Chapter 6 Henry's story

While I was growing up in the suburbs, there was a boy my age growing up in Brooklyn, New York City.One day, he too will struggle with his beliefs, but he's taking a different path. As a child, he slept in a rat's nest. Henry.Covington was the sixth of seven children born to his father Willie and mother Vema.They had a small cramped apartment on Warren Street, with four brothers sleeping in one bedroom and three sisters in another. The kitchen is dominated by rats. The family keeps a pot of meals on the countertop at night for the mice to eat before they run amok in the bedroom.During the day, Henry's eldest brother suppressed the rats with a BB gun.Henry was afraid of mice since he was a child. He couldn't sleep peacefully for fear of being bitten.

Henry's mother was a domestic servant, mostly working in Jewish homes.His father made a living buying stolen goods; tall and powerful, he liked to sing at home.His voice is as sweet as the soul singer Otis.Redding (Otis Redding), but every Friday night, he shaves in front of the mirror and hums "Big Legged Woman".At this time his wife will be angry, because she knows where he is going.The two quarreled loudly, fiercely and violently, and the sound shook the neighbors. When Henry was five years old, his parents got into a drunken scuffle and hit the street, shouting at each other.Mother Vema pulled out a .22 caliber rifle and threatened to shoot her husband.The moment she pulled the trigger, someone jumped in and shouted, "No, ma'am, don't do this!"The bullet hit him in the arm.

Vemma was sent to Bedford Hill Prison, a high-security women's prison.Two years in prison.Every weekend, Henry would visit her with his father.They talk through the glass. do you miss me?she will ask. think, mom.Henry replied. In those years, he was too thin, and his family fed him a butter sugar-flavored weight-gaining formula, hoping that he would grow some meat on his bones.On Sundays he went to a nearby Baptist church, and after services the pastor would take the children home for ice cream.Henry likes this activity.This is his first contact with Christianity.The pastor talked about Jesus and the Father. Henry saw the appearance of Jesus on the picture, but he had to draw what God looked like in his heart.He thought of a huge dark cloud with unhuman eyes and a crown on its head.

At night, Henry begged the cloud to drive the mice away.