Run Paulie, Run!

 Around the time of her 17th birthday

He wanted her to walk the 4 or 5 blocks again to go to the store and buy him Nyquil. They lived down in Baltimore city and it was scary walking to the store alone at night. But, this time she didn't have to walk alone. She had her 11 year old half brother/nephew with her. 

They made it to the store and bought the Nyquil and were headed back home. 

She was wearing the coat her grandmother had bought her. A green winter coat and the hat zipped up and made her look like an Eskimo. The hat extended outward so that she couldn't see anything on either side of her. Her vision was limited to only what was directly in front of her. 

They walked down the sidewalk and passed a telephone pole and she noticed a shadow to her right. And the shadow was moving along beside her. She started to turn her head to see why but that was when she felt the blow.  A boy, probably teenage, had punched her in the stomach as hard as he could.  

She felt hands all over her as she doubled over in pain. They were going through her pockets!  Inside her left pocket was her husband's checkbook and a hundred dollar bill that her grandmother had given her for Christmas.  Her grandmother who had swollen hands from arthritis yet stuffed circulars into newspapers to earn money. She grabbed the outside of her pocket and made a fist.

Still doubled over she screamed "Run Paulie, run!!!!"

She saw him take off running toward her house and the hands let go of her and as she straightened up she saw the boys, about five of them, running up the street to the left of her.

She checked her pockets. The money was still there. The checkbook was gone.

She hurt.

She started walking back home. She thought that maybe her husband would be headed toward her to help her.  She made it all the way back home never seeing him.

She made it to the house and walked inside.  There he was, sitting in the living room watching TV and eating popcorn. 

Never taking his eyes off of the TV he said, "are you alright?"

"No." She said.

He continued watching the TV as she headed to the bathroom where she began passing huge blood clots. She was pregnant.  If he didn't care about her, surely he should care about his baby. 

It wasn't until she was much older that she understood why she was having to walk to the store to get Nyquil.  She knew he wasn't sick. It dawned on her one day that she wasn't old enough to buy beer. He could have driven to the store to get it but he apparently didn't want to. So, he sent her. She couldn't buy beer, but she certainly was old enough to buy Nyquil.