“I’m a scrub the black off you!”

As a child I spent weekends at my paternal grandmother’s house
But not because I wanted to
Actually, I dreaded it
But, I kept quiet
Until I was in my 20s
When I shared that
My father’s mother used to put me in the bathtub
And scrub me with a tire brush
And whatever cleansing agent was around—often Borax
In an effort to get the black off me
It burned
I cried
And she put peppermint sticks in my mouth so I’d fall asleep