Crossing the Creek

Our house was the second one on our road. Across the street was pasture, corn fields or whatever the owners of the land decided to plant. I can't say I paid that much attention to what was growing.. other than weeds that were waist high by the ditch. If you drove on past our house, about six blocks length down.. you would come to a split where you could turn right and this just made a big circle and met with the straight road again about three blocks up. Of course the road ran on in a little deeper and farther from the highway.. and we knew everyone who lived in this little area.

Behind my house at the edge of our two acres there was a creek. Low, never rising much above shin deep unless we had torential rains over a few days.. by the time we wandered back down there it had receeded back to its normal state.. which was either dry or low, as described before. Once you cross the creek you turn left and head down and across the field and eventually.. well about five minutes later actually.. you will end up in the first bend of the circle. There were four houses in this circle. Our trail came out beside the first one.

This was a little white house where a spinster sister lived with her bachelor brother. Neither of them obviously ever married and pretty much kept to themselves. We weren't particularly scared of these old folks.. but weren't exactly running up to see them when they were out. Next door to them lived what would turn out to be one of my best friends. A.. and her brother D. A was a year younger than me,, and D was a year older than me. Next to them was where my cousins lived. The parents were my cousins too as mother was an only child. N and S were the kids. N a guy and S a girl. N was our age and played part of the group. ( We ended up living in this house many years later till the tragedy happened). Next to my cousins were their parents, my great aunt and uncle. More tenderly known as Stricky and Nandad. This completed the circle. This was what made up the core of the neighborhood kids. On a couple other side roads were B and J.. they completed the group.

I normally tried to go to A's house and spend time there because my parents were normally fighting about something.. and if they weren't there was enough tension in the air to make me more uncomfortable than I cared for. So the trail across the creek became pretty worn. At some point A's dad and mine decided that put up two huge building logs to go across the creek so we wouldn't have to climb down in it each time and also so the four wheelers we all had would cross as well. These logs also eliminated the need to walk or ride up the road to the other's house. So if you can imagine about the distance between the houses in a straight line was approximately a half mile.. you can guesstimate the time it took to get from point A to point B.

When I remember hot summer days back then, I can hardly say that the days seemed as scorching as they are now. Then again, maybe its just my age making it feel so hot. I just know that we stayed outside from sun up till sun down every single day.. unless of course it was raining. Rainy days were especially awful then as I hated playing by myself. I had my little sister.. but at the time she could have disappeared and I would have been thrilled. God how we tortured her back then. The one particular day I remember, I recall almost everything except where my sister was at the time.

A and I had wandered over to the field on her side of the creek and were considering dragging some old logs over to a spot and build us a fort. Walking around we were hunting for a good place to make home base. We talked and walked, but in a moment of silence we heard voices. Voices in the distance. Not being able to make it out at first, I panicked thinking mom or dad was calling for me because I forgot to tell them where I was at. Instead upon listening further, we both realized that it was indeed my father yelling.. only not for me... but at mother. Let's not forget .. we are roughly a half mile away and still hear his screams. As soon as we made out what was being said with the cursing and all flying through the air, I contemplated whether I should go home or stay on longer. I reasoned that since he was on the war path, I should probably go home to keep from him finding a reason to yell at me because I was gone. So off I went.

By the time I was walking up the backyard towards the door they had gone back inside but for only a few moments. As soon as I came with in sight of the backdoor I saw mother come rushing out and seemingly jump from the top tier of the porch to the lower. Stumbling a bit, I ran on up to see if she was ok, only to realize she had been thrown out of the house. Literally. It was a wonder she landed on her feet. She said to me once I was noticed, "just go inside honey.. go into your room and play, I will call you when supper is ready".. so that's what I did.

I scurried to my room and started praying that I wouldn't be his next target. I mean its not like he needed a reason or anything. As I sat on my bed just staring into space and wondering what would happen next. He came storming up the hallway and screamed to me.. "ITS OVER!! Me and your mother are getting a divorce!!" Well I broke down and cried. Even then I kinda wondered why I was crying. Wouldn't life be better without that monster around? But I think I cried more out of sheer terror of his yelling than the actual news. And who knows, maybe a part of those tears were tears of joy that he was leaving. All I know is that he packed a suitcase and left that night. At the time I didn't know where he went, be it a motel or friends house. I later came to find out where he was probably spending his time, and well let's just say she was more than a friend. Mother had known all along, hence the fighting.

As the next day dawned I found myself wondering again, who will cross the creek today? I think she should come here today. We could play and romp today without worry or fear. I guess it just goes without saying that all of my friends were scared of him too. I wasn't the type of kid that was ashamed of their parents being a total mess.. I just took it as it came. Since I was a chubby child, I learned early on that people are gonna like me for me.. or not at all.. regardless of my size.. OR my parents. And so it was.. A came over and we proceeded to play all day in my playhouse. Talking only briefly about the monster being gone and how much time we would have before we were in a state of fear again. If and when he came back... well then it would be my turn to Cross the Creek.