Cover To Cover…‘Child, Please’

It was enough to make any kid fearful for his life.
It was That Look your Mama gave you—the one you got when you were acting up, the one that made you want to join the Witness Protection Program. That Look could freeze a kid on the spot forever like a statue and, though it was deadly, it rarely came with sound—except, says Ylonda Gault Caviness, a heavy sigh and “Child, Please.”
Growing up, there were many things you learned by observation—one of them being a sharp knowledge of when you were approaching your mother’s last nerve. Like most kids, Ylonda Gault Caviness tried to avoid that mess; instead, she craved her Mama’s approval, though it wasn’t earned easily. And that was the way things just were.
Until Caviness had her first child.