(3/5) “I think it might have been a Caribbean family. They had a...

(3/5) “I think it might have been a Caribbean family. They had a teenage daughter. She liked to push me. And hit me. I remember her saying: ‘Nobody wants you, and that’s the reason you’re here.’ On the first day I couldn’t stop crying. The foster mother wanted me to stop, so she just kept yelling at me. But I couldn’t stop. So she yelled louder. I was so confused. My great-grandmother had never even raised her voice. But this woman yelled all the time. There was so much yelling. And hitting. And barking. There was a big German Shepherd in the backyard, and he was always barking. Loud, mean barks. The family encouraged it. They poked him with sticks. They’d open the gate of the fence and he’d run right up to me. I was so tiny. I thought he was going to eat me. I’d try to back away, and I’d fall down, and they’d just laugh. I think they liked being mean. There was never a conversation about house rules. So no matter how hard I tried, I was always getting punished. If I changed the channel on the TV. If I accidentally dropped something. If I wasn’t sitting in the same spot when they walked back in the room. And the worst part was, it wasn’t the same thing every time. I didn’t know what to do. So I tried not to move. I just sat in the living room and watched TV. It’s like time completely stopped. I’d always been such a curious kid. That’s how a kid is supposed to be. My great-grandmother had encouraged it. I tried on her dresses. I played with her Tiffany lamp. But all that stopped. My curiosity died. Because it got me into trouble. I remember the first time they used the dog. I’m not sure what I did. Maybe I didn’t eat my breakfast that morning. But I remember the woman grabbing my arm, and dragging me outside. It was cold. I remember it was cold. She pressed my face against the gate of the fence. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. And the dog was towering over me. He was standing on his legs, and he was barking. Loud, mean barks. ‘He’s going to bite you,’ she said. ‘He’s going to bite you.’ And I wanted to pull back. I wanted to get so far away, but I couldn’t. Because her hands were on my shoulders. And she was so much stronger than me. And she wouldn’t let me go.”