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Saturday, May 17, 2014

Here is the second chapter of the book... Flash back to when John was about 6 or 7 years old. So you saw Chapter 1, for the most part. And now this is the beginning of Chapter 2.

Ch,2 Rough Start

My parents died in an apartment fire when I was around 7 years old. I was visiting with my aunt when it happened According to my aunt my mother, Susan, dropped me off with her older sister, Ida, while she tried to work out things in her marriage. When I was older, around 13 my aunt had told me more details about how my parents fought frequently. I remember some of it when I was little, but my mother would usher me to my bedroom when it happened and I would hear them arguing through my bedroom walls. I remember hearing my mother crying and pleading with him.  Both my parents drank, especially my father, Robert whose drinking escapades were legendary and were well known in family circles. My father would often go out drinking after work with his buddies and be out until the bars closed. On some special nights of debauchery he would show up with a bloody nose, broken of course, with statements “You should see the other guy!” “I really clocked that son-of-a bitch!” Often times he would not make it into work the next day, and the next and subsequently would end up losing his job. He never held a job for very long. My aunt said my mother tried to get him to change, but to no avail.

                Consequently the lonely nights and bouts of depression caused my mother to drink even more. I have faint memories of sitting on her lap the scent of beer on her breath, her right hand tightly holding her bottle of salvation. She would cry and say she wished they could be better parents. I remember saying I love you mommy and saying it would be okay. But it was not going to be okay.

                From what my aunt told me this went on for a several years until that last night. My mother called Ida crying as she had done many times before, but this time it was different. There was resolve in her voice. A dry, sober, clear direction as she poured her heart out to Ida. She asked her sister to take me in and watch me for a few weeks while she tried to work things out with Robert. Ida asked her if she was sure as she knew nothing about children and had none of her own, but she pleaded and so Ida agreed, for as long as it takes.

                Mom brought me to Aunt Ida’s and Uncle George’s house. She must have been planning this as she had my things carefully packed. My Sunday best clothes, my favorite jammies, my teddy bear, and my favorite toys. She had quite a few things with me. Uncle George carried my things in to the house while Ida hugged my mother, they were both crying. I don’t remember much, but I do remember that night, my mother looked so pretty wearing one of her favorite dresses, she smelled of vanilla and onions (funny the things you remember) she picked me up, told me she loved me and told me to be good for my aunt and uncle and that she would see me real soon. “What about daddy? I asked”  She said; “Honey, mommy has to work out some things with daddy so our family can get better, but In the meantime you stay with your aunt and uncle. “John”; she said; “I want you to promise to always be a good boy and to do your best in school” “And don’t forget that I will always love you son.” She then set me down and ran to her car crying like she was afraid that if she stayed any longer that she would not be able to go. That was the last time I saw my mom. I remember that I didn’t cry at all when she left.  And I didn’t cry much when I found out later that they both had died. It was almost as if I expected it to happen.

                Now my aunt Ida was a unique person to say the least. She was the older than my mother by 10 years. To me she seemed ancient. She was 45 years old. She had always told her sister that if god meant for her to have kids she would have had them. Unfortunately she and her husband were unable to conceive. She had a loud voice and a hefty laugh that filled a room. She was very bright and was a voracious reader like her father. She loved keeping up-to-date with current events and often had women to her home for conversation and tea.  She lived in a very large old house in an eclectic neighborhood of various styles of expensive homes. The house sat on a hill and was surrounded by a beautiful garden. She tended to the garden daily spending many hours pruning and weeding. To me it was like I had moved to a palace! In my short little life all I knew was a small apartment where I had a small bedroom and very little yard to play in. I had spent my play time playing in the apartment parking lot or on special days my mom would drive me to the park where would swing on the swings. Those were special days. But those days ended when my parents drinking increased.

Ida was a large women, but built strong and tall. She carried herself with strength and poise. She gathered my things and found a room in the second floor of the home where she made a makeshift room for me.  “John” she said; “I am sorry that this doesn’t look like much of a kid’s room.” “It was set up mainly for visitors.” She set my things down and started putting my clothes away in the dresser. I didn’t say much except thank you.  “John” she said; “If you want you can relax in your room or you can come downstairs and help me fix dinner?” “Okay” I said. “Alright” she said. “You just let me know.” She disappeared down the stairs towards the kitchen.

