We get back from Denny's. My cuz mentioned before that she wanted to visit her middle school. What nerd, who visits they're teachers after leave. I say fine whatever let's go. I realize that her guy friend is still there. Did he plan on going home anytime soon? Did he want to come to the middle school with us even though he'd never attended there?
Me and my cuz kind of have our own language. It was made up a couple years ago when I spent a loong summer back home. I can't even describe it, it's like a mumble with a old man...southern dialect of maybe the alabama or mississippi area? Lol...dunno. We discovered it when she was making a prank call one day. The problem is, sometimes we don't realize people don't know what the hell we're talking about.
I say to my cuz looking over at her guy friend "alksjfaskljdfhaskljfhaskljfhasdkjfh"
translation: "Is he going to come with us?"
She says "sdlfkdfgsdlfgjdlaskdjasdkjh"
translation: I don't know, he has nothing else to do
I say: "asdkjasdlkjasdiasjdka"
translation: "Is he going to be here all day"
She says: "asldkjaslkdjaslkjdlkjslkasdj"
translation: "I don't know....seems like-"
All of a sudden her guy friend yells "WHAT ARE YOU GUYS SPEAKING?!"
I laughed. so. hard. The frustration/confusion on his face was...hilarious. Mainly because we didnt even realize we were talking that way.
After we get back from visiting the middle we all go upstairs in my cuz's room. Her guy friend tinkers around on the internet then lays face first on her bed and falls dead asleep. My cuz turns on the t.v. and Roseanne marothon is on. She loves Roseanne, so do I . I'm sitting at the computer chair and and I look at the boy sleeping on her bed, then I look at her...and struggle with the "what's the responsible adult thing to do" but I figure...well. Whatever, my aunt knows he visits every now and then so I don't think it's a huge problem. My cuz asks me to read her my "My two birds were on a telephone pole" story to her again. She's always been a fan of my writing. I decide I'm tired too, and there's no space left on that bed, so I go to my other cousin's room and fall asleep.
I wake up to my cousin's phone ringing next to me, although I 'm not sure why it's there. Some friend from school....I wake up again.. this time it says "Angel" her mom. I look at the clock and it's like 6:30 something. I go into her room. She's not there. My older cousin comes out of her room and asks if I've seen. "L" I tell her no. Her mom had called her too. I searched the house, still can't find her. I go downstairs check everywhere. She's not there. I ask the neighborhood kids that have to be the last kids on earth who still play outside EVERYDAY...Once when I was 19 they asked me if I wanted to play kickball with them...I was half tempted too...One kid said she had left 10 minutes ago. I wondered if any of them owned a watch and knew the meaning of 10 minutes. My aunt calls her phone again, I don't answer. I have no answer for her. My older cousin tells her she doesn't know where she is once again. Then I look outside again. My car is gone. I'm furious. I ask my cousin for the keys to her car and we drive around the neighborhood looking for my car...we have no idea where to look, where to go, what street I'm just driving with mindless fury...."She must have lost her mind" I kept saying. My cuz suggests it was his fault, but I assure her that she has a mind of her own. She's always been an independent thinker. I was more hurt than anything.
We get home with no success. I remember my cuz's phone must have her guy friend in the recent calls list. I find his name and dial his number. He answers.
"Hello"
"Where is my car?"
"........'L'.."
"You guys have 10 minutes to get here with my car, or I'm reporting stolen and you both are going to jail. Ok?" he hangs up.
I wait. My cars still not there. I don't keep track of the time. 2 minutes must have gone by. I call again. No one answers. His voice mail was some song I never heard, I listened to the squealing impatiently waiting for the freakin tone. "You guys have 5 minutes to get here before I report my car stolen and you two are going to jail" An empty threat. But I figured they would get here faster that way. My older cuz talks about how she supsects that she took her car without asking before. I don't say anything. I already knew truth of that story. I call again. This time my cousin answers.
"Hello"
"Where are you." I say.
"Hiatus"
"Why the hell are you on Hiatus?" Hiatus was probably a mile or two away.....
".....::sigh::I didn't..." her voice trails off.
" Get my car here. NOW."
While I wait for them. I stare towards the garage door. My older cousin in sitting at the kitchen table talking to my aunt on the phone. I tell her not to say anything yet. I need to organize my thoughts...but I didn't know what to think. It was surreal...like I didn't know her at all. I look towards the front door. My car is back. I wait. My cuz walks in pale in the face and sits down on the steps. I lean against the counter...my fury being replaced with hurt and confusion.
My cuz has been there at the lowest of the lowest points of my life. When I felt like there was no love left in this world, no true genuine love, he proved me wrong. When I was pretty much sure I was worthless her lit her face when I would arrive told me otherwise. She was the reason..I continued to write, she taught me how to love...she was my strength when I thought I was no one at all. And when people in my life made me feel so low...and I'd take my sadness out on her...she showed my how to...forgive. I'd always thought I had been this horrible person to her in the past, but for some reason...she could never recall. She prank called businesses to make me laugh, acted as though my writing was the greatest thing she read, turned her back on whoever made me sad.... and here I was looking for the words to show how pissed off I was. This must be what it feels like to be a parent.
