Memoir of a runaway girl - A true story!
Not having a clue to where we were going or where the new home was, I followed the truck with my car. It was pouring rain, so bad you could barely see three feet in front of the windshield. I managed to keep up with him though. Tony was always good at slowing down if he saw me lagging behind. We made a couple stops so the kids could stretch their legs and get a bite to eat, and we still made it in great time. He turned at the Airport Road cut off and it was not much further to our new life.
I had not realized that our new home was within walking distance from his father’s home. I was definitely not thrilled about it. We pulled into the driveway and all I was thinking was, “Wow, he made an awesome choice”. I could find a way to live so close to his family. I liked the house more than my dislike for his family who have spent every waking minute trying to break us up.
It was a brick duplex on a cull-de-sac, which was great for the kids, no through traffic to worry about. It had a garage, something I never had on my own, since I lived at home. We all piled out of the car and the kids looked so excited, a house, not an apartment, but an actual house. Tony opened the door, we walked in, and it was gorgeous inside. The layout was something that I had never seen before and I liked it immediately. I was always a fan of things that were different, and not the norm. The layout was definitely different. I went outside, opened the garage, it was very full of junk. I asked Tony what all that was and if it belonged to him. Apparently, the previous tenants left all this behind and now it was another job for me to do, in addition to all of the unpacking.
We pushed all of the junk to one side and started bringing in the boxes. The first room I did was my oldest son, Michael. I knew he would want to get settled in his room, which I had allowed him to pick out himself. Michael picked the room above the garage, it was the first time since his brother was born that he was going to have his own bedroom and he was quite excited. He immediately became eager to go explore the neighborhood. There were a few kids his age standing outside that he wanted to meet. We told him that he was allowed to leave the house, but not the block. If he wanted to into anyone’s home, he needed to tell us first.
I managed to get Matthew’s room all done, his was a larger room and his room looked so barren from the lack of enough furniture. Nevertheless, he was happy, for a four year old, he was very good kid. He played so well on his own. That six-year age gap between him and his brother was a little hard for him sometimes, but he managed.
It took me about two days to get completely organized. I was a little dismayed that I had no dining room, so my oak dining room set had to go in the kitchen. It was a little out of place, there but that was going to be its new home.
Our yard was a pie shape with privacy hedges dividing the other half of the house and a chain link fence with the yard on the next cull-de-sac. To my dismay, there was no gate to the yard, which meant I had to keep a close eye on the kids since they could escape from the yard anytime they knew I was not watching. I learned an instinct about escape after the nun’s school, and wanted to be extra careful with my children. It was that summer that Tony’s friend Jeremy moved into our basement. He needed place to stay, and money was tight for us, so it should have been a win-win situation.
Jeremy was from Jamaica and lighter skinned. He had a trusting smile and was a handsome man. He had a small goatee and he was clean-shaven otherwise. He was fit, and stood about 5’6”. Jeremy had a Caucasian girlfriend that he would bring over all the time named Stacey. She was a gorgeous woman and very quiet. She had a major flaw though. Stacey used headaches as a tool to get out of things she did not want to do. I actually liked her initially until I saw this side of her. We would be playing cards and Stacey, unexpectedly would say “Jeremy can you take me home, I am having one of my headaches again”.
The odd thing about these were that she would be completely fine and then someone would say something she did not like, or something would happen that upset her and a magical headache would appear. This made it very difficult to get to know her.
I know there was some animosity between her and I because we were such opposites.
Stacey was quiet, and meek, and was happy to be by herself, or socialize with Jeremy alone. I on the other hand was more outgoing, very sociable, and wanted to party. The year was 1992. Tony, all his friends, and their girlfriends were going camping and they asked if we would like to join them.
Now this was a strange thing for me since I would be the oldest one there. I found ways that made me happy on how certain things were done. Mothers do that. Not saying I was not flexible, but I kind of felt my motherly instinct show through during this event. Here I was, at this campground, there were six of us that went, Stacey and Porsha were the only two other woman. Tony, Glen and Jeremy were the guys there. I was already anticipating conflict since I was not really a fan of Porsha. Stacey, I already knew through Jeremy, and since she came over to our house all the time, I already knew what to expect from her.
It started off fine, but the first night, Glen pulled out the pots and started making pasta for his dinner.
I looked at him, walked over and said “Um Glen, you do know we are camping right? Who the heck makes pasta in the middle of a campground?”
Glen looked at me with a smirk on his face and said, “I need my carbohydrates for the diet I am on, and what is wrong with making pasta while camping?”
I replied, “Sorry, but when I go camping, it is hamburgers, hot dogs and chips”.
I often made salads to bring along, like potato or macaroni salad, but come on, pasta? The rest of the night was full of drinking and having fun. Tony and I brought a white board so we could play charades. We all had fun playing in teams of two and I was having a blast. It was not until the next morning that I became disgusted with what I witnessed.
