Breaking the Cycle by Zane Page A

amniocentesis, it was determined that her baby was going to be a little girl, and Dawn was elated. Being at home, when she wasn’t feeling ill, Dawn was now able to again help Todd with his work, and things slightly improved between them. She had even started doing some freelance editing for Sutton House, a major publishing company in New York. When Asia was born, the world seemed to be right, for the first time in a long time.
    Asia was a beautiful child, born with inquisitive eyes, a head full of thick, curly hair and a cherubic face. Todd took to her with a fascination and interest he had only briefly shown in Dawn. It made Dawn happy, though, to know that she had been able to bring this little bundle of joy into the world, and that Asia might possibly be the tool to repair their troubled relationship. Todd had been awarded a news industry prize for his article on the Central Park jogger case, revisited, and he had gotten a huge bonus and an even bigger byline. As Asia grew, they were quite the happy family. That was, until Dawn got offered a job as a full-time editor at Sutton House, and accepted. She figured that Todd would be fine with it, but he wasn’t. He beat her savagely and ferociously, and never stopped.
    “Why do you make me do this to you?” he’d always say after he had nearly beaten her to a bloody pulp. And Dawn wondered why she provoked him into hitting her. She never cooked well enough. She didn’t make love to him often enough. The apartment was never clean enough. Her friends called her too much. She stayed on the phone too long. She went out too much. She stayed in too much. She didn’t take care of him well enough. She had let her looks go. She was too fat. She was too skinny. She could never do anything right. The only thing she could do was take an asswhipping. Black eyes and split lips were her daily accessories, like jewelry. Dawn learned to apply expensive makeup to cover the scars, and wore long-sleeved shirts in the summertime to hide the bruises, but her spirit was broken. The only real joy she had in her life was Asia, and she began to fear that Todd would want to take that away from her as well.
    But, he seemed to love Asia, and treated her well. He’d lavish her with gifts, and read to her, and play funny little learning games with her. At first, Dawn was relieved by their closeness, and appreciative of the fact that he didn’t hit her in front of their baby. But then Todd began to talk down to Dawn when Asia was there, and began loudly denouncing and belittling her. Despite their evening ritual together, Dawn began to feel that Asia was slipping away from her. Her daughter’s little face absolutely shined when Todd was around, and even though she was only four, Dawn felt that Asia was somehow looking at her differently now. It was confirmed this evening, just before Todd left for his evening out. As Dawn stood there, her arm in a sling from her shoulder having been dislocated by Todd the week before, she witnessed an act that had spun her world completely out of control. Todd picked Asia up, and kissed both of her cheeks.
    “Daddy loves you best, Asia-boo,” he said. “And Daddy will always love you best, as long as you grow up to be a fine, young lady. A good girl. Not like your mother.”
    Dawn could barely raise her head, but did so just in time to catch her daughter’s cherubic face staring at her with empty, disappointed eyes. “I will, Daddy. I will,” Asia cooed, and kissed her daddy’s face.
    The image of Todd whisking Asia onto her feet brought a conclave of upsetting images back into Dawn’s mind. They created a convergence point of her past and her present. Her father had said the exact same thing to her. When she was around Asia’s age.
    “Oh, I loved your granddaddy, Asia. I kind of wish that he was here to see you now, I guess.”

    Dawn had grown up in the early ’70’s, the product of an outspoken Black militant named Carl Boyer and a naïve, White