The news of your imminent arrival brought excitement and flooded my heart with a deep nervous feel at the innocent age of twelve that I was. I remember our brother, only six at the time, asking me what my problem was. But trying to explain a significant moment of importance to a child is like trying to defeat you in a debate about anything at all. I’m going to lose and most likely wind up with a stabbing headache at the end of it all. The two of us, brother and I, had been sent to stay with one of Ma’s friends while she was well, “working” on bringing you into this world. I remember the friend not being the cleanest person on Earth and us being attacked by at least five mice the first night we were there, or maybe they were rats or maybe a mixture. I don’t remember but it was pretty nasty there. I don’t think either of us got much sleep that night. Needless to say, we packed our things with breakneck speed when Pops came to pick us up the next day.
The two of us couldn’t help but smile as he declared us “big brothers”. Since I was one already, the title itself didn’t mean much but the fact that I was now going to have a small female to protect made my tiny chest puff out just a bit. We entered the hospital room in the maternity ward and had to resist from leaping on our mother who actually looked quite peaceful. Anytime that she wasn’t ordering us to take out the garbage or wash the dishes was always a good day. Finally we were escorted to the area where you get to peer through a window at all of the babies who had recently been liberated from their mothers’ wombs. We searched and searched until our eager eyes eventually fell upon your name for the very first time: Chastity Yvette Knight.
