant upside down pears as my mother would say. Large on top, not as big on the bottom. I walked into the kitchen with my head hung low, hearing the plates clatter, and cling together.

  “What are you doing out of bed Pia?” He asked without looking at me.

  “Mom forgot to feed me again,” I muttered, looking up at his face for the first time. I would never admit that I was afraid of my father, but he was quiet in nature. Almost too quiet. Never smiled, hardly spoke to any of us in the house when he was here. I used to think he was a robot pretending to be human, and that I was half robot...but that couldn’t be true. Least, I don’t think so.

  “ELIZABETH!” He suddenly screamed causing my body to flinch. I dropped my head down instantly realizing I might get in trouble for getting my mom in trouble. Yet he screamed her name so loud, the entire house woke up. For someone who was fairly quiet around the house, almost invisible, when he spoke? You had no choice but to listen.

  “ELIZABETH!?”

  “What is the matter with you?!” My mom snapped, coming down the stairs in a red robe she snatched around her waist. Long black hair hanging halfway down her back side, as pretty as every with her wide eyes, and small face, she looked from me to him.

  “Why is there a lock on the refr---.”

  “Because I knew you would sneak down here, and eat until your heart's content, and I’m not---.”

  “I WORK HARD SO YOU CAN LAY ON YOUR ASS ALL DAY!” He started as she laughed.

  “AND YET THIS HOUSE IS IN MY NAME! THIS HOUSE IS PAID FOR BY MY FAMILY! Remember why you married me Howard. Your family was financially struggling. Admit it! If I want to put a lock on the fucking food, then so be it! You need to lose weight!”

  “Your daughter didn’t eat dinner again?” He asked calmly as her eyes grew wide, looking at me as if she just realized I was standing there. “She shouldn’t be crawling around here in the middle of the night looking for food to eat because you forgot to---.”

  “It slipped my mind----.”

  “Piru ate?” He asked as she adjusted her robe, no longer looking at either of us. “Did that bastard boy eat? You made certain he ate his food---.”

  “Don’t talk about my child like----.”

  “Don’t forget to feed mine! You’re starving her! What kind of mother are you to starve your own child because she’s not the ideal daughter you wanted her to be?!”

  “I never said that! I never said she wasn’t ideal! I just know she can be so much better! Better than I could ever be! She’s my only daughter for crying out loud Howard! Of course I love her! I wake her up every morning for school! I buy her clothes! I buy her whatever she wants because you hardly notice your children! You barely pay any of us any mind in this house! I want the best, the absolute best for Pia! If I believe she can simmer down on her weight, then I’m going to make sure she’s----!”

  “By starving her?! She’s just a child!”

  I stood quiet, invisible like my father as the two continued to scream back, and forth at one another. All of this over food. Over me eating. I rather not eat at all if this is what it would cause. My two brothers hiding behind the bar steps peeking over to listen. The security guards keeping watch, trying their hardest not to intervene, but when my father made his first, and only move. Hand swiping the air until it went clean across her face, she screamed. I screamed, cowering behind my bear while Piru ran straight for him in tears, trying to shove him. Percy remained still, not knowing what to do as Piru, and eventually security had to fight my father off of her. Wasn’t exactly the strongest or most fit, but his built up anger, and rage came from somewhere hidden.

  “Mom?! MOM!?” Piru screamed watching her fight her way in the kitchen, grabbing a frying pan to aim towards Howard. Attacking him outright as more security rushed into the kitchen.

  “IF YOU EVER PUT YOUR HANDS ON ME AGAIN OR MY SON!” She cried out as I was knocked, and pushed out the way with the massive group of people
in the kitchen trying to break up the couple. I suddenly felt a strength out of nowhere wrap around my body, lifting me high in the air. Realizing one of the guards carried me out of the room towards the stairs. Didn’t fight it. Just let them shut me in my room in the dark, as I listened to the commotion downstairs continue on for another few minutes before the doors were slammed, and tires screeched from outside.

