Tanya

My name is Tanya Manndae, I’m 17 years old, I was born in Tanzania Africa and I am a refugee. This isn’t an inspiring story, this isn’t a story about love or understanding my own culture, this isn’t about the color of my skin, or the land where I was born. This is about me, and my sick 6 yr. old sister escaping from the pits of hell itself. My sister’s name is Josephine, she’s an Anchor baby. Meaning she was born here in the US with illegal immigrant parents. My mom and I got on this plane with this US writer who snuck us into California. From there we made our way to San Francisco which is where we are now, I was 11 when we left. My mom was pregnant when we came here, not by my father. My father was a soldier in the army but he died when I was 5, they don’t really bury you in Tanzania, they just mark your body and leave you. At least that’s what they did to him, they said something about him being a traitor, but I was too young to understand.

Josephine is sick with cancer, but she’s not that sick yet. She just got it, her hair hasn’t even started to fall out yet but she’s getting weaker all the time. Today Edmund gave her a bruise on her back for crying to loudly when mom was whooping her. She got whooped for nearly peeing on herself when we left the general store, she said she had to go to the bathroom but Edmund ignored her and turned up the music in the car. Edmund is mom’s druggie boyfriend from Cape Town, They found each other at the library or something, I wasn’t really listening when she explained it, and I was too busy watching him make eyes at JoJo. I told her to come to my room, and she skipped along ignoring him, he raised his hand. Apparently he doesn’t like to be ignored, but who cares about what he wants, the old pedophile freak.

I knew something was wrong when mom would whoop JoJo and he’d watch and laugh. Grown man laughing at a 6 year old getting beat, real funny. I remember once walking in the house and JoJo was unconscious on the floor, I ran over to her and tried to wake her up and he came in and told me not to touch her because she was paying for breaking his stereo. It wasn’t broken, the dial came off, and it’s been like that since he moved it in here. I got so mad, he knew she didn’t break it, he just wanted to hit her so I went to hit him, and he knocked me into the wall, but not before I left a deep scratch in his arm. My head hit the wall and blood started running into my eyes. I woke up to hear JoJo crying over me asking me not to be dead. I just hugged her, then we snuck out the house and went to the restaurant by the pier.

Mrs. Johansson runs the surf n turf, she gives me and JoJo free food. She always says she wishes we could live with her but she don’t want the trouble of having to look after a teenager and a sick little girl. I know she’s being nice to give us the food but it’s not like I’d let us live with her anyway, her house smells like dead cats and its dirtier than Edmunds truck. JoJo and I finish eating our food, and head back home where I know that Edmund will be waiting, he never sleeps, it’s probably all that dope in his system. I will sneak JoJo in through my window if I can, I have to make sure if not me, she is safe. Although she will never be safe in that house unless mom and Edmund disappear or if we do. We walk along the dark road until we reach the guard rail behind our house, I look down at our house and see the kitchen light on. Yeah, someone’s up still, hopefully its mom and not Edmund but I know better. I help JoJo over the rail and down the steep hill, she trips over a thick branch on the ground and squeals as she runs into the side of me. I help catch her and balance her, we sprint to the side of the house where my window is, and I made sure I put the empty crate under my window for tonight. I step on it and try my window, someone locked it. I breathe deep and try again to make sure, it is locked.

No choice now, I know someone went in my room and seen we weren’t there, and that my window wasn’t locked, so they locked it on purpose. I almost want to take JoJo back up the hill and go take Mrs. Johansson’s offer but my backpack and JoJo’s medicine is in my room. I just hope our punishment isn’t too bad, I check my watch to see what time it is. 10:05pm. damn it, it’s too late at night, I know our punishment is going to be bad. Looks like another black eye for me, and some bruises for JoJo. I hold JoJo’s hand and we walk to the front of the house, JoJo’s grip tightens and she knows we’re going to be in trouble. Before I put my key in the door, I lean down and whisper to JoJo “Whatever you do, no matter how bad it hurts, don’t cry.” She shakes her head and I put my key in the door and we walk in. Mom is sitting on the couch with the leather belt in her hand, and Edmund is sitting next to her smoking weed. He puts out his blunt and rubs his hands together, Mom approaches us and put her hand on her hip.

“Where ya been Tanya? And you brought ya sick sister out with you? What’s wrong with you girl?” Mom says looking at me.

   “I had to feed JoJo. We went to get some food. I didn’t know it was so late.” I say.

“What you think we got food in this house for? To look at? Make her something from here? You got a watch on don’t ya? You knew it was late.” Mom says raising her hand.

   “Starting tomorrow, if you ever sneak out this house again, I’m going to make sure you regret it for the rest of your life. Now get ready for your punishment. I’m going to let Edmund give it to you.” Mom says as she puts down the belt, and sparks Edmunds blunt.

Edmund gives me and JoJo a nasty yellow smile and claps his hands together. He separates me and JoJo, he tells her to go sit on the couch next to mom and watch what he can do. I get a feeling like this beating is going to be the worse one yet. He gets into a boxers stance and starts punching me in my stomach, as I gasp for breath with my head down, he punches me in my head to get me to look back up at him, I raise my head and he punches me in my face, my nose starts gushing blood and my left eye is swollen. I never screamed out, but JoJo is screaming and crying for him to stop and for mom to make him stop. Mom just sits there, I look at her through my right eye and see her smirking at me. Edmund sees that I’m distracted and decides to make me pay for ignoring him again, he punches me so hard in the face that one of my chipped teeth starts gushing blood.

