Read Snapped (Urban Renaissance) for Free Online Page A

his pajama bottoms and threw on his robe. If he knew what I knew, he would have hurried downstairs because Mother hated to be kept waiting. Technically, Gina wasn’t our real mother, but she was the only mother we knew, so she’d earned the title. Mentally, I went through the list of chores that I’d been given and subsequently assigned to Merlin. I knew he finished his chores, but mine were lacking.
    Gina worked a part-time job on Mondays and Wednesdays, leaving me and Merlin home to fend for ourselves, which was no problem because we were old enough to stay home alone.
    “Don’t make me come up there and get you.”
    He walked out of the room still half asleep. I felt a tinge of regret for setting him up, but it didn’t last long. Her voice was coming from the guest bathroom. Because of that, I knew it was about to be on. I was supposed to clean the bathroom, but instead I pissed over everything. Even though I had pretended to be sleep, I couldn’t help but follow Merlin and witness the fireworks.
    “Hey, Mom, what’s wrong?”
    She whirled around to face Merlin, her eyes squinted in anger. “Don’t be sneaking up on me, boy.” She had her hands on her hips, blocking the rest of the bathroom from our view.
    “I wasn’t sneaking,” Merlin sputtered.
    “Shut up.”
    He stood before her, shifting from foot to foot. Suddenly, I had to go to the bathroom in the worst way, but I didn’t want to do anything that would draw attention to me.
    “What day is it?” she demanded.
    Clearly Merlin had no idea where this conversation was leading him. I had switched days with him on the calendar our mother kept on the refrigerator.
    He said, “Wednesday.”
    “And what happens on Wednesday?”
    This was not a trick question, and I was sure he knew the answer to it. On Wednesday night, my brother and I cleaned. We each had a long list of chores that would keep us busy until it was time to go to bed. It was Gina’s way to keep us occupied so we didn’t notice we were home alone.
    “Cleaning day.” Merlin was smooth. He didn’t flinch when he answered our mother because he was certain he had finished his chores.
    Usually, Merlin was responsible for cleaning the first floor. I was given the job of doing the upstairs, which included straightening up my mother’s bedroom. I hated that detail because she was always throwing her bras and panties around the room. No child should have to pick up his mother’s dirty underclothing.
    “Exactly. So telling me you forgot won’t cut it. You know the rules, right?” Mother began to undo her belt from around the waist of her denim jeans.
    “What’s wrong, Mother? I did my chores.”
    She whirled around and surveyed the room. I knew for a fact that the bathroom was in total disarray. I had planned it that way, right after I switched Merlin’s name with mine on the calendar.
    “You call this clean?” She stepped to the side with a sweeping motion of her hand. “I gave up my own child for bullshit like this. Fuck that.”
    “Mother, I cleaned the first floor.”
    I could see the fear etched on his face. The last thing you wanted to do in life was piss off my mother. Merlin was pleading with her, but she wasn’t hearing him. I was ecstatic. Things were playing out just like I wanted them to. She was ready to inflict some pain. Once again, I felt sorry for my brother, but not enough to step up and admit that I had a hand in this mess. I didn’t really hate Merlin per se. I just didn’t want to compete with him for the affections of our mother.
    “So what are you saying? Are you trying to act like I’m senile or something?”
    If my brother wanted to say something at all about the state of my mother’s mind, he wasn’t given the opportunity, because she hit him across the lips with her belt. Immediately his upper lip split and began to swell. In spite of myself, I gasped. I wanted her to punish him, but not in this manner. I was thinking more on the lines of no