Chapter 8

Due to a miscalculation on my part. All foreign language in subsequent chapters will only be italicized. Sorry for the mix up.

Heading back to the kitchen from washing up I could hear Randy talking pretty loudly. When I glanced in, it was Randy and my Mom sitting at the table. I guess the kids were in their rooms.

“$375K. That’s awesome. I can finally get a new vehicle to replace the suburban. Maybe we can...”

Mom cut him off. “No, we can’t touch it. That’s Barnim’s money.”

“Well, we can just borrow it, and then pay him back when ever.”

“You’d have to ask him about doing that.”

“What are you talking about Lilka? We are the adults and he’ll do what we tell him to do.”

“Randy, just calm down.”

Randy got a bit louder. Guess he didn’t like the idea of having to ask me to borrow the money. Looks like we were going to have that “Come to Jesus” moment a lot sooner than I had planned; though it probably wouldn’t be the only one.

I causally walked into the kitchen. Randy had seen me, but mom hadn’t. Randy had a shit eating grin on his face that I was going to enjoy wiping off his face.

“Mom, would you like some more pizza?”

“Yes Barnim. A couple of pieces would be good.”

I got my pizza, plus a few extra pieces for mom. I sat down generally ignoring the jackass.

My older brothers and I were always treated like second class citizens in the house by Randy. He never treated us that well, and when he did, it was only to please my mom.

In moms’ case, although she tried not to play favorites, we all knew though. Things were vastly different than when it was just the three of us kids and Mom. No amount of wishing would bring it back. Sitting down I had no intention of starting the “shit show” that was to come. My mom didn’t condone fighting but raised us with the saying “don’t start anything, but make sure you finish it.”

Mom grabbed a couple of pieces of my plate and that’s when Randy decided to start the party.

“Lilka, tomorrow I’m going to head out and start looking at new vehicles.”

“Randy, I already told you. Please, enough already.”

This was going to be easier than I thought. It was easy to push him to continue.

“So, what do you think you’ll get?”

“Well, Barnim. I figure either a pick up or another Suburban. I’ll just have to see what is out there before deciding.”

“Cool, but I hear the new Suburban’s are pretty pricey.”

I had him hook, line and sinker and was leading him in to the trap. Now it was apparent that Mom had a clue as to what I was doing and was nudging him pretty hard. Randy, I guess couldn’t figure it out.

“Oh, that’s no problem. I’ve already got the financing sorted out.”

“That’s awesome. I hope the credit union is giving you a good interest rate. I mean they should do that for a long-time customer.”

My mom choked on the soda she was drinking. Before she could compose herself, Randy answered back. Now I must admit, Randy was good with his hands, but he was no mental giant. He proceeded to shove his foot deep into his throat.

“Well, there’s no interest on the money where it’s coming from.”

“So, let me get this straight. You’ve acquired financing for a brand-new vehicle and it’s a no-interest loan. Jesus, whoever is loaning you the money must really love you to give you that kind of deal.”

Mom saw where this was going, and I’ll give her credit, she tried to head Randy off. Like I said though, he wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box.

“Randy, we’ll talk about this tomorrow.” Mom said.

“Why? I’m going to take a look at the dealerships tomorrow. I’ll find what I want and then when Barnim gets the money, I’ll go pick the vehicle up.”

I guess my laughing out loud didn’t endear me to Randy. While he didn’t know why I was laughing he did know I was laughing at him.

“And just what the hell are you laughing at?”

“Well, I’m laughing at you, and the fact that you seem to think that you can do what you with my money. I’m not some naïve child star you can use as your personal piggy bank.”

The look on his face was priceless. I wish that I had a camera at that moment as this was something that needed to be preserved so I could share it with my brothers. It was at that moment Mom decided to take control of the situation.

“Barnim, go to bed and we’ll talk when we go out to lunch tomorrow. Randy, you need to be quiet and stay out of this.”

“Ok mom. Randy, just so you’re aware. It’s not mom’s money, it’s not your money. It’s my money. Nothing will be done with that money without my approval. Good night.”

I figured that I’d stirred enough shit. I could hear Randy’s muffled yelling as I took a shower. It had been a long, productive and stressful day. As I lay down to sleep, I was out quickly.

It was a normal morning for me. I got up do my walk around the neighborhood. Since everything was going well, I decided to push it and did about three laps around the neighborhood, right at about 3 miles.

Getting back to the house, I decided to just go ahead and mow the backyard. No point in taking 2 showers before lunch. Getting the yard mowed, I headed in to take a shower.

