To begin this you have to go back...far back before she met him. You have to go back to when she still found ice cream an adventure and chocolate a treat. That was long before him and them, that was the time of the five of them, Mother, Father, Bridgette, the cat, and herself.
Then she had had so much fun, they would play after school, with the cat, with the neighbors, they could do anything. Then Father died and it all fell apart, no longer did anything matter.
Mother hardly talked, Bridgette stayed in her room, even the cat was different. Since Katara was the youngest Bridgette moved out first.
"Frisco," she would say. Frisco was where she would be discovered and they would all be happy again.
Yet it never happened she left the deadbeat town in Montana Utah for a little while then returned barely a year later and the only thing that had changed was her black skin was blacker, her tummy was swollen, and she had a deadbeat husband to match the deadbeat town.
Katara promised not only herself but her mother that she would do better then that. She had no outlandish dreams, she would just go and find her career, her man, and her dream.
Yet Bridgette's fate was soon to be hers, in the middle of her journey she met him.
He was called 'Slick' and slick he was. He was slick when he waved and called her pretty, he was slick when he showed off his beautiful toffee colored skin, he was slick when he convinced her to go to California with him, he was slick when he convinced her to rent the motel, he was slick when he promised her that he wouldn't touch her, he was slick when he promised they'd be happy, he was slick when he slapped her across the face.
Katara thought that his smooth kisses would maker her happy, their baby would be happy too. She was so wrong, their wedding was nothing it the sad, crude Las Vegas church. Her baby's birth was non existent when he demanded dinner just after she got back from the hospital.
That was when she got mad, she said no, and that was when he slapped her for the first time. Their newborn baby crying in her arms its tears soaking its mother's clothes and being ignored by its father.
Slick barely noticed in and grabbing his bottle of beer and left. Then was when she planned her escape, she wasn't gonig to be trapped like Bridgette.
She grabbed her purse and some things and jumped into her car but it wasn't one hour before he caught her and slapped her for the second time, more force though.
The newborn cried but less now that its mother was doing more of the crying for it. She knew that although Slick was worthless for everything else...somehow he provided so she gave up running away and just tried to survive the slaps, insults, and crying.
Seven years and two children later she had enough. No more of this could she take, she couldn't take Slick's mistresses, her mother's pitying looks, the neighbor's condescending stares, the fear in her children's eyes when their father was anywhere near them.
Running away was no longer a choice, it was a duty. She had it all planned out weeks before she even did it, Slick was always out with her, Velma her name was, on Fridays. Usually home around 11 or 12 in the morning, waiting for his black coffee. She brought her keys and purse to her room and the children left for school early.
His coffee was already prepared waiting for him on the table with the scribbled note, "Went out to do some grocery shopping be home soon." Slick would suspect nothing. So an hour before he would be home she exacted the latter part of her plan then stepped into her car shaking.
Unfortunately he was there early. "What you doin'?" he asked sliding his hand against the hood of the car.
She controlled her shivering then replied calmly, "I have to go grocery shopping, I left a note and got your coffee." "How you gonnna go shopping without a list?" He asked leaning in the window.
She could smell the alchohol and perfume but ignored it and said, "We only need a few things, gotta go!" Then she sped off looking back to see him stumble to the house.
The kids knew exactly what was going on and were already in the nurse's office. She picked them up without the slightest suspicion then dropping off the letter to her mother and sister at the post office waved goodbye to the town that had served as her home for the last 25 years, and she didn't look back.