'Get your black ugly ass up outta that bed!'

That's how his mother had woken him every morning. 'Get your black ugly ass up outta that bed!'

Later, the adjectives multiplied. Tar baby. Faggot. Queer. Tar baby faggot queer. And still later, when he'd started to achieve, started to make friends with white guys, 'Oreo' and 'snow queen' were added to the vocabulary of hate.

When he was young, he'd learned that words hurt, maimed, scarred. When he got older, he'd learned that words could also comfort, heal. But he'd never forgotten the first lesson. Perhaps that was why he'd chosen a career in finance. Numbers added up; they did not tear down.

Also in this series: The Christmas Present.