I burst into tears and threw myself toward the bed. "Grandma, what's wrong? Wake up! Don't scare me! Grandma!"
I reached out, desperate to touch her, to shake her awake. But my father intercepted me. Hatred blazed in his eyes as his boot connected with my stomach, sending me flying backward.
"It's all because of you! You jinx! Why don't you go die?"
I was only seven. His kick shifted something inside me. I curled up on the cold floor, retching blood.
Fear made my limbs tremble. But I gathered every scrap of courage I possessed and looked up at him. "Dad... I just wanted to see Grandma. What happened to her?"
He pointed a shaking finger at me, looking as if he wanted to flay the skin from my bones.
"You have the nerve to ask?" His voice rose to a roar. "I don't know what sin I committed to father a curse like you. It wasn't enough that you almost killed me and your mother? Now you've killed your grandmother too!"
His chest heaved. "If you didn't need to go to school, she wouldn't have gone to town! She wouldn't have been on that road! If it weren't for your cursed existence, she would still be alive!"