Chapter 2 - Off to Mommy Dearest

One afternoon after tiring of the beatings my dad gave us (I'm guessing), he told us we would be going to stay with our mom for a while because he had to go out of town on business...if he actually was on good terms with ANY family member, perhaps they would have volunteered to watch us. It didn't matter anyway because that was just a lie my dad told us, I guess so our feelings wouldn't be hurt. Are you fucking kidding me???
It's still a bit blurry but I remember meeting my mother for the first and time, and being very happy to see her. For one, because I had never met her before till then, and always wanted a real mommy (my dad's girlfriends were bitches and didn't cut it). And two, because I wanted to get the hell out of that torture-fest!!!
I'm not even sure how we got to my mom's home because she lived in a completely different state; I'm guessing we drove and I slept a lot (still do on trips as an adult). I met my grandma on my mom's side of the family for the first time. My brother and I were so happy to be in a different situation. Life with my mother and her husband was very Euphoric at first. We immediately got enrolled in a private school..one of the best in the area. I met my half-sister (4 years apart) for the first time, she was cool I guess, just very young, practically a baby. We had a live-in nanny, but we were assigned chores, etc. Life was pretty good/regular.
Then all of a sudden it seemed the switch in my mom's head went off, geeze! Not again! I started getting mercilessly beat for silly things a 7 year old would do. I would lie about stupid things, that I cannot even remember and my mom would beat the shit out of me to make me confess. The things she did over there, she would get arrested for in the States. I will get more detailed about the beatings later and give specific incidents. My brother didn't get in trouble as much because he was pretty good at being good I guess.
My mother was a strong "born-again" christian; (before that she was very heavy into voodoo, like my dad) we went to church regularly (a completely different scene from what we were used to while living with our dad). We even went to church's retreats; my mother was very into her religion, which was why I was baffled as to the way she mercilessly beat the crap out of me. That was not very God-like! I must stay though, because of her I learned about a completely different religion and had a broader view on life. I learned about the bible, God, Jesus, etc. I didn't have a narrow mind of just the voodoo religion and that was definitely a good thing for a child to know; that not everyone is harsh and brutal like my father and not everyone believes in voodoo, and that I had the freedom to choose what religion I wanted to follow.
I absolutely adored my stepfather though, perhaps because he was rarely ever there. I wished he would adopt me so I never had to see my father again! Of course all that would change, lol. He would only come by during the holidays (Christmas/new year's). He lived in the States so my mother would always travel to go see him, be with him. I think they were newly weds when my brother and I came into their lives so I guess she was trying to keep things balanced. My step-father was Ethiopian as well, he went to school in the States and ended up staying there, but he met my mother while he was visiting from the States and they fell in love and got married. Since my mother traveled for months at a time to be with my step-father in the States, we ended up having to stay with several different relatives...that led to the next chapter of my life, EXPERIENCING LIFE WITH DIFFERENT FAMILY MEMBERS OF DIFFERENT CLASS LEVELS...this definitely broadened my view of life even more.