他从来没有打我很重。她说她妈妈往所有痛的地方抹猪油。然后到了学校，她会说她摔跤了。这是所有那些淤青的来历。这是她的皮肤上总有疤痕的原因。

可是谁信她。一个那么大的姑娘，一个走进来时漂亮的脸上满是青紫伤痕的姑娘，那不可能是掉下楼梯摔的。他从来没有打我很重。

可萨莉没告诉大家那次他像揍一条狗一样用手揍她，她说，好像我是一个动物。他认为我会像他的妹妹们一样私奔，使家庭蒙羞。只是因为我是个女儿，接着她就不说了。

萨莉得到允许将和我们住一阵子，星期四她终于来了，带着一布袋衣服和一纸袋她妈妈拿的甜面包。本来她可以住下来的，可天黑的时候她爸爸来了，眼睛哭肿了，变得很小，他敲打着门说请回来吧。这是最后一次。她应了一声爸爸，就回家了。

然后我们就不用担心了。直到有一天，萨莉的爸爸抓到她和一个男孩说话，第二天她没来上学。第三天也没有。直到后来萨莉说起来，他简直就是疯了，解开了皮带的他，忘记了他是她的父亲。

你不是我的女儿，你不是我的女儿。然后他挥动了手。

What Sally Said

He never hits me hard. She said her mama rubs lard on all the places where it hurts. Then at school she'd say she fell. That's where all the blue places come from. That's why her skin is always scarred.

But who believes her. A girl that big, a girl who comes in with her pretty face all beaten and black can't be falling off the stairs. He never hits me hard.

But Sally doesn't tell about that time he hit her with his hands just like a dog, she said, like if I was an animal. He thinks I'm going to run away like his sisters who made the family ashamed. Just because I'm a daughter, and then she doesn't say.

Sally was going to get permission to stay with us a little and one Thursday she came finally with a sack full of clothes and a paper bag of sweetbread her mama sent. And would've stayed too except when the dark came her father, whose eyes were little from crying, knocked on the door and said please come back, this is the last time. And she said Daddy and went home.

Then we didn't need to worry. Until one day Sally's father catches her talking to a boy and the next day she doesn't come to school. And the next. Until the way Sally tells it, he just went crazy, he just forgot he was her father between the buckle and the belt.

You're not my daughter, you're not my daughter. And then he broke into his hands.