I started making up reasons to stay after school and I hovered closer to Grandma Alice. I hung out in her room as she listened to the transistor radio or watched Max Robinson deliver the evening news on the downstairs television set. Sometimes, it meant feigning interest in opera house performances on PBS while she nodded on the sofa.Around that time, Mr. McKnuckles stopped me in the hallway at school one day.
I wanted to tell somebody what my cousin was doing to me. Holding on to it felt like drinking poison. I was crouched in the corner of the quarter landing when I saw him coming up the stairs.“Imma tell Grandma Gerald you up here cussing.”“No, you ain’t. You like it and you know it.”“Oh, you big and bad now, right? Them speech contests gotchu all gassed up.”“I’m not the only one that sleeps in this house. I swear I will set your mangy ass on fire.