Shika Acolatse

Solace

Dear Siblings, Although we are all adults now, we never really talk about how we saved each other as children. We lived in a home that felt like a war zone. Tiptoeing through our adolescence, careful not to make a wrong step, in case we caused an explosion. Anything could set them off and we tried and tried and tried to be perfect. We were far from it and paid the price. There was a complexity to our lives not understood by those who didn’t experience it. Every house we lived in was a battlefield. We became familiar with the terrain and learned how to navigate it. Sat up at night in our beds praying for a different life, or a life that was easier than what we had.