*The character references a Black Lives Matter protest but does not have to be African American.
Cici is a young woman who has the best relationship with her father. He is her everything. Her mother is very quiet and reserved but she never thought anything of it. It is not until she is a senior in high school that she comes in on her father abusing her mother and her mother doesn’t stand up for herself, she doesn’t have the power to. Cici steps in and takes her mother out of the situation never to see her father again. Years later, after her father has made many attempts to talk to her: showing up at the homeless shelter that they are staying at, coming to her high school and finally coming to the office of the Black Lives Matter group where Cici is preparing for a protest. He begs for her forgiveness. She finally speaks with him. He just wants another chance. She tells him to join her in the protest and he jumps at the chance. It is during the protest that tear gas is thrown and they get separated. Once Cici finds him he has been beaten by the police that have left him in the alley. She holds him and looks down at him for a moment. In the end she has visited him in the hospital and realizes that karma came back to get him for the things that he did to her mother. This could be the beginning of a new relationship with his daughter, she decides to try forgiveness.
PR- Cycle of Brutality
I was a true daddy’s girl. Don’t get me wrong my mother existed but my life growing up revolved around my daddy. He would wake me up on Saturday mornings for cartoons and French toast. He made the French toast just the way I liked it too, he would toast the bread first so it would be super crunchy, cinnamon and powered sugar on top and raisins. He would climb down onto the floor with me and like two best friends we would watch some “Tom and Jerry” or “The Flintstones.” He would tell me, “Cici if you don’t know the classics you don’t know cartoons.” That was us every Saturday morning. Mom would eat her breakfast in the kitchen, she never joined us, always looked sad, didn’t really smile much, but daddy smiled enough for both of them. Looking back, perspective is a scary thing. I was manipulated. I saw him as a saint because that’s how he wanted me to see him. On the other side was seeing my mother as broken and uninterested, that’s how he wanted me to see her. I now know she was stronger than I could have ever imagined. I hold her strength with me everyday I stand up for what is right, everyday she is with me and everyday is another day far away from him.