Dressing, I figured shorts and t-shirt should be good enough for lunch today. I went downstairs to grab some yogurt for a snack and the classifieds then went back upstairs to eat. Sitting down on my bed I ate while starting to search for a car. I had an hour or so before heading to lunch with mom.

It was a short drive over to the Blue Moon Café. They did a cafeteria line lunch where got a tray and a plate, then went down the line and got what you wanted to eat. We got our food and drinks, then head to a table in the back. After we sat down Mom got down to business.

“Barnim, I know what you were doing last night.”

“I figured you would. I’m not going to be pushed around especially by Randy. I have a plan and I’m not going to be swayed from the path.”

“So, am I going to get clued into you plan? Am I ever going to be let into your conversation with Bob?”

“Yes mom. I’m going to lay out my plan for you. As to the conversation with Bob, that was planning about the future. Eventually you’ll know what it was about.”

I put out the sterilized for mom plan and then we started the negotiating. I began with pushing for the things I wanted to get done this summer.

There were 10 days left in June, and if I kept up my end of things, I could get my license in the beginning of July. I’d only drive with her the first week, and if I showed I was capable, then I’d be able to get my own vehicle. After that, it was driving with her approval. Every 6 months we would review things that had gone on. I could drive to school if my grades were C or better. If they fell below that, no driving until the next report card.

“Barnim, that sounds ok to me. You and your future vehicle will be under my name and insurance, and you will pay for anything related to the vehicle. When you turn 18, we can change everything.”

I explained to her that having a car would facilitate getting a part time job as I didn’t want to rely on the money I would be receiving. Living so far out of town, it was a good 5 miles, walking was possible although I’d end up arriving to work sweaty. It would also make it able for me to start martial arts classes. There weren’t any places in McDonough. I’d have to do some researching to find a place for kick boxing and judo. Some place as close as I could get was what I needed to look for.

“Well Barnim, it seems you have done a lot of thinking, researching and planning.”

“Yeah. I’ve even started thinking about college. I have more researching to do though.”

It wasn’t that I liked lying to my mother, it was necessary as she would derail my plan. College wasn’t for me, though as far as her plans went, it was a given. I had to do what I had to do.

Then we talked about the issue from the night before. I really didn’t care, but it needed to be dealt with.

“So, what was up last night? That was a train wreck.”

“I don’t know what your father was thinking. You don’t have anything to worry about though.”

“Mother, you are not going to like this. He’s not my father, and I will not refer to him as such. I will show him the respect that he is due as an adult and your husband. What I will not do is kowtow to him, and I will not be forced to call him something he’s not. Now you know why I wanted the two-signature requirement as I expected something like this from him or my brothers.”

“Well, that was from left field Barnim. You’ve never said anything like that before. What brought this on?”

“Well with what happened to me, I did some soul searching about what I wanted from life and what I needed to do to accomplish it. In doing so, I figured out if I wanted to be treated like an adult then I needed to act like one.”

I could see a glimmer of pride on her face.

“Barnim, I’ll treat you that way. You know I love you but need to remember that if you screw up, I’ll be all over you. With that being said, I’ll agree to your plan.”

“I love you too Mom. Thank you.”

There wasn’t much conversation on the way home. Things didn’t go anywhere near as bad as where I thought they would. I figured that she would have blown up at me.

When we got home, mom had a message to call Bob. Turned out the hospital wanted to get this done right now. So, Monday afternoon would see us finalizing the deal.

The rest of the weekend was quiet. Church on Sunday, no walking, just a day of rest. As I went to sleep, an idea came to me that would head off a potential problem.

It was 20 June 1993. The day things would start to move forward on my plan.

My alarm woke me up at 5:30. I hated the damn thing, but I needed to get my walk in. After I was done, I’d have time for a shower and breakfast, then it’d be close to the time to leave.

As I was walking back into the house, mom was walking into the kitchen.

“Sorry you had to take the day off of work.”

“Don’t worry about it. Your incident made me realize that I needed to spend more time with my kids.”

“Love you too mom.”

Putting the waffles in the toaster, I realized that her comment wasn’t really meant for the older three of us. She needed to spend more time with her new batch of kids. It was this line of thought that were running through my head while I was eating breakfast.

After cleaning up, I went and got a shower. As I was getting dressed in my go to the lawyer outfit, mom was yelling to get moving. She wanted to get to Bob’s office before the hospital’s lawyers.

When all was said and done, we were about 25minutes early. Bob had us go into the conference room where I was informed that I was to only speak when spoken to during the meeting, and watch Bob for when to stop if needed, which was ok with me.