                I sat down on the bed and looked around. It looked a little like my old room at the apartment, but it was musty smelling and the decorations looked very plain, not like my room which had colorful curtains, blue colored walls and my bedspread was covered in a western pattern with cowboys. I just loved cowboys. Some of my favorite shows were Rawhide, and reruns of the Rifleman. I also like watching old westerns like the Lone Ranger. I sat there for a while, then I crawled onto the bed and stretched out on the bed. I must not have realized how tired I was because it did not take long before I fell asleep…and I dreamed…in my dream I saw my mother smiling at me and was taking my hand, we were walking in the park and off in the distance I saw my father…then I got scared…he started coming towards me and I froze…then I woke up with a start! “John!” “John!” “Dinner is ready!” Came my aunt Ida’s voice from downstairs… I jumped up and walked to the door and went downstairs for dinner…

                Aunt Ida had the table set really nice with nice china and flatware and with cloth napkins and fresh flowers from her garden in a vase in the middle of the table. I remember smelling the flowers, the strong scent of roses filled the room. It felt akward being in a strange place. I sat there for a few minutes not exactly sure what to do? After some odd stares from me and figeting in my chair aunt Ida spoke; “Well John, don’t be shy, you are family of course and your uncle and I want you to feel right at home so dig in.” Well I wasn’t sure where to start. Aunt Ida was known to be a good cook from what my mother had said. It certainly looked good… A lot different from what I was used to. There was a wonderful beef roast covered in gravy and carmelized onions, fresh vegtables on the side, and fruit salad. I was fascinated by the fruit salad. It was pink and fluffy with this creamy stuff mixed with the fruit? In a small voice I spoke up; “Aunt Ida, what is that mixed with the fruit?” Aunt Ida said; “Why haven’t you ever tried fruit mixed with whip cream and jello before?” “I made it just for you because I heard that kids love whip cream and jello.” I looked at it again and said; “Oh, I have never had it that way. Mom just used to put fruit on the side or give us apples to eat. It looks good.” I tried it and after that I wanted it at every dinner. Uncle George asked if I wanted seconds, but I was too full. I finished dinner and was so stuffed I thought I would burst! I didn’t realize I was so hungry. We finished dinner and Aunt Ida cleared the table. Uncle George left the table to go settle down in his easy chair to have a smoke on his pipe.  I followed Aunt Ida into the kitchen.

                “I know you have questions John” she said; “I am not sure I can answer them right now. Your mom said she would call and check in with you and see how you were doing.” “Okay.” I said. “Do you think she will call pretty soon?” “Yes, I am sure she will.” Said Ida. “She is just having to work out some things with your father first.” “So John, what would you like to do?” “I have a few board games we could play” “Do you like board games?” Ida said. “No, not really” I said. “But I do like to read and mom did start teaching me how to play chess.” “Well you don’t say?” Ida said. “Your mother did say you were a pretty smart cookie.” “I may be able to help you there.” Aunt Ida motioned to me to follow her through the big old house down a long corridor to a large room with big French doors she opened it up and inside was a large library filled top to bottom with books. I looked long at the room. My eyes followed the shelves up and down and around the room. It seemed there wasn’t a space left that didn’t have a book on the shelf. “This is my own personal library John.” “I have been collecting these books since I was quite little.” “A number of them used to belong to your grandfather John Senior.” I bet your didn’t know that.” “he collected books from all over the place, he traveled all around the world as he was a cartographer.” “What’s a cartographer Aunt Ida?” “Well that’s someone who studies the land and creates maps.” Ida said. “Here look at this old globe over here.” I looked over in the corner of the room near the big bay window that overlooked the garden, it was beautiful, it was very old with ornately carved wood casing and the globe itself was slightly weathered and a bit yellowed, but the maps were still clear and legible. “If you look closely John you will see small marks on the globe where your grandfather had travelled.” “He kept track of all the places he visited.” “He was hired to scout out and map out locations all over the world.” “This house used to be his and when he died he gave it to me to take care of.” Ida said.

                I looked at the globe with fascination. I touched it and spun it gently and watched it turn around and around. I kept thinking wouldn’t it be wonderful if you spun the world around that it could magically turn back time and change things if you could. Make my father not drink and make my mom happy again.

                The next day I was more comfortable with my new housing arrangements and started exploring the old house. My aunt and uncle were pretty easy to be around. My uncle George was educated and went to the university of Berkley and was working at one of the local law firms. My aunt was an elementary school teacher at Longfellow Elementary in Spokane. She taught 3rd grade. But they both were home on the weekends and Aunt Ida was home during the Summer. School had just got out a week ago for me so I had lots of free time on my hands. They inherited the old house from my grandfather who lived to be about 89. I have some memories of visiting him in the home where he spent his last years. I remember visiting him and seeing his small thin frail body was sitting upright in his chair in his private room. He was very kind and would talk to me about his various adventures. He would talk about his visits to Africa, Australia, Eygypt. He worked with various teams of cartographers and explorers that were traveling across country to discover new places and write about the adventures and create new maps of the locations. On one of the last visits that my mother took me too I remember he was not his usual cheery self he was a bit different. He was more talkative than normal, if that’s possible. He kept saying to me that I need to do things with my life and not to waste a day… He was so insistant. I remember him asking me to come closer so he could talk to me better… He reached out all of a sudden grabbed my arm with his bony hand, which was much stronger than it looked, he said; “Johnny, you take care of yourself. You need to go down the right road… Don’t take the wrong road in life…you might miss something…something really important. I got a little scared and pulled away. I said alright grandpa. I will. “He looked at me square in the eyes with this look that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I said “Okay grandpa” again. Mom told me to give him a quick hug, he hugged me back. Then mom talked to him a little while in private and we left. He died a few months later. I sure miss his stories. The places he would talk about. I sure wish I could remember more of his stories, but I was pretty young.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Excerpt from book I am writing...Flash Forward with John Driving back from a friend's party over in Seattle...year about 1977. Forgive the grammar. It is a rough draft.


