The Migratory Patterns of the Hikey German Family
5- age 19
I sat across the table from my best friend who looked down at her ice cream with a sad smile as I told her the story of my Grandmother or maybe I should call it my mother's story. We always had the deepest talks sitting in that tiny booth in Culvers.
"I'm not really sure when it started, it's not the kind of story someone sits you down and tells you, it's one of the stories you pick up over the years and put the pieces together and fill in the gaps. I know the first person wasn't my grandfather... I think it may have been my great grandfather, and I think she was a toddler." Autumn shifted and stole a fry off my plate. People made sound around us but I couldn't see them. "She told a long time before they believed her, when she was five. She was late for dinner one night and when she came home she explained that it was his fault, that he was touching her, or more. I think she was 10 when she finally told again but when she told my grandmother this time my grandmother left him. Two small kids with another one almost there she left the man she had loved her whole life. She left when she had never lived on her own and never written a check herself. " I paused to lick my lips and push the ice around in my glass. "I don't think my grandma ever got over him, I think he broke her in a way she doesn't know how to heal from. I think she still misses him sometimes, even if it's wrong." We sat there in silence for a long time.
"Is it go time?" Autumn asked slowly and I nodded.
"I'm not really sure when it started, it's not the kind of story someone sits you down and tells you, it's one of the stories you pick up over the years and put the pieces together and fill in the gaps. I know the first person wasn't my grandfather... I think it may have been my great grandfather, and I think she was a toddler." Autumn shifted and stole a fry off my plate. People made sound around us but I couldn't see them. "She told a long time before they believed her, when she was five. She was late for dinner one night and when she came home she explained that it was his fault, that he was touching her, or more. I think she was 10 when she finally told again but when she told my grandmother this time my grandmother left him. Two small kids with another one almost there she left the man she had loved her whole life. She left when she had never lived on her own and never written a check herself. " I paused to lick my lips and push the ice around in my glass. "I don't think my grandma ever got over him, I think he broke her in a way she doesn't know how to heal from. I think she still misses him sometimes, even if it's wrong." We sat there in silence for a long time.
"Is it go time?" Autumn asked slowly and I nodded.