IT’S MY LIFE
Thank God My Parents Got Back Together When They Did
Who knows how I would have turned out if they hadn’t
I’m ashamed — but fascinated — by the fact that at eight years old, I was a bona fide thief. My friend Kitty and I would stroll into a busy grocery store in our neighborhood, and while no one was looking, we’d tuck candy bars into our pockets, Hostess ding dongs and snowballs down our pants, and small bags of potato chips under our blouses.
Kitty was older. She was ten and lived in a big apartment on the third floor of our building with her brother and their grandparents. A real hellraiser, Kitty was a menace throughout the neighborhood, causing trouble everywhere she went. She even started a fight with another little girl at my birthday party.
My mother was furious. After breaking up the fight, she sent Kitty home and forbade me from hanging out with her anymore. But I was inexplicably drawn to Kitty and counted myself lucky to be her friend. My poor Mama, a single parent working full-time, could not stop me from running those streets with her.
Going from bad to worse
Things took a nastier turn when Kitty befriended a little girl who lived on the next block. Like most of us, the girl had been instructed by…