  Nobody came to check in on me for the first few minutes. I sat close by the door, waiting. Listening. Stomach no longer growling until there was a soft knock on the door followed by a sound of a crumbled bag hitting the floor. I quietly opened the door just to peek into the bright hallway, seeing a bag from Waffle House sitting at my door, and a security guard who I never got his name walking back down the stairs.

  ...

  Do you think this helps?” Elizabeth Freeman Milton asked as I sat in the back seat of the car with my head hung low. Hands squished between my thighs in my bright pink shorts, and matching Minnie Mouse shirt, and sneakers. My hair was thick, and curly, pulled back into a ponytail. I glanced at the small duffle bag next to me in the seat as my mother, and her friend Karen drove. While girls my age were at home playing with their toys or friends, I would spend my time doing this. Listening to grown ups talk about my weight.

  “It can’t harm her. She just needs to shed the baby weight is all. After the fire, she seemed to put on twice as much. She takes after her father’s size,” Karen said, looking at my mother with a smile before glancing back at me. I remember her tracksuit being shiny. Green, and white that day with chunky white sneakers. Blonde curly hair that sat up right in a thin white lady fro with thin red lips. Skin almost looked orange when she stood against my mother who was a shade of light brown. Long, slender, skinny like her sisters, my mother looked at me with worried eyes.

  “How are her burn scars healing? We don’t want to put her body under too much stress,” she continued, making a turn in the car as I held the car door handle. Looking out the window at the passing trees.

  “They’re fine. My boys are...incredibly sorry for what they did. You know, boys will be boys,” Elizabeth waved off while glancing back at me. “How are you feeling sweetpea?”

  “I’m fine,” I spoke softly, looking back at my thighs. “Where are we going?”

  “We’re going to a park. Just before dinner, you get to hang out with your mama for the afternoon. Girls need their time too,” she smiled brightly before it fell flat as she turned towards Karen. “How many days you recommend doing this?”

  “I say give her one day of rest...Sundays are good, but for quick results, you’re going to want her out here every day to see a change. If no change occurs, it might be a medical issue.”

  She nodded as I looked out the window once more. Seeing a faded view of my reflection from my round bubble face, and body with the smallest eyes that seemed to be swallowed whole.

  “She looks, and takes after her sorry father. Same quiet nature as him. You would think she would be a daddy’s girl, but he’s hardly involved. Oh but had so much to say when it concerns her eating habits. He doesn’t understand what it's like to go in a store to shop for her. She’s a child wearing teenager clothes because her stomach barely fits without….” waving her hands about in disgust. “Spilling over in a sloppy manner. Never seen anything like it. He had the nerve to attack me the other night because I’m trying to do what I think is best for her so she doesn’t get picked on all her life,” she muttered under her breath, thinking I didn’t hear. “My first born takes after my side of the family. Strong minded, independent, tall and lean. Just like my brothers. My baby Percy,” smiling. “My baby boy has the best parts of the Freemans, but his father’s brooding intellect. Always teaching me something new. He’s going to be a smart one, that one. Mark my words. He’s going to do amazing things.”

  “I think all of your children will do amazing things,” Karen added as my mom nodded proudly. “Just need to get Pia where she’s supposed to be at her age, and nothing more. Have you thought about sports?”

  “She has allergies like her father,” she let out in a dull tone. “She is her father’s child all the way. Inherited nothing from me which is a shame. Otherwise, she would have been perfect.”

  Car began to roll over gravel, and dirt as it began to jolt and shake from side to side before coming to a stop. I sat up high, looking out the window at the shaded track course. Curiously, and confused as all get out, I watched the two get out before my door opened.

  “Pia come on,” my mother said, holding her hand out as I stepped out. “You see this place? This is where you’ll come every day with me. I want you to listen to Miss Karen, okay?” Smoothing my hair back into the ponytail as I nodded. “As my only daughter, I want you to be as perfect as I know you can be. Much more prettier, stronger, and amazing than your own mother, you understand? I have such high expectations for you sweetpea. My only princess...you should start to look like one,” tapping my nose with a smile. “You want to be beautiful right? Don’t you want to look like your mother?”

