The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [62]
Joy’s father picked her up at the hospital. Her mother didn’t speak to him; she only hugged her daughter and told her to be safe. She had not wanted Joy to go, but Joy convinced her to let her spend Christmas with family while she worked. Joy had no other family in Jamaica.
Joy was supposed to spend the night at her father’s house before their trip to her grandmother’s the next day. When they arrived, her father instructed her to look inside his house for her Christmas presents. She eagerly searched everywhere—no presents. Outside, she found him leaning on his car, in deep discussion with his cousin. They stopped talking when Joy appeared. Her father grabbed her hand, threw it down, and demanded she remove her nail polish.
Joy’s father and his new wife took her to a plaza to shop for gifts for his mother. After a couple of hours, he received a phone call and escorted Joy and his wife to the parking lot. He strode toward a white car. “Can I go with you, Daddy?” Joy asked. He told her to stay with his wife. Joy saw her father open the trunk of the car. The driver gave him a baseball bat, which he put in the trunk.
Back at her father’s house, Joy tried calling her mother to check in, but she didn’t answer the phone. At about 1 A.M., while waiting for Joy’s dad to return, his wife was braiding Joy’s hair into cornrows when they heard sirens. A cousin went downstairs.
Joy ran to her room, frightened without knowing why. She stuck a pack of gum under her pillow for safekeeping. She went outside to join her cousin and stepmother by the large gate that divided the open-air house from the driveway. A police officer shouted for her father.
Joy peered through the gate. Her mother’s friend rushed out of a police car. “That’s Joy! That’s her daughter. She told us to take her.”
Joy’s stepmother looked at her nervously. Joy’s hair was only half done.
“Come Joy, we’re leaving,” said her mother’s friend.
Joy was confused. “But why? Where’s Daddy? Why do the police want Daddy?”
“Just come, Joy. I’ll tell you later. We have to go. Get your things.”
As the police interrogated her stepmother, Joy removed one piece of gum from the package, which she placed under her pillow for next time. She put on a pair of slippers and went downstairs.
In the back of the police car, Joy’s mother’s friend held her. “What’s wrong?” Joy asked. “Where are we going?”
“To the hospital,” the officer said. “Your mom has been hurt.”
At the hospital, Joy’s mother was bleeding and her arm was in a sling. She had stitches in her forehead, a broken hand, and her skull had nearly cracked. She told Joy what happened. While Joy sat contentedly in her father’s house, his new wife combing her hair, Joy’s mother was driving home. There was a white car parked on the hill on the way to Joy’s apartment. When Joy’s mother passed it, the car followed her. She drove to the gate, stepped out of her car, then heard the other car pull up and screech to a halt alongside her. One of the four men in the car, his face covered, came running at her with a baseball bat. She tried to get back into her car, but he blocked her way. She recognized him. It was Joy’s father. She called out his name. He hit her on the head and the hand with the bat. Joy’s mother fought for her life, screaming and struggling until her ex-husband stole her car and sped away.
The police arrested Joy’s father that night, but because of his political position, his employer was able to bail him out and secure for him nothing more than a one-year probation. Eventually Joy and her mother moved to another town.
It had taken a long time, but Joy wasn’t angry anymore. She refused to let her experiences turn her into a victim. Instead, she drew strength from her past. Determined to find a silver lining, Joy believed that because of her pain, she