My mother slammed the paper down.

"Diamond, do you know how blessed you are to have that food?" I dropped the spoon back into the bowl and pushed it towards her.

"Well you eat it then. You need a blessing more then me." She reached across the table. Whap! She popped me square in the middle of my mouth. I was such a smart mouth little kid. I just looked at her with the evil eye. You see, I have thick shapely eyebrows like my dad. I could shoot you a look to kill by scrunching down my forehead and making my eyebrows into the same shape as a lowercase m. She raised her hand again.

"Sab Ma!" I slid my bowl back towards me and ate a spoonful. I held my nose as I swallowed. Hmm, it wasn't that bad. I straighten up because my dad was not there to protect me at the time. As usual, he was out working hard so me nor my mother didn't want for anything.

All that kept echoing in my head was, "eat your food, don't play with it," and Smush! The female C.O. (Corrections Officer) mushed my face in my plate. I jumped up. I breathed out like a raging bull. I was a grown woman, not a little kid and this big burly bitch named Bertha was not my mother. She smirked.