"Where's J?" I ask her. He hid in the bathroom.
"Why did you take my car?"
" His mom called, his two younger brothers were home by themselves so he needed to go check on them, and he wanted to pick up his paycheck to pay you back for the gas."
"Aunty has been calling for you. What did you expect me to say when I had no idea where you were. What did u expect me say? I woke up and you were gone and my car was gone. You don't even have a learner's permit. If anything had happened to you, it would have been my ass. Not just you. You could have been laying in a ditch somewhere, I wouldn't have known. If anything, anything, could have happened to my CAR my mother is going to let me drive around with what's left of it, so I'm really hoping you'd leave me with atleast an engine and some wheels. You really have to think before you do these things. You really have to just, stop and think. 'How does this look to other people' because to you it's yeah I'm going to take the car and be right back and everything is going to be all good. But for me, I woke up, you were gone and so was my car. I could have reported my car stolen and you two would have been in jail. No questions asked. And you really don't want that on your record. Did you not think I wasn't going to wake up anytime soon? I mean how long did you really think I was going to stay alseep?"
She shruggs her shoulders.
"You really have to think before you do these things. And please, let someone know before you leave I mean you basically left me with nothing. Nothing. I woke up with a chicken bone on the table and I was supposed to make Thanksgiving dinner. Didn't leave even leave me a turkey bone. No, chicken. I had nothing to work with it. Why did it have to be the weekend I was here? You had all day to plan this drama and you wait till an hour and a half before Aunty comes home. Do you know if Aunty finds out all she has to do is mention to my mom 'it was the weekend that I was there' you know what's going to happen to me? All I can hear is "'A', you mean to tell me say, you let 'L' let a boy in the house that you don't even know, and you let him stay in the room and you go in the other room and fall asleep. How can you be so irresponsible? Aunty works hard for what she has in that house and don't even have the decency to be an adult? You risk her house and your car because you want to be irresponsible...22 years old and.......' I look at my cuz. To be honest, I don't even know this boy. I'm not saying he's a criminal but I just met this guy today, I don't know what he's capable of doing....Look, I didn't sign up for this! I came to have a fun weekend...not even weekend..fun "middle" of the week you know, where we go to...to Outback Steakhouse and we have the bread. That brown bread and you cut it in half and you smear that tasty butter in...that bread it so good. I want one of those weekends. I. Did. Not. Sign up for this. There's this line that you go to, it's labeled "unneccessary drama" and I purposely missed that meeting, the memos the updates to I wouldn't have to be near that line. But what happens? Somebody signs me up. Somebody. So basically this was all pretty much set up and I should have known. Next time you do something, think through every step carefully, make it flawless and do it on a weekend that I AM NOT HERE.You had all day to plan this drama and you wait till an hour and a half before Aunty comes home. Waite...why am I telling you when to do wrong. Look. I don't know if I'm going to tell Aunty yet. She's been having a rough time lately, I can tell....she does not need to come home to this...this will break. her. heart. You know that. And can you please tell "J" stop hiding in that damn bathroom I'm not going to bite him. Look just promise me, J. I can't see you but I know you can hear me. Can you please...just please go to school, become something successful in life, and let this be the dumbest thing you've ever do. And "L" promise me...let people know where you are. And don't ever. EVER take somebody's car without asking. I don't ever. EVER put me in this position again. I know what it's like to misunderstood....you know what I had to deal with, you've even witnessed it first hand. Hell, you of all people know why I act the way I do. So I'm going to try to as understanding as possible. I know in your mind your intentions were good, but you have to look at it through other people's eyes. Please, promise me you won't do this to me again. How's "J" getting home?" I ask.
She shruggs her shoulders.
"Walk!" My older cousin says. We just look at her. She missed the lesson of the day. Forgiveness.
It was 7 something. My aunt would be home in less than an hour.
I take J home.
While we're driving there, I ask "L".."what would you do in my position. I mean what?"
she shruggs her shoulders.
Her version of the story.
J's mom calls and she upset about him not being home with his siblings. He asks her to wake me up to I can take him home. When they came in the room, I was sleeping. "L" knew I had to get up at 6 something in the morning to drop my other cuz off so she didn't want to wake me.
"So you thought the better option would to have me wake up and my car be gone?"
She doesn't say anything. But I ask her to continue. "When we got downstairs I came to the room to wake you up one last time..but you were sleeping an I felt bad. He did most of the driving because I was scared...When he got his brother's to their friend's houses he went to his job to pick up his check. That's when you called. And he ran out of his job before he got his check. He tells me we need to drive home quick, I didn't know what happened, I thought he punched his boss in the face or something...He tell me that you called. I thought he was lying. But he said no. We drove home, and all I could think way, you'd never talk to me again."
"Next time, you pull something like this. I'm calling the police and I don't care who's driving my car" I lied. She laughs.
We get home and I attempt to make some kind of dinner, some hopeless chicken teryaki that had been frozen for maybe 5-15 years. We clean up, and I tell my cuz to call my aunt and tell her that you left here ON FOOT and you left you're phone. She calls and my aunt is in a cheery mood and we hoped to keep in that way. We finished that 15 year old chicken teryaki that somehow ended up tasting good.
No comments:
Post a Comment