They were there... — 3 months ago
Just to warn everyone, this could get pretty long. Ok, So about 11 years ago,back in 1997, I went this school called Morris elementry in Mckinleyville, CA. I lived there for two years. I kinda had a rough childhood. My parents were constantly fighting to the point that the local police knew our names. That gets scary for an eight year old. But I had friends, Four wonderful best friends at the time.
First, there’s James Nelson. He was a funny guy, always made me laugh. He always had partys at his house and I was always invited. Drinking soda and playing super nintendo a lot. I loved hanging out with him because it gave me the chance to get out of the house. Anything more than that is a blur.
Next, We have Stephen Brown III. He was kinda shy around others. But everytime he came to sleep over, that all changed. He loved to talk! I would sometimes put on a new movie just to quiet him down, but he was a great friend, nonetheless. I sometimes felt bad inviting him over though. Whenever he came to sleepovers, my parents stopped fighting. Obviously to uphold their public image.
Not to mention that Stephen was also the oldest son of my mom’s boss. What did my mom do for a living? She was a secretary for Child Protective Services. Stephen’s father (Stephen Brown Jr.)was a social worker. So everytime Stephen came over, my mom always treated him like a porcelain doll. I was more like a New York sidewalk.
Then there’s Mike Smith. I saw him more as Stephen’s friend. But he was still a part of the group. So I would like to see him along with everyone else.
And then there was Amanda Snowden. Amanda was the only one out of the group that knew what my parents were really like behind closed doors. She was my best friend. I guess you can say she was also my first girlfriend. We had a Forest/Jenny relationship(only I was Jenny).
I still remember to this day that whenever my parents were having their hollaring smackdowns, I would always be so eager to just run away to Amanda’s house and tell her everything. But a few things always gave me cold feet.
One: Her house was about four miles down the road and across a produce field.
Two: My parents always picked nightfall as the perfect time to scream about God remembers what.
Three: I was afraid to run away for even a minute. I rather had my parents yell at each other than to have both of them scream at me until one of them dropped dead (Oh, how I wished it often).
And four: I wasn’t going to expose the person who I trusted and cared about to my parents. Amanda was such an awesome friend, I never wanted my parents to find out that she was the person I told their secrets to. (I know my parents couldn’t do anything about if they even did find out about her, but c’mon, I was only eight!)
I want to find these four people very much because I wasn’t mature to tell them what was really going on with me. I want to tell them what my life was like after we split apart. And I would love to hear their stories too. If you are still reading, I would like to thank you personally for taking the time to do so. But you’re probably curious about how we were split up in the first place. Well, I’ll tell it just like how it happened.
Sadly, Amanda was the first to go. One day at school, she went around announcing that she was moving to Oregon. I never asked about the details about the move, one of the things I regret. I never got any new contact info from her, other than an e-mail address. I threw it away when I got home because I was angry over the fact that we didn’t own a computer (I never had an email address until 2001, same year we first bought a computer).
I thought I’d ask for a phone number instead. So, I went to school, But no Amanda. I waited for recess, still, no Amanda. I got on the bus and sat in the same seat, like everyday. But the seat next to me was empty, not like everyday. No Amanda. The bus stopped at Amanda’s stop to let the other kids off. You could see her house from the stop just down the adjacent road. No moving truck, no packed car at all, no family, or moving boxes. No Amanda. I found out later that day from James that the day Amanda said her goodbyes was the day she and her family left for Oregon. Because of mainly that, I still hate Oregon to this day.
That following summer, James moved away too. I think he said he was moving to Red Bluff, But it could’ve been anywhere. That summer was boring as hell. My parents said I’d find new friends, so I looked. I found them, but they were nothing like Amanda and James.
Then the first day of third grade started. Days turned into weeks turned into months. Stephen, Mike and I felt lost, alone and misguided. Our group was never the same. Stephen stopped talking in full sentences when it was him and I. Mike found a new crowd. And I was depressed.
I kept telling myself that it couldn’t get any worse. Boy, was I wrong. When summer came, my mom found out that my stepdad was cheating on her and he moved back to Santa Cruz to live with the mistress. Now, my mom was depressed. It didn’t stop raining for six months after that.
Another summer came. First Amanda, then James, then Mike. Was Stephen going to move away this time? No. It was my turn to go. My mom wanted to move back to Santa Cruz because it was my dad’s idea to move us up north in the first place. She didn’t see the point in staying. At first, I refused because I was hoping that my friends would return. but I gave up hope, knowing that moving anywhere wasn’t their decisions to make. So I left for home. Or so I thought.
To be continued…
