Ever since then, people started calling me "Money", which meant that as long as someone had money, they could do whatever they wanted with me.
1
When my dad died in a construction accident, my mom threw a fit for three days straight.
It was a shady worksite, and he had been drinking before climbing the scaffold.
He fell and died instantly.
The site boss didn't want to take responsibility.
But in was the middle of summer. My mom dragged his body out into the open, brought me along, and caused a full-blown scene at the site.
On one side were flies, mosquitoes, and the corpse, on the other, my mom was pinning me down, trying to force rat poison into my mouth.
It almost turned into another tragedy.
The boss couldn't take it.
He puked, then gave in, and paid her off.
Once the money was in hand, my mom suddenly calmed down.
No one had to talk her down. She stopped all the drama and quickly remarried her first love from the city.
Of course, she took my dad's compensation money with her.
But she didn't take me.
I was little then. She handed me five bucks and told me to go to the town store and buy a lollipop.
By the time I came back, sucking on the candy and clutching the change, both my mom and the strange man were gone. So was anything of value in the house.
I didn't understand what had happened.
So I went crying to Joseph Saunders, the town mayor. "Did my mom leave me behind? Is she like my dad now, never coming back?"
Joseph simply wiped my tears and assured me that wouldn't happen.
He wouldn't let it.
And her kept his word.
After he called my mom, she came back from the city the very next day.
But she didn't look happy to be picking up her daughter. She looked furious.
And she didn't thank Joseph for taking care of me either. The moment she walked in, she flipped over his dinner table.
"You nosy old bastard! Who the hell asked you to meddle?!"
She was raging, cursing in our dialect, foul and furious. "Our family business ain't yours to stick your nose in!"
Joseph turned bright red from anger.
"Fine, I won't meddle! The law will deal with you! If you don't take your daughter with you, I'm calling the police. I'll report you for child abandonment! I'll see you behind bars!"
My mom wasn't afraid of Joseph. She lived in the city now. She was a city woman.
But when she heard him bring up the law and the threat of actual jail time, she panicked.
Still, she hated being forced into anything.
Fuming, she looked around the house, and saw me playing with a ball by the door.
Right then, all her anger found a target.
She marched over, face dark, and kicked me to the ground.
Then came the torrent of abuse.
Her words were harsh, dramatic, and laced with veiled insults.
But no matter how vile her insults were, in the end, she still had to cave and take me with her.
On the bus ride back, I kept making silly faces, trying to win her over.
But she sat stone-faced, jaw tight.
Eventually, I annoyed her so much she reached over and twisted my ear hard enough to leave a bruise.
"This is all your fault, you little debt collector," she ground the words through her teeth. "If only you didn't exist!"
She completely forgot that without me, she wouldn't have gotten that much money out of the site boss in the first place.
Unlike her, though, Alf Rios, my stepfather, was thrilled to see me.
He even took me out for fast food.
We didn't have KFC or McDonald's in our town, but we did have a knockoff called "KEC"
Alf pushed a burger and fries in front of me, grinning from ear to ear.
"It's fine, she's here now," he said tenderly, holding my mom's hand. "From now on, I'll take good care of both of you."
My mom blushed and leaned in shyly.