“Promise you want say nothin’ to Paul,” Candace demanded.
Angel moved closer to her. “I told you, I don’t be at Loc-O like that. Not even a whisper!” Angel confided.
           “A’ight, well, you know his momma been in jail since he was little right?” Candace reminded.
           “Yeah, I always forget to ax you what happened. She been caged for a minute.” Angel remembered.
           “Well, she killed Datiel’s sister, Delilah’s daddy!!” Candace looked around as if she were being spied on. 
           “WHAT! Stop fuckin’ playin’! She killed they daddy?” Angel shook her head in disbelief.
           “No, Datiel and Tamar, his oldest sister, have the same daddy,” Candace clarified. “Delilah, his middle sister has a different daddy. So one day, Delilah’s daddy just stopped coming around. Nobody knew why. Delilah was still young. Simone, that’s they momma, would see dude out and about in the hood, but he would always turn the opposite direction and bounce. Half the time he looked all fucked up, high on something anyway, so Simone wasn’t really trippin’ on him. A few years pass, she end up getting back with Isaiah...”
            “Isaiah is Delilah’s daddy?” Angel interrupted.
“Naw, Isaiah, is Tamar and Datiel’s daddy. I never knew what Delilah daddy name was. So anyway, Simone end up gettin’ back with Isaiah, by this time Tamar is like thirteen or fourteen, and Delilah is like six.”
           Angel’s eyes looked like they were being held open with toothpicks they were so wide. Candace continued, “So all of a sudden, Tamar just starts getting into all this trouble. Messin’ with boys, getting’ caught smokin’ weed, drinkin’ all the time, ditchin’ school, really wilin’ out! Simone don’t really understand it, so she tryin’ to talk to her and find out what’s goin’ on. Nothin’. So finally, she end up takin’ her to this church therapist, and come to find out, Delilah’s daddy had been molestin’ her the whole time he had been livin’ with them!”
           “NO FUCKIN’ WAY!” Angel yelled out, distracting Datiel Jr. from his cartoon.
           “Finish watchin’ toons, Poppa,” Candace encouraged him.
           “So how long was this happenin’ for?” Angel’s right hand was covering her mouth in shock. 
           “Pretty much the whole time he had been livin’ there, so at least a couple of years. Well, one day after he had been gone a while, he was all doped up and tried to attack Tamar after school! Campus security ended up apprehending him. After Simone found out about it is when they went to the counselor.”
           Angel had yet to even blink. “What?! What?!” she begged for more details. 
Candace obliged. “Well, by this time, Simone is pregnant with Datiel, so the therapist is pleading for her to keep calm. Reminding her that she has to keep her unborn child’s health in mind, but she ain’t hearin’ it. She is hot! She grabs young Tamar by the hand and storms out of the office. She drops Tamar off at her Grandma Eunice’s, goes and picks up Tamar and Datiel’s daddy Isaiah, and drive all night until they find Delilah’s daddy at a liquor store!”
           “WHAT!!” Angel gasped in surprise.
           “Yup,” Candace nodded her head in acknowledgment of the unbelievable reality. “They find him standing out in front of a liquor store, burnt out. Isaiah jumps out and starts beating the shit out of him! I mean stompin’ blood out of him and everything. Meanwhile, Simone finds Isaiah’s gun up under the car seat, gets out the car, pulls Isaiah off, and BLOW! BLOW! BLOW! Puts three shots in him point blank! Didn’t ask him nothin’!”
           “WHAT?!” Angel asked, “She just blasted him like that?!”
“Uh-huh. Well realistically the court says that he was probably beat to death, like his skull was all fractured and stuff. But since the bullets definitely did the job, Isaiah ended up doin’ a couple years for assault, since he was already on probation. And Simone ended up gettin’ twenty-five years to life for murder.”
           “But wasn’t she pregnant?” Angel recollected aloud. 
           “Mmmhmm. Datiel was born in prison, then given to his grandmother.” Candace stood to stretch and adjust the sweat pants on her wide-waist.
           “Damn! Murder was the case that they gave me fo real!” Angel quoted. “Whoa! So what happened to their dad, Tamar and Datiel’s?”
           “Last I heard, he was at a shelter downtown. He started drinking bad, like whino bad. He calls every now and then, but they rarely ever talk to him. Ever since he got out the pen, he been all fucked up!”
           “Oh my God!! That is some of the craziest shit I ever heard!” Angel said, still astonished.