Personal Possessions by Tracy Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

himself with. He was
defeated, and that chapped his ass. I loved every minute of
it.
    He thought he was being
quiet, but I could hear him when he told the other gentleman,
“Marshall, I ain’t signin' shit over to him.”
    Marshall helped him back
to his seat, leaning down in his ear and informing him, “Yes you
are, Tripp.”
    The attorney continued the
meeting, but my father never took his eyes off of me. I stared
right back at him. I wanted him to see what was in mine. Rage,
hatred and disgust, all of it aimed toward him. I wanted him to
know I was the one taking everything he had. When he glared at me,
I smiled a smirk of gratification, and watched his eyes go
black.
    The time had come for the
signatures to be completed. Marshall handed him a set of papers, he
looked at it, then looked back at me.
    “Do you even give a shit
what you did to your momma?”
    The grin dropped from my
face. If he didn’t sign those papers within the next ten minutes, I
was going to take all my years of aggression out on him, here in
this backwoods lawyer’s office.
    I had to maintain control.
He wanted me to show my ass, he wanted me to attack him. I held my
hand out, speaking to no one in particular.
    “ Someone needs to hand me
a set of papers.”
    Three sets were thrust
into my hand, before I could move my eyes in the direction of the
men.
    Signing the copies, I
handed them back to Marshall. Eventually, my father begrudgingly
signed his copies as well. I stood up, when out of nowhere my
father appeared behind me, flinging my chair across the
room.
    “Are you happy now, you
son of a bitch. You get what’cha wanted?”
    Continuing to pack up my
paperwork, filing it neatly in my briefcase, he was ranting and
raving behind me like a lunatic.
    “You don’t deserve shit!
You’re a bastard, leavin' your momma with no word, no
communication. You killed your momma’s spirit! It’s all your fault
she is who she is now.”
    That drove me over the
edge. I held on as long as I could, I’d dealt with this shit for
eighteen years. Every time I was in his presence, he’d spew out the
same bullshit. But after thirteen years away, I couldn’t do it. I
wasn’t listening to it anymore.
    He was no different than a
man that walked away from his kids, and had nothing else to do with
them. In fact, that type of man was better than him considering
that asshole wasn’t around to inflict his fucked up beliefs, and
opinions on his kids. My father, made damn sure I knew how he
felt.
    Turning around quickly, I
grabbed him by the throat and backed him up against the wall. Every
man in the room flew to us trying to pull us apart, that was not
going to happen just yet, I had some shit to say, and there was no
way in hell anyone was stopping me.
    “You listen here, ole’
man, “I gritted my teeth as I went to say everything I’d held onto
for years. “You broke her! You destroyed her years ago, with your
fuckin’ words over and over telling her she wasn’t shit to anyone.
You kicked her while she was down by bringing whores into what she
tried her fucking hardest to make a happy home. ”
    By this point, I was
growling through my teeth, holding back from bashing this bastard’s
face in with everything that was inside of me. Wanting to take out
on him everything that he took from my mother. All the nights, I
heard her sobbing, as she walked by my room to tell me goodnight. I
knew that would be another night she would be crying herself to
sleep, all for this man who didn’t deserve to walk on the same side
of the street as her.
    He drove my mother to a
nervous breakdown, not being able to grasp life rationally. Having
to be fed by a nurse, made to get up by someone to take a shower.
My hold around his neck fluctuated just at the thought of what her
life had become, altering between squeezing and allowing him small
drafts of oxygen, just enough air that he didn’t pass
out.
    I got up nose to nose with
one of the two men that made my heart black and