Bon Appétit, My Cruel Family

Synopsis

Albert Thompson has gone full-on senile. One afternoon he shuffles into the kitchen, grinning like a kid with a secret, and dumps an entire bottle of paraquat into the pork belly his wife, Margaret Thompson, has been braising all morning. I catch the sharp chemical stink the second I walk in. Heart hammering, I snatch the pot and dump every last piece of that poisoned meat down the sink before anybody can touch it. Margaret finds out an hour later. Grabbing the ladle, she swung it at my face, screaming, "You'll rot in hell for wasting food! You good-for-nothing bitch!" My husband, James Thompson, comes home sunburned and filthy from the fields. The second Margaret tells him what I've done, he hits me hard. He hissed, "You wasteful cunt. You ever pull that shit again, I swear to God I'll gut you myself and toss you in the stew next time." He beats me till the baby I am carrying slips out of me. One of his kicks snaps my shin clean in half. I will never walk right again. After that, Margaret decides I am cursed, unable to give her a grandson. So, she sells my daughter to some traffickers for money. Then she tells the whole holler I am too worthless to look after my own kid. They throw me out like trash. Middle of winter, snow up to my knees, crutches sinking in the drifts, I go looking for my daughter anyway. I freeze to death on some back road nobody bothers plowing. Then, my eyes snap open, and I'm right back where it all went wrong. It's the day Albert empties an entire bottle of paraquat into the stew.