“Maybe deep down, Kayla realizes she’s not here for me. It hurts that she moved so far away. Contacting me once in a great while is not the same as actually being here for me. Taking a ‘quick break from work’ and asking ‘how I’m doing’ doesn’t give a realistic perception of the severity of my health issues and what my life is like on a daily basis. If she spent a little time with me, it would help her better understand my life. If my mother had to live in government housing and endure almost eight years of severe bullying, harassment, verbal and emotional abuse, and traumatization, including threats of physical harm to her little dog, I would do everything in my power to protect her and move her to a safer place. I live in this hellish environment in addition to dealing with my severe health issues, which have progressively gotten worse. And it’s even more painful because I have to deal with it alone.” *
— KAYLA’S MOTHER
E. C. Segar’s Swee’Pea. back cover : Art adapted from Archie’s Girls Betty and Veronica, No. 59, Archie Comic Publications, 1960.
trudging the road to embodiment
WELL, THEN do you remember when you first became aware of your body?
BOY, OH BOY. i do. i think i was ten.
YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY: i was with some girls at church.
IF I HAD A NICKEL . . .
HA HA we were in a back room looking at ourselves in a long mirror. the girls were tall, slender, pretty, and very white.
AHEM . . . but as we stood there, i saw myself in comparison for the first time.
THAT’S FOR SURE. until that day, i had assumed i was no different.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
END!
Death in Texas
I have a game.
Whoever finds the most coins . . . wins.
Good job, sweetie.
It wasn’t as bad at my dad’s house.
Flee This as the Painso fHELL!
Some kids had one room they grew up in. They had one house, one street, one neighborhood.
Some even had their own bathroom.
Due to my parents’ divorce and general instability, I had many rooms over the years.
Z z z zzz
H ERE’S KAYLA’S CROSSWORD PUZZLE!
K ayla’s juggling letters. She can make ONE 9-letter word out of them! We’re betting YOU can guess what it is! CAN YOU FIGURE IT OUT? TRY IT !
ACROSS
1. The one who forgives you
2. The one who holds you
3. The one who loves you unconditionally DOWN
1. The one who supports you
2. The one who tenderly cares for you
K ayla’s SO SCARED she can’t even fire!
J ust connect the dots, and you’ll see why!
AND NOW FOR KAYLA’S ACROSTIC!
W hat’s our pathetic Kayla dreaming of? Use the first letter of the objects shown for the answer!
WORD SCRAMBLE: pedophile CROSSWORD PUZZLE: crossa 1. Mama 2. Mom 3. Mother ownd 1. Mommy 2. Ma ACROSTIC: Family
It works like magic! Put on this helmet, and the men in your house won’t see you. But YOU will see everything. Rob, cheat, steal! Do whatever it takes to claim yours today!
while
I have to tell you something.1
1998: Bill * worked with my mother at Sack ’n Save™. A few times, she made me hide in the car while she crawled through the bushes, trying to get a clear view into his house while he ate dinner with his family.
And it’s not something you’re gonna want to hear.
2014: She called me while puking up bile. At the hospital, the nurse asked if she had any STDs. She turned to me and said, “Bill gave me herpes. Remember him?”
*Pseudonym
Actually,
When I left to clean up her apartment, all the vegetables I’d bought her had rotted in the crisper, and her bile was on the counter. They had to remove her gallbladder because it was “full of sludge.”
