Hey! You! Get Out of My Way! Part 6 Leaving Home

The next morning I wake up. Vinny is still snoring. Someone is walking through the house banging on doors. I can hear a flurry of activity, including doors being opened and slammed. There is a lot of noise but Vinny is still sound asleep, still snoring away. I don’t know what to do or where to go. I slip out of bed, throw on my jeans and slip into the hallway.

In the hallway a small hippie looking woman wearing thick glasses and Birkenstock sandals is standing outside of the bathroom door on the landing. “You have 4 more minutes,” she is yelling to whoever is in the shower. I can hear the water running.

I start to slide past her and she looks up at me stopping me. “Lorraine,” she says extending