Wrong Turn

by Ida Brown
Ch.1 Wrong Turn
A lonely twisting road… Snaking back and forth through desolate land and deep canyons… a quiet calm night. The rain soaked road shone like a black snake reflected in the moonlight… It’s sinister body slithering along the hills and canyons. The mouth of the snake waiting to swallow whole and devour whatever fell in its path.

I was just getting back from visiting a friend’s house in Seattle on Saturday. I had been driving at night. The weather was really crappy. It was dark and the road was really slippery. I was visiting my friend Eric in Seattle who had just graduated from high school and we were out late celebrating… Now I am driving down this winding road in the middle of the state trying to get home to Spokane… It is just pouring down rain and I can hardly see anything! I haven’t seen a car or a house or anything for the last 2 hours… Who would ever be out on a night like this! The rain was coming down so hard I could hardly see… I kept seeing dead deer carcasses on the side of the road… It wasn’t raining when I left. Sure as soon as I start home it does this… “I muttered to myself”.

I kept on driving as though my life depended on it. Thank god I didn’t drink much at Eric’s party… He did enough of that for both of us.  I couldn’t stay as I had to get back to school Monday for the last week of my junior year in high school. As I continued down the road the rain started to slow down and the road returned to this dark black abyss with only my dim headlight as a reminder that there was life on this road, meaning me, that and the dead deer.  I was thinking to myself, Eric, it’s a good thing we were best friends growing up or I wouldn’t be out on a night like this. The things we do for our best friends…

The road was endless. Mile after mile of winding road, it was driving me crazy. I was so tired… I could feel my eyes getting heavy… Why did I stay at the party so late… Probably the pretty blond that seemed to like me and was talking up a storm… Eric was his usual charming self surrounded by girls hanging on his every word. My mind was drifting and I was just thinking that maybe I should pull over when a deer darted out in front of me! I slammed on the brakes! Its glowing eyes met with mine for a second in front of my headlights! It scared the shit out of me! I had to stop for a few minutes and collect myself.  “Death by deer, what a way to go John. I told myself. ””And I didn’t even get a chance to call that pretty blonde back!” I decided that I would try to drive just a little longer, but much slower this time so that I had more warning if a deer decided to kamikaze on me… I started up the car again and proceeded ever so carefully down the road when my headlights spotted something off to my right in the ditch… It was a flash of some color…. I slowed down and stopped. What the hell was I doing? “I said to myself” “It is fucking late—3:00 in the morning, I am tired, and I want to go home!” “I should just keep going,” But something was pulling me back. Something telling me to look off the road. Like a giant hand had grabbed me and was pulling me back and taking my foot off the gas pedal.

So I backed up to where I thought I saw something. It was so dark and the hill off the side of the road was steep. I stopped and looked through the window… I could just barely make out some dark object with maybe a greenish color? It was pretty large… “Shit, I fumbled in the dark for my flashlight; at least I think I had one. I had borrowed the car from my Aunt Ida and she usually kept one in her glove box. I found it and I stumbled out the driver’s door. Thankfully the rain had stopped and there was a full moon out, but the clouds were covering the moon so that it barely peered behind the clouds. I slipped and fell on my ass a couple times on the wet ground as I tried to look over the edge… I pointed my flashlight down the steep incline… It was a car…

Working More On Book

Well, I have been writing more chapters of my book. It is going to be targeted at Juvenile to Young Adult  readers age 13-18. Middle School to High School age. It is set in beginning in the 1960's and follows the life of this young boy into adulthood. It is full of colorful characters and has some sad disturbing scenes as well as some uplifting and inspirational moments. Having been through the 1960's and having been a teen in the 1970's I can really draw upon my experiences from those times. It was an interesting time in the 1960's for kids. No video games, we just barely started getting color t.v.. We played outside all day. Our parents didn't hover over us wherever we went. We lived life more on the edge! Then we move into the 1970's. A time of Love, Flower Power. Protest against Vietnam, smoking pot! Of course that one is back. We also experienced Disco! Who can forget the bell bottom pants, big hair. It was quite a decade! Remember the pong games that were the first video games! Pinball arcades where you whiled away the hours sticking quarter after quarter in the machines...

I may or may not put in excerpt of the book. But then I don't want to give away anything. The work is copyrighted. I do have a pay pal account so if people are interested. Or if you promise just to read and share, and not steal... Then you can read it... I can post the start of the book and if people happen to read it and want more... Let me know... You can join my site and convince me to write more... My teen age son is already giving me good reviews and he is an avid reader who is my toughest critic. He liked it so well he said..."No more Mom" "I want to read it myself" "I want to be surprised!"

Far Out! And groovy man! Dig your shades man... Where are my flared jeans! I want my choker necklace with the cool leather straps and studs! Rock on! Give me a toke!

Ida