My Story Part 7

Part 7 ~ The Drawing of the Three
shit wait, that’s a Stephen King title. ok…

Part 7 ~ Survival

Growing up with this life wasn’t easy but I found three people who made it easier.
The first person I met was Jackie, aka the little girl in the strawberry dress, the second was Stephanie who was in my kindergarten class, and finally Kristie who came later when I was in 7th grade.

Jackie’s Story~

After we met that day in her yard we became best friends. The first time I went to her house her mom (Donna) made us some lunch. After lunch I promptly threw up mac and cheese all over their floor. I am awesome at first impressions. I think Donna was thankful for me though because Jackie was an only child and when I was around it probably kept Jackie from asking her so damn many questions. Jackie and I would spend everyday together. Donna would take us swimming and to the flea market and my mom would lay out in the sun on our deck.
I could always escape to Jackie’s house when I needed to. I always distanced myself from my family and I hated being home. I always felt more comfortable with their extended family than my own. I was always included with all their holidays and family get togethers. In my life whenever I don’t have someone it seems like someone else always shows up in their spot. My mom wasn’t really there for me so Donna showed up. I didn’t have any sisters and then Jackie showed up.
One of my favorite memories and being at Jackie’s takes place in the winter time. WInter when we were kids was a lot different than it is now. There was so much snow back then. So there was a ton of snow on the ground and we were waiting for the pizza guy. When Jackie saw him pull up she ran outside in her nightgown and her mom’s shoes. On the way back to the house one of the shoes came off and she couldn’t find it. She came in, dropped the pizza off and when back outside to find this shoe. She was hysterical and I told her she could find the shoe later but the reason why she wouldn’t come in is because she truly believed that her mom only had one pair of shoes and now that she had lost one, her mom had no shoes to wear.
Another dazzling Jackie moment was in Florida. She has always been just a tad on the overdramatic side, oh and really clutzy side too. So somehow she fell down in the hallway at my Gramps’ house. She was adamant that she had sprained her ankle and when no one believed her she took purple eyeliner and colored her ankle to look like it was bruising. She hobbled down to my dad and said she needed to go to the hospital. I told him the truth before he took her down there. She was mad for a few hours.
One of the best best best memories was on one of the worst days of my life. I will tell you about that day some other time, for now this is about Jackie. My family and my friends were all gathered in this small hall. We were all eating lunch and Jackie went to ask my dad a question. On her way back she slipped on something and fell down in front of everyone. It wasn’t just a little slip it was a disaster. For one thing she had on a short skirt and the other thing was the hall was really old and had a hard wood floor that was really loud. When Jackie hit the floor the sound was totally amplified by the old floor. I screamed with laughter and she wanted to punch my face but she just sat there. Mortified. Oh by the way, this was when we were 25.
Jackie and her mom are now living in Newport, RI and the kids and I go up and visit every summer. I wish we were closer but no matter where they are, they always feel like home.

Stephanie’s Story

We met when I moved to Mantua and started school. We were in the same class and she was nice to me. Everyday she would bring in My Little Ponies and share them with me. Everytime Steph broke her leg she would always pick me to stay inside with her at recess time to hang out. We were friends for three years before I had to moved schools and we lost touch. When we ended up in the same homeroom class in 7th grade we just picked right up where we left off. The soul immediately recognizes certain people I think. I remember the first day of 7th grade. She sat at the desk next to me and was wearing an oversize Garfield tee shirt. We started talking and I realized she was hilarious.
I always seemed to do bad things with Steph. I remember hanging out her bedroom window and shooting a BB gun at her dads van. She taught me how to shoplift, and all the drinking I did in high school was at her house.
My mom would buy us alcohol and we would go and drink it in her room. On our 16th birthday she got so drunk that I had to carry her upstairs and put her to bed. Unfortunately I had to pass by her dad’s room to do this. He saw us and asked what was wrong and I tried to cover for her by saying she was sick, but as a recovering alcoholic and someone with eyes, he knew what was up. The next day Stephanie had to go to alateen. She was by no means anywhere close to being alcoholic which made the whole thing even funnier. You can’t really blame the guy though.
She was the only friend that stood by me through the years when I had all my kids. She was the only one that made the trip to Texas to visit when I lived there. She is truly my sister. For every event in our lives we have been there and will be for each other. When we are old crotchedy ladies and everyone else has long since died, there we will be in a house with 190 cats.

Kristie’s Story

I knew who Kristie was since 5th grade. I always though she was weird. She was the only one who would ever actually dance at those horrible middle school dances. I thought she was crazy.
When 7th grade rolled around she was in my class. We started talking and instantly clicked. The first time I went to her house I was really sick but I still wanted to go. So I took a bunch of cold medication and off I went. That day we watched Nightmare on Elm Street movies and some cops. We went to sleep that night and I woke up completely hallucinating. I was hearing cop sirens and seeing lights and for some reason, I really thought that there were black people hiding under the bed from the cops. It was a mixture of cold medicine, Freddy Krueger, and cops. I woke Kristie up just out of my mind crazy and said we had to go downstairs. We went down there and her mom and 2 younger brothers were watching SNL and when her mom asked what we were doing, Kristie told her I thought black people were hiding under the bed.
Even through all that I was allowed back over. I spent most of high school at her house. Every Saturday night at least. You know we had to watch SNICK.
Though we grew apart for a few years while I was gone, when I returned home we were like peas and carrots.
Reunited and it feels so good!

So with the help of these three ladies and their families, I survived my own.