MY PARENTS HANDED ME AWAY AT TEN YEARS OLD IN THREE PLASTIC GARBAGE BAGS, AND MY AUNT RAISED ME IN A TINY YELLOW HOUSE ON HER OVERTIME PAY. TWELVE YEARS LATER I WON A $250,000 INTERNATIONAL ART PRIZE, AND SUDDENLY THEY WALKED INTO MY STUDIO WANTING A NEW CAR AND A CONDO. SO I SAID I’D HELP THEM — ON ONE CONDITION — AND AT THE GALLERY THAT WEEKEND I HANDED THEM BACK THE ONLY INHERITANCE THEY’D EVER EARNED.
For twelve years, the people who made me acted like I was garbage they’d finally set out at the curb.
For twelve years, the woman who owed me nothing treated me like the best thing that ever happened to her.
When the money came, both of those truths came to collect.
Only one of them deserved to be paid.
Chapter 1: Three Plastic Bags
I was ten years old the night I understood my parents didn’t want me.
