“Again?”

“Yeah. I didn’t try to stop him this time, though. I can’t forget or forgive him for what he did to me last time I tried to stick up for her.” He lifted his Superman pajama shirt up and showed me the big black and blue bruise he had across his ribs.

“I hate that he did that to you. I wish Mom would just leave him alone. Things were better before he came here,” I said.

“It still hurts to take in a breath, but I don’t want to say anything and make it worse. I hate going to the hospital.”

“Mo, that’s not normal. Maybe you can ask Ms. Jenson to take you? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.”

“That sounds like a good idea, but I don’t know. Before you came here, a little kid named Aaron got hurt by one of Mom’s boyfriends, Rick. Ms. Jenson took him to the doctor, and I never saw him again, and Rick got taken out in handcuffs.”

“Wow, that’s crazy, but it got him out of this mad house.”

“I know, but I don’t know if he went to a better place or worse. That’s the scary part about it.”

“Well, if I’ve learned anything in the thirteen years I’ve been alive, it’s that tomorrow isn’t promised. You have to deal with the here and now.”

“Reg, I don’t want to be taken away from you. You’re the best brother I could have ever asked for, and I don’t want to lose that. Losing you is scarier than staying here and taking a few lickings.”

“I feel the same way.”