  I nodded, watching her eye my stomach poking out from the small shirt, and sitting over the waist of my shorts. She took the ends of the shirt to lift up, eyeing the black scarred tissue along the side of my body before touching it.

  “Does that hurt?”

  “No…”

  “Good,” she smiled, pulling my shirt down as she looked up at Karen. “Go on with Miss Karen, and do as she says. Soon as you finish, we can go home, and eat.”

  My first time around the track…. First of many afternoons. Karen walked me to the dirty gravel and told me to walk with her.

  Walk she said.

  I held her hand half way before she began to do a light jog. Tracksuit making that annoying sound at her movements.

  Swish

  Swoosh

  Swish

  Swoosh

  “Keep up Pia! Let’s go. We’re going to jog the rest of the way! You can do it!” She yelled over her shoulder only she was running. It felt like she was miles ahead as I tried to jog. Looking down at my sneakers. Fists balled up punching the air with each step. The blonde curls on her hair bounced as she looked back at me with a smile. Thin red lips wrinkled at the corners, she waved for me to keep up. “You got this Pia! One more time!”

  “I...I can’t!” I complained, running ragged as my breathing became labored. “My chest hurts!”

  “Almost done! Just one more time!” She yelled, not even paying any attention as she continued to jog, turning the curve as my eyes began to water. I looked around for my mother seeing she was sitting in the car.

  I started coughing, slowing down as I attempted to wipe my tears, and running nose. Heaving hard, I shook my head.

  “I don’t want to do this anymore, I want to go home----.”

  “Let’s go Pia! Just one more time! We can walk it if you want!” She yelled back, jogging backwards. “Your mother wants you to do this! It will make you so pretty like her in the end, just one more time baby girl. We gotta lose that weight!” Gripping her stomach as I felt my eyes burn, and cheeks began to soak with tears. I didn’t have the energy to look up, but I kept going. Crying and sniffing the entire way. Fists tighter than before. My throat was starting to burn as I gripped my neck, complaining of pain until Karen finally let up. Coming to a slow end for the second time as she grabbed a bottle of water for me to drink.

  “You went twice around the track Pia!” She yelled with excitement. “Big girls twice your age can’t even do that!”

  I kept coughing, sniffling and heaving. Leaning over as spit stretched down in slow drops to the ground as I coughed harder. I felt like I was going to throw up. Getting rid of everything my body saved, never knowing when my next meal was going to be. Staring at my mother with red wet eyes, I could see her smile in encouragement at me. Like she was proud.

  “You’ll be out here every afternoon until you don’t need to anymore, and we don’t tell your father. This will be our little secret, our b
onding time. I’ll even come out here, and walk with you. Would you like that sweetpea?”

  I didn’t respond, just continued to cough until she draped her arm around my shoulders.

  “This will be our little secret Pia, come on.”

  “Ms. Milton? Hellooooo? Pia? Earth to Ms. Milton?” A voice let out as I snapped out of my daze, and looked around. Seeing stacks of papers with numbers all around. Small office that sat in the back corner of my uncle’s firm. I looked up seeing the office assistant Amanda Berry staring at me with confusion. Red hair, pale freckled skin with green eyes, she leaned against the doorway.

  “I’m sorry, what did you say?” I asked, blinking rapidly. “My mind went elsewhere.”

  “I asked did you want anything for lunch? To eat? I know you’re going to say no, but I always ask anyway.”

  “Nothing for me,” shaking my head as I glanced at the time.

  “Breakups are hard, but I know you’ll get through it,” she whispered as I stared at her with wide eyes. She suddenly shook her head. “I didn’t mean it that way. The entire office is kind of bubbling about it----.”

  “Saying what exactly?” I squinted.

  “Everyone kind of knows what happened or has an idea...about Violet’s real father beating up Dre, and threatening him with a gun…. It’s all anybody is talking about around here.”