The Slap Price: My Mother Sold My Future

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I scored a 703 on my SATs, and my mother slapped me ten times at my own celebration dinner.

She said it right in front of the relatives, smiling.

"Ten bucks a slap. You eat what this family gives you, you live off this family, so don't think a high score means you can look down on your elders."

"College costs a thousand a month. You want it? Take a hundred slaps first."

I thought she was just talking tough.

That first month of school, I got so hungry I passed out in the dorm. I messaged her begging for my living expenses.

Instead, she called my cousin over.

"Rules are rules. A hundred slaps, and I'll wire the money right away."

Later, she knelt outside the hospital, begging me to sign the surgery consent form.

I set the pen down.

"Sure. Ten bucks a slap. Two hundred thousand — you do the math."

1.

Nancy Cox tucked my college acceptance letter under her wine glass and beamed at everyone who came by.

"A top university. Seven-oh-one. This family's finally got some luck in it."

Warren's mother lifted a bite of fish with her chopsticks and said, sour as anything, "Zoe's a lucky one. No father and she still tests that high. All thanks to her mother, grinding herself down for her."

My chopsticks stopped in midair.

I lowered my head, scraped the last rice from my bowl, and said nothing.

That line was Nancy's favorite.

Her eyes went red on cue. She patted her chest. "Isn't that the truth? Her father passed early, and I raised her all on my own, a woman alone. Wore through I don't know how many pairs of shoes doing it."

Someone nearby asked, "Well, you'll be sitting pretty from here on. Zoe finishes school, she'll take good care of you for sure."

Nancy's smile dropped. She looked at me.

"Take care of me? She's already giving me attitude."

Every pair of chopsticks at the table went quiet.

My cousin, Warren Cox, leaned back in his chair, swirling his wine. "Auntie, kids all get like this when they test high. Think they've grown their own wings."

The smell of liquor rolled off him.

Nancy yanked me up out of my chair.

"Zoe Fox, tell your aunt. How much living money are you going to want every month?"

Her nails dug into my arm.

"The school recommends fifteen hundred."

The words were barely out before the first slap landed on my face.

A sharp crack, and the red banner behind us swayed with it.

Nancy turned to the relatives, smiling. "Ten bucks a slap. You eat what this family gives you, you live off this family, so don't think a high score means you can look down on your elders."

The second one came down.

My cheek swelled up burning, and my ears rang.

Someone tried to intervene. "Nancy, it's the girl's big day. Stop hitting her."

Nancy shoved me toward the table and raised her voice higher. "College is a thousand a month. You want it, you take a hundred slaps first."

Nobody at the table was laughing now.

But nobody stood up either.

Grandma sat in the head seat, slowly shelling peanuts, as if she hadn't heard a thing.

Warren whistled. "Auntie, that's a good rule. Keeps her from forgetting where she came from later."

When the tenth slap fell, blood dripped from my nose onto the plastic sleeve of the acceptance letter.

Nancy finally stopped, pulled a hundred out of her purse, and stuffed it into the pocket of my dress.

"Take it. Today's reward."

Warren's mother jumped in to smooth it over. "Oh, come on, Nancy just talks tough. What real mother would ever want to make things hard for her own child?"

Nancy dabbed at her eyes right on cue. "If I don't manage her, who will? A girl gets too much schooling and her heart runs wild. I have to keep her in line."

My palm pressed against the crumpled hundred in my pocket.

In that moment, I was still making excuses for her. Raising me alone hadn't been easy for her. She was just afraid I'd leave home.

A waiter came in carrying hot soup, slipped, and the soup splashed across the top of my shoe.

Nancy frowned. Her first thought wasn't whether I'd been burned.

"Stand back. Don't get the acceptance letter dirty. I still have to take it over to show the neighbors at your cousin's place."

As she snatched the acceptance letter back into her purse, an old voice suddenly came from the doorway.

"Nancy. That bankbook Zoe's father left behind — you still haven't given it to the girl, have you?"