My mother must have had a crystal ball when she named me Uma after the actress. I was actually born 10 years before she became a kick-ass bitch in the first "Kill Bill" movie, but in the end, we both became kick-ass bitches. The major difference between us was that she is white and I'm black.
My name is Uma Parker and I'm a 5'6", 125-pound tough bitch. I wasn't always tough, but then neither was my namesake, Uma Thurman. I was a popular girl in high school, never lacking for dates with good looking guys. By the time I graduated from college, I had met the man who I thought would be the love of my life. Jerod was 6'2" tall and weighed 195 pounds. He was strong and handsome and perfect in every way. I fell for him on our first date, and we were married a few months after graduating from college.
Jerod taught and coached basketball for three years and then became a middle-school principal. He continued to coach even after becoming the principal. Since he was the school district's only black administrator, he could do pretty much whatever he wanted. I became a teacher in a neighboring district and was happily teaching chemistry and physics to high schoolers.
All seemed to be going well. We bought a nice house in a good neighborhood. I planted flowers and vegetables and Jarod worked on minor repairs and painting around the house. When we went out together, we would hear others say what a handsome black couple we made. Jarod would insist that I wear something to show off my curves whenever we were in public. I usually wore a short tight dress or a short skirt and tank top or something that would get his motor running. Although I didn't really like it, he would roam his hands over my body in front of others, and he would get upset if I stopped him or said anything.
But then he began getting rough with me, and eventually he started hitting and beating me. I took it and covered the bruises with makeup for a few years until I couldn't take it any longer. The night I told him that I wanted a divorce, he beat the shit out of me. I probably should have been taken to the hospital, but he held me in the house. Since it was summer, I didn't have to go to work for a couple months so I had time to heal.
Well, I left him and got my divorce. I fought for half of our assets and, after threatening to show the court the pictures that I had taken with my phone and hidden in a secret email account, he gave in. When we were leaving the courthouse, he leaned near me and quietly said, "Some time I'm going to catch you without witnesses around and teach you not to fuck with me, bitch. You ruined my life."
The next day, I enrolled in a karate class and spent the remainder of the summer black and blue and hurting as I learned the basic principles and theories of karate. I worked at it every day. And when school began, I worked at it four nights a week and on Saturday.
For the next four years, I managed to stay away from Jarod and watch my back. A week before my 30
th
birthday, I earned a black belt after many hours of practice and study. Even though I had my belt, I continued to learn, practice and take lessons to get better and better.
As it turned out, I was on my way home from the dojo one evening, and had stopped at a convenience store for donuts when I saw Jarod. He didn't realize that I saw him when he quietly followed me out to the parking lot. My stomach was churning, but for some reason, I was concerned about my donuts. When I reached my car in the back of the lot, I quickly opened and tossed my bag of donuts on the seat, and then turned around.
Saving the donuts cost me, as his fist slammed into my shoulder. "Jarod, d-don't... " I yelled, but it was too late. His knee hit my leg and knocked me against my car.
"Thanks for parking away from the cameras you stupid cunt. Now it's your word against mine," he said as he shot his left hand towards my stomach.
At that point, my training kicked in and it only took me a few seconds to leave him crumpled on the asphalt with a broken finger, bloody nose and holding his stomach. I looked down and said, "Like you said, it's your word against mine." I got in my car a drove away.
The school year was going pretty well for me. I hadn't thought much of Jarod since our little altercation in the parking lot, but I should have known that he would be up to something. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, one of the coaches at Jarod's school was also proficient at karate, and Jarod convinced him to help him get back at me.
I agreed to meet a blind date at a restaurant several blocks from my small house. I wore a mid-thigh length skirt and a sleeveless blouse and walked to the restaurant. He was a handsome 45-year-old man and he was an attorney, but we both decided during dinner that it wasn't going to work out so we shook hands and I began to walk home around 9:30.
There was just one block on my walk home that was kind of desolate, and wouldn't you know it; that's where Jarod and his pal decided to get even with me. I watched Jarod walking towards me, and prepared to defend myself when I felt my legs knocked out from under me by something hard. As I hit the ground and looked up, I saw Jarod's friend, and fellow coach Manny Ramirez smiling down at me holding a small wooden bat.
My ex was still about 25 feet away and I noticed Manny staring at my legs and crotch since my skirt was now around my waist. I rolled away from him while he was temporarily distracted and jumped to my feet just in time to feel the bat hit my back and slam me into the building's wall. The seam of my skirt ripped open to my waist. As I started to turn, I felt Jarod's fist hit my jaw and I went down. I rolled towards his legs and knocked him to the sidewalk, and I heard Manny start to laugh at his friend.
"I'm gonna rough you up with this bat before I beat your skank ass, bitch. You gonna remember this night. I tried to roll away, but the streetlight pole and my ex stopped me from moving, and I lookiedup into Manny's grinning face. Jarod jumped back to his feet and continued to block me against the pole as Manny raised the bat again. My blouse had ripped open before I fell. I knew I was finished so I closed my eyes waiting for the crushing blow from the bat.
