MY FATHER'S FICTION

"Write it down."

"I don't want to."

"Write it down."

"I don't--"

"I'll hit you, boy. I will. My father is not a man. Write it down."

My father is not a man.

"Good. He cannot work. He cannot have a woman. Everything is through the teeth."

He cannot work. He cannot have a woman. Everything is through the teeth.

"He couldn't save my mother."

"I don't--"

"Write it down."

He couldn't save my mother.

"When I am old enough, I will take the money from the jar."

"Daddy, please."

"When I am old enough. I will take the money beneath mother's tree. I will leave and not come back."

He raises his arm. I write it down.

"If I come back, my father won't know me. Write it down."

I do.

"My father made me write this down."

My father made me write this down.

"You wrote what I said?"

"I wrote what you said."

"I'll find out."

"I wrote what you said."

"Thank you, son. Go to school."