pathetically gross to her grandmother. “I…I feel like I’ma throw up.”
Shirley got mad and slapped her again. “Lick, there! Now!”
“ No, I don’t want to do it.”
Shirley hit her a third time so hard, she knocked her out.
Two Hours Later
When Harmony came to, she was outside in Dingo’s nasty brick doghouse. Between being frightened that the animal would come back and kill her, and the temperatures reaching freezing points, she prayed to die in her sleep. Shirley didn’t bother to give her a coat and she was placed there until she decided to do what Shirley wanted. Days went by with no food or water, and Harmony developed a heavy cough.
Finally on day three, Charles came to her with a hard peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk.
“ Here…eat this,” he said nestled inside of his heavy coat, staring down at her. Harmony grabbed the sandwich and drank the milk quickly, fearing he would take it back from her at any time.
He watched her eat the sandwich crouched inside knowing she wanted an offer to come inside and warm up. “You ready to come in now?”
“ Yes,” she coughed. “Please.”
Charles took her to the bathroom and ordered her to take a bath. When she was done, she walked into her room and he was there waiting. It wasn’t long before he fondled her again. The loud coughing didn’t appear to bother him one bit. With her legs open, he dug into her vagina deeply.
“ Uncle Charles,” she whispered. “That hurts.”
“ So what you want me to do, stop?”
“ Yes.”
“ You know how to make me stop?” She shook her head no. “By acting like you like it. When you do that, I can cum quicker.”
“ What’s cum?”
“ You see the clear stuff that come out of my joint, when you touch it?” He taught.
Just the thought of his semen made her disgusted but she knew exactly what he was talking about. “Yes. I remember.”
“ Well when you act like you like it, like by havin’ a smile on your face and stuff like that, then I cum quicker. And then I will leave you alone.”
Harmony thought about what he said and didn’t see any other way out. Both her grandmother and uncle wanted their way with her. She thought about telling, but didn’t know any other adults she trusted or who would listen. And if someone were to take her away, where would she go?
“ Listen, you gotta do what you gotta do to be aight, Harmony. You gotta give people what they want from you, so they’ll like you more. And more than anything, you gotta do what you gotta do to survive.”
“ But…Daddy said if I’m smart in school, I’ll be able to take care of myself. And maybe he’ll come back and help me.”
“ Your mama is dead and your daddy is probably dead, too.” He said with a scowl. Normally he played it cool when dealing with her but he was getting anxious and needed her mentally broken if he was going to do the things that he wanted to do to her body.
“ My daddy not dead. He in jail.”
“ Even if it’s true it don’t matter. Nobody wants you back. They not even trying to find out who killed your mama.” Harmony knew who Irma was but decided not to tell anyone. “Listen, right now, you live with me and your nana and we both know what we want. The question is, do you?”
She thought about it for a minute and said, “Yeah…I wanna be friends with Jace. I wanna be able to go outside and stuff like that,” she coughed.
Charles frowned but soon realized by reasoning with her, their time together would be more pleasurable for him.
“ Well if you wanna be friends with Jace, and you wanna go outside, you gotta do anything me and your nana want.”
“ I really don’t want to do what nana wants. It’s too, nasty.”
Charles smiled and said, “You won’t even notice after a while,” then he appeared to mentally go somewhere else. “I didn’t.”
“ I can’t do it. I won’t do it!”
“ Then get ready to go back outside to live in the doghouse. And be