My nickname, Pinky, didn’t stick for long
thank goodness.
It happened when one day in fifth grade:

A student named Clovis Sullivan was being accused by our teacher, Mr. Allen, of losing a book and I stepped in to defend him…It was an ugly exchange in front of the whole class. I accused the teacher of singling out Clovis because he was poor…I embarrassed the teacher and Clovis with my do-gooding…afterwards, someone gave me the nickname Pinky because when the teacher told me to shut up, my face turned red as a beet.

I learned that day you can’t make accusations
of wrong doing and expect anything but retaliation.
Accusations don’t change anything.
I still don’t know what does.
I still no not know how to tell the truth but to “tell it slant.”