The predation on Wardine — the abuse at the center of the Wardine thread

pivotal · YTSDB (2004)

• When: YTSDB (2004), ongoing at the time of Clenette's narration
• What: Roy Tony is Wardine's momma's man, and — as Wardine's account reaches Clenette through Reginald — he is sexually preying on the girl: "Say Wardine momma man Roy Tony be want to lie down with Wardine. Be give Wardine candy and 5s. Be stand in her way in Wardine face and he aint let her pass without he all the time touching her." At night, when Wardine's mother is at work, "Roy Tony at night when Wardine momma at work he come in to the mattresses where Wardine and William and Shantell and Roy the baby sleep at, and he stand there in the dark, high, and say quiet things at her, and breathe." The household's response inverts the blame: "Wardine momma say Wardine tempt Roy Tony into Sin," accusing the girl of trying "to take away Roy Tony into Evil and Sin with her young tight self," and beats Wardine's back raw with hangers — the striped, numbed wounds Reginald and Clenette dress with Shedd Spread margarine. Roy Tony himself never speaks in the section; he is present entirely as pressure — the reason for the beatings, the fear, and the closed circle in which telling any adult risks Wardine's life.