Glen’s girlfriend Porsha, and Stacey, went to go shower. They were gone for over an hour. When they came back, Porsha had all her makeup on and her hair done up like an 80’s pop star. I really did have to take a second look. I thought we were camping, not entering a beauty pageant. However, here she was, dressed and done up as if she was going to a nightclub.
I could no longer hold my tongue. "We are camping damn it! Let us get back to basics!" I yelled.
It is obvious that I am a very vocal person, and have a hard time holding things in.
I walked over to Portia and just stared at her.
I said, “What is wrong with you people, we are camping! Eating pasta? Doing hair and makeup? Why bother going camping at all? Let’s just book a hotel room and visit bars and nightclubs instead!”
Well, that was all it took to start the fight with Porsha. We started yelling back and forth at each other and just as it was about to get physical, the guys came over and broke us up. They stopped the fun I was about to have. Someone had to clean that makeup off her face and mess up the hairdo. I really wanted to be the one to do that, but they felt I was going to hurt her. I would not have really hurt her, but I really wanted to have some fun with her, just a little messing up was all.
Things settled down again, and we all did our own thing that day. Tony and I went into town and did a little shopping. This gave everyone a much needed cool down from each other. It was a wise thing to do, after tempers flared so much that morning.
We got back to camp around 6 pm and I opened up the salads I brought, and made some burgers for everyone. I feel that they accepted my cooking only because they did not want to me to go on again about their ways of doing things. Essentially, I won that night.
Another night of drinking, and we had a great campfire. The guys were hilarious since they were all drunk. It is amazing how guys get when they are in the wilderness and have booze in them. It is sometimes quite entertaining given the right circumstances for it.
The following day, Tony and Jeremy decided that were going to go fishing at 5am. No problem, knock yourselves out and I hoped they would actually catch something. I also knew neither of them had slept yet so I thought it would be a very short-lived outing for them.
By noon, Jeremy came walking back to the campsite, but Tony was not with him.
I asked Jeremy, “Where the heck is Tony? How come he is not with you?”
He replied, “He is still fishing, he’s down by the bridge”.
Confused, I asked, “So you just left him there alone?”
Jeremy replied, “Why not, he was doing his own thing down there and he is trying to prove that he can catch fish. He wants to be the man.”
So naturally, I set off to go find Tony. Let me tell you, if you have ever watched the Three Stooges, you know what I am about to explain.
He was up to his bum in the water, both of jeans and running shoes were underwater. I sat at the side of the bank behind him, so he would not see me. He would reel in his line, turn around and cast, but just as his sinker hit the water, a fish jumped directly behind him. As he heard the water splashing, he would reel in his line again, then turn around, and cast again. Yet again, the fish would jump directly behind him. This must have gone on for at least twenty minutes before I could no longer contain myself, I started laughing so hard that he heard me and could not figure out why I was laughing at him.
All I could say was “Oh my god Tony, you looked ridiculous out there, but you sure would make the Three Stooges proud of you”.
He finally gave up, came, and stood next to me. He was soaking wet, and the smell was unbearable. Since he had been standing in murky sludge, his shoes were completely coated in green decaying algae. Even the water he had to walk through did not remedy the problem.
“I wish I had a shotgun for that fish”, Tony complained. “I’ve been there for four solid hours and every time I’d cast, it would jump in the opposite location to taunt me!”
“Oh honey…” I comforted him by giving him a big hug. Poor Tony was so distraught that a fish played havoc with him for so long.
We made our way back to the campsite. This was when Tony told me a story, and then showed me something back at camp that totally grossed me out. Now it made sense what someone wrote on the whiteboard back at camp. Someone wrote “Camp Pudding” on the board and no one would say why. Well now I knew why, the guys got drunk the night before, and on their way to fish in the morning, one of them could not wait and left a nasty on the river’s edge. Hence, the nickname for our camp became Camp Pudding! I didn’t find it amusing, and neither did Tony. Apparently, Glen and Jeremy thought the nickname and what had transpired for it to be created was the greatest thing, ever.
Camping lasted four days and when the final day came, I was so happy to be going home. When I was asked if I would go camping again with the same people, I agreed to Jeremy and Stacey, but not with Glen and Porsha. I could not tolerate their holier-than-thou attitudes. Not to mention their lack of respect for nature.
Nonetheless, I thought Jeremy and Stacey made a cute couple and thought we would all become better friends from this experience.
A couple months later, we were goofing around one night, and decided to try a séance in the kitchen. That was just too funny. We used candles and an Ouija board, and for the most part, I was having fun. Well, a day later Tony told Jeremy, “I think something happened to Abby during that séance last night, she is acting really weird.”
Chapter 5 - Part 2 to continue...
For those who missed the beginning, you can read it here:
https://steemit.com/writing/@feline1991/a-steemit-original-a-lifetime-of-seeking-happiness-part-1