Chapter 12

It was after 11 P.M. and I was just lying in bed. School, well it wasn’t going according to plan. My inability to relate to the kids around me and the fact that all the class work was a repeat and therefore difficult to get immersed in had seemed to cause me to glow in the light spectrum only seen by bullies and like a moth to flame they kept circling.

After going all Summer without a fight It was now the end of October and I had been in 2 fights already. The first was over quick as John and Mike were nearby and they both jumped in and broke it up. Today’s fight had started as a simple bump in the hallway between classes.

This kid, Roger, Had shouldered into me hard and spun me around. He laughed and kept going but my temper flared and I hollered “Watch where you’re going you dick-breath queer.” Politically Correct we were not. The fastest way to escalate anything in Junior High was to question someone’s masculinity. Roger spun around and he was turning red and everyone around us just moved away while turning to watch.

Why had I done it? I don’t know, my memories were 67 years old but my emotions still burst to the surface like any preteen. Roger took one step toward me and I just dropped my backpack and charged in swinging. My arms were swinging at the face and my legs were going for the groin and we probably looked more like like a rugby scrum than boxers. I was suddenly pulled away and found myself being dropped to the cement by Mr. Travers the P.E. Teacher who had let me go and turned back to Roger.

I heard him yell for us to “knock it off” as he dropped me but I was already up and moving around him in full attack mode. This time he grabbed me from behind and held on to me. He told Roger “Office, now.” Putting me down again but this time with a firm grip on my right arm he pointed to my backpack and simply said “Pick it up.” Then he frog-marched me to the office. Mr. Travers had seen the whole thing but my going back in for seconds after he had pulled us apart earned me the first three schooldays of November off.

Mom was disappointed. After the Summer had passed without the usual trouble I got into she had thought I had grown out of that phase. Kevin would take my brother Trick or Treating tomorrow but I was grounded. I decided I needed a drink and I got up and headed to the kitchen. As I neared the kitchen I heard Mom on the phone. “Katie I told you we would take them.” She was talking to her twin sister Kate.

My Aunt Katie had married and moved away and we had only seen her kids on the few visits home she had made in the first years after her kids were born. By this time it had been about 5 years since we had seen them last. “Katie I promise you, we won’t split them up.” “Yes even if you get the maximum 3 years”

“Katie, I love you, I will always love you.” “Please take the plea deal and come home” My mom was softly crying now and I had forgotten all about the water.

I reversed course back to my room as the memories flooded back in about what had happened during the next couple of years or would happen or wouldn’t happen shit this was so hard to keep straight.

The next 36 months, Oh shit. You don’t live your life with the ability to look at any action and see the total consequences of an act. No, you live life like a frog in a pot and if your actions slowly boil yourself you don’t notice till it’s too late, or maybe never. Now I had these memories flooding in and as I thought back on them more and more opened up to me and I started to fill sick to my stomach.

My Aunt Kate was about to take a Plea deal for Welfare and Unemployment Insurance fraud. Her Husband Josh had gotten hooked on drugs after a motorcycle accident. As his addiction worsened he began trying to make a living dealing drugs to feed his habit. He had convinced her to file for and make false statements for Unemployment while working under the table for cash. Then for Welfare benefits. When the State started to ask some questions and prepared to file charges they split the State.

For the last 5 years, they had been moving around trying to stay ahead of the law but her husband was just racking up a longer and longer rap sheet. He had finally run out of rope to hang himself with and now was in jail awaiting felony trafficking charges. My Aunt wanted to come home but the State Has outstanding charges and they wanted their pound of flesh and restitution for monies paid.

She had contacted the State and with the help of a pro bono lawyer worked out a plea with a possible sentence of 1-3 years in State Jail. She then called her sister, my mom, and asked for help. She wanted my mom and stepdad to take all 3 of her kids so they wouldn’t get sent to foster care or broken up and sent to multiple family members.

Sitting on the side of my bed I was just trying to keep my breathing slow and even as I remembered those months. My cousin Crystal was my age and her Sister Samantha was a year younger. Joshua Jr. was 9. It would start innocently enough with I’ll show mine if you show me yours. Games of doctor then more. Looking back now on this second time thru I couldn’t believe I had never once wondered who taught them these games.