Spiritual Sisters
Spiritual Healing Serene Salad
Spiritual Voices Creativity Bakery
Don’t Make Me Chase You
© 2005 Denise R. BlackI remember one summer day before she went to work, Mama instructed me to clean up the kitchen. It was a beautiful day. Housework was the last thing on my mind. Later that day, my friend Skeeta and I were playing down at her house when someone was very angrily knocking on the door. When Ms. Dorothy, Skeeta’s grandmother, answered the door, I saw Mama, and she was not happy at all. In her hand was a very long switch. She asked me, “Didn’t I tell you to clean the kitchen?” I had forgotten all about cleaning any kitchen, especially on a day as beautiful as this. Mama snatched me out the door before I could answer her, and proceeded to whip me down the street to our house. There was no running away. Mama had calves that could rival Flo Jo’s. She could have probably outrun her. She saw the look in my eyes that said that I wanted to flee. But she just simply said, “Don’t make me chase you.” Everybody was outside. The whole neighborhood watched as I was humiliated. With every strike of that switch, another syllable of the tirade she so eloquently chanted coincided with the switch landing on whatever body part that happened to be in its path. That experience took away a few notches on the self-esteem meter. The only positive thing out of it was that I never blatantly disregarded her again.