I stand back up and he pushes my head back to hit the wall, I slide down on the floor and sit with my legs folded. I know they are going to want me to watch what he’s going to do to JoJo. I don’t bother to cover my bloody nose or mouth, I let the blood drip freely down my chin and onto my shirt. I watch as he grabs JoJo’s arm and stands her up in front of him, he punches her harder than he hit me, in the stomach, the food from Surf n Turf came right back up, JoJo’s whines and he starts hitting her legs and arms, she whines and whines but she hasn’t cried. I can see her face turning red from holding back her tears. She falls to the floor in pain, struggling to breathe, I want to go over to her but I know he’s not done, Edmund then does something that makes me want to slit his throat, he spit on her. Yellow green brown phlegm sitting right in the middle of JoJo’s kitten shirt. I feel my blood start to boil, and he my ears feel hot. We won’t be here tomorrow, we won’t be anywhere near here tomorrow. Edmund sits down on the couch and mom looks at me.

“You can go now. Don’t do it again.” Mom says.

I get up and pick up JoJo, I take her into the bathroom and give her a quick bath, I throw her dirty clothes in the hamper and put on her pajamas we got from Goodwill. I take her into my room and lay her down in my bed, She whimpers and asks me what are we going to do for food now that we can’t sneak out, I look at her and rub my fingers down the side of her puffy face, I tell her that we’re leaving tomorrow straight from school, she sighs and turns over. I listen to her breath for a while until I hear it slow down, then I know she’s asleep. I get up and go into the bathroom and look at myself, my nose is probably fractured but I don’t care, my bottom lip is busted, and my left eye is fully swollen and closed and the color of Edmunds truck tires. I wash my face gently, and hop in the shower quickly. I wash and rinse off knowing this shower could be the last one I have for a very long time. I turn off the faucet and dress in my night clothes, I go in my room and pull all my books out of my backpack.

I refill my backpack with clothes and underwear, JoJo’s medicine and my school ID since it’s the only one I have. I pack her birth certificate, and her social security card, I pack a few of JoJo’s clothes and I zip up my backpack. I put the money that I saved up from my last summer job in the very bottom of JoJo’s backpack, at my school they do security checks and since she goes to elementary school I know they don’t check her. I saved up $1500 when I counted it all last night I felt so proud, especially since I knew that Edmund and mom don’t know I have it. I climb into bed next to JoJo and fall asleep.

In the morning I help JoJo get ready with putting her sweater on and her sneakers, her arms and legs still hurt from our beating. I give her some cereal which Edmund proceeded to purposely knock on the floor not realizing that mom is going to have to clean that up since I’m not going to be here after school. JoJo gets up and sighs and walks to the front door, I tell her to eat breakfast at school, she gives me a cute smile and we grab our backpacks and walk out the door together. I turn around with JoJo’s hand in mine and we look at our house one last time. Our tan colored bungalow with the messed up roof and broken living room window, I never liked it and now I won’t have to walk through that door again. I walk JoJo into school and make sure she sits down to eat breakfast, she smiles at me and tells me she loves me. I tell her I’ll see her after school, she pulls me close and asks me where will we go, and I tell her we’ll figure it out. I tell her that if teachers wonder where her bruises come from, not to tell them because then they will call mom and ask her to come to school. JoJo gives me another hug and tells me she understands, I pat her head and walk out of her school and up to mine.

I walked into school, and as always I’m ignored, but I don’t care because I have more serious things to worry about. I don’t have a clue to where I’m going to take JoJo after school, maybe back to Mrs. Johansson. It might not be nice but it’s nicer than being at home, maybe she knows someone who could help us. I go to my locker and remember than I don’t have any books in my backpack, So I stuff my backpack in my locker and go to my first class. The teacher looks at me with a screwed up look, I’m guessing she’s staring at my eye, as badly as I want to tell her to mind her business I’m just not going to answer her if she starts asking questions. I sit down in my seat and the two jerks in my class, Tommy and Bobby come talking to me asking if I got in a fight with my man, both of them knowing that I’m single. I keep ignoring them and they just point and laugh until the teacher tells them to sit down, I’m glad their seats are 2 rows away from mine, now I don’t have to look at them. The ending of first period came quickly and I zipped out of that class with and sped to my next one, I sat down before even the teacher was ready, he looked at me and just shook his head, I wanted school to end as soon as possible, I wanted to run forever. I felt bad that I would be dragging JoJo with me but she needs out of that house, I feel like she’d be dead before the cancer really takes an effect on her.

   My friend Izzy sat down next to me, noticing my eye almost instantly, shaking his head he stared at me and gave me a face that said you-know-this-needs-to-stop. I shrugged and just shuffled my feet, he passed me a note that I wasn’t about to read but something in the back of my head was telling me to open it. So I did.

“What are you going to do? The school is getting suspicious. You can’t keep pretending like you fell down the stairs forever. They will find out!”

I looked at him and balled up the paper and tossed it on the ground. I told him “Im not worried about what they think. After today they won’t see me again. JoJo and I are leaving and I doubt you’ll see us again.” He stared at me and shook his head in what looked to be disappointment, then he did something that I didn’t expect, he got up and moved his seat to the other side of the room. Good, now it won’t be so hard to say goodbye if you’re mad at me for leaving you here. I sat in silence and peace for the rest of class, wishing the day would continue to fly bye. 

Author's Note

I don't think im done with this chapter yet..havent decided yet.