Chapter Five - Monique becomes Julie (her mother) (a)

This next episode of Monique's life is most probably the result of her mother telling Monique at a very young age all about her sexual exploits. A mother's attempt to treat her daughter as a girfriend, instead of a child is the resultof absent mothers being constantly told by their children that they are not really their mother, because the children were raised by someone else. In Monique's case it was Mama, her grandmother who raised her. So Julie used this abusive device to become like an older sister who would woo the children closer to her by sharing her private sexual history with them. She compounded this by adding that the girls needed to be toughened up for the real world so they would not get as hurt. She went on to explain to her daughters that men would come and go in their lives but they must always keep the upper hand. She told them to keep men in their lives under the spell of their sexual power. Essentially, she taught them they could get what ever they needed with the power of seduction and sexual rewards.
After Mel, Monique's next candidate presented himself before she even moved out of the house on Billings Road. It was Jason, a nurses aid, who had introduced himself to her one day by remarking to her that he had a dream about her. Monique came home and relayed this information to her husband Mel, who already new it was the beginning of more abuse from her. Jason, though younger than Monique, had already had experience with older women and was great at getting what he wanted. On a day that was months from Monique's birthday, Jason filled a room with balloons and told Monique it was a birthday party to make up for all the birthday's she had missed (Jason knew that Monique's mother hosted birthday parties for the three other sisters but never for Monique).