Clueless

C2

                As I'm sure you've guessed, they eventually got divorced. I was now 6 years old, I spent every other weekend at my dad's house and every Wednesday with my dad when he took us out to dinner to spend time with us. It went like that for a few months, so we had gotten used to it, the routine go out to eat and be back home before 9 pm.

I'm not positive what month this was, but it was during school time when this next event took place. It was on a Wednesday, my dad picked me and my now, 2 year old brother up in his beat up truck that, thankfully, he got rid of in the future. We all agreed on going to McDonalds for this week's restaurant, so I, myself, was looking forward to the play area.

We weren't taking the usual route to get there, which should've been a red flag already, but in my mind, it was perfectly fine. After being in the rusty truck for over half an hour and passing 3 McDonalds, I became suspicious, at least as suspicious as a 6 year old can be. I don't recall asking him where we were going, he's my dad, I should trust him.

Hours of being in that loud truck that had absolutely no radio, we pulled into a dirt and gravel driveway that led to a tiny house. There were only two neighbors, one on each side of the house, but other than that, I don't remember seeing any other houses.

He walked us in and the inside was completely empty, there wasn't any furniture, food in the fridge, or pictures on the wall. I had a can of Coke in my hands and walked over to the window that had the only table next to it. When I took a drink, I recall that of being the first time I had soda go up my nose, that's the only memory I have in that room.

I asked my dad why we were here, it was passed 9 and it was a school night, I needed to be home and asleep in my bed. We were in the kitchen and I remember bags of McDonalds being placed on the counter tops, at least one promise was kept.

"Your mother is in jail." I was very close to my mom at the time, so hearing that made my little heart shatter.

"Ken is as well." He isn't much of an important character in this, but he was my mom's new boyfriend, he was okay.

I'm not sure what made me think of this or why this had more of an impact on me than my mom, but I asked him about her car. "Is her car in jail too?" Keep in mind, I'm 6 years old, I don't know any better, for all I knew, cars had a prison too.

"Yes." That's the one thing that got me, why? I don't know, man. I recollect being in a ball on the floor crying as my dad stood over me and watched. Why would you watch your distressed child bawl their eyes out on the floor? Why wouldn't you console them? I thought I was never going to see my mom again, I thought she was gone. But I guess lying to your child is better than telling them that you've kidnapped them.

I was enrolled in a Christian school, how, I'm not sure since I was still enrolled in the one I was currently attending, but I was. I made a friend there pretty quickly, I can't remember her name for the life of me, so we'll give her the name of Natalie; Nat for short. She was always very outspoken and said the most random things at unnecessary times, it was the complete opposite of what I did. I would show up to the school with the paper stickers that you could color before peeling them off; I colored those in lunch in the back of the room where nobody sat while Natalie sat with her friends. The food there wasn't gourmet or anything fancy, it was like the little microwave dinners, but worse. They did have a soda machine at the front, so it could've been worse. I remember always getting a knock-off of Sprite that was called "The Mist", or something similar to that.

When I would return to what was considered "my new home", I didn't have much to do, or at least I don't think I did, if I had something important to do, I'd remember it wouldn't I? My grandma, or as I called her, "granny", stayed there with us. I'm not sure where that would tie into anything, I only have so many memories of that place. I would see another man there occasionally who apparently was my uncle. He had the vibe of one of the creepy uncles, I never stayed near him to find out. Again, doesn't tie into anything in particular, it's just another flash memory.

I was a hard-headed child, nothing much has changed since then, but it was really bad back then. The neighbor had a daughter who was a few years older than me and we were playing in her backyard, or what would be considered her backyard. There were no fences, but there was a big wooded area that we weren't allowed to go deep into. We were playing in a bundle of bushes that blended in with the trees, but it wasn't technically "in the woods", so no rules were broken.

She showed me where she said her and her cousins would "camp out" sometimes. All it was, was a little dirt area with a pile of burnt up wood where they made fire pits. Nothing special. She asked me if I wanted to see her kittens, of course 6 year old me wasn't going to turn down a cluster of baby animals, are you kidding me? Onward! Show me the tiny creatures!

It was inside her house that I wasn't allowed to go inside of. But it was for cats, so it was fine in my book. I don't remember actually seeing them, all I saw was a horrific house living arrangement. I don't even think it was legal to live there in the condition it was in, the walls were all torn down, there was trash everywhere, it looked like a tornado went through it and they moved right back into it and left the damages there. Not even exaggerating. They had a TV that only showed static and her dad was in the kitchen that you needed to climb over a while collapsed wall to get to. My dad came through the hole in the back of the house to come find and scold me about going inside when instructed not to. What was the problem? Was he afraid I would tell them I was abducted? Or that they would see my missing face on their broken TV screen?

I went in the other neighbors house, but I don't remember much besides their teenage daughter was doing laundry and let me borrow a P!nk CD that I accidentally stole. It was a good CD that I still have to this day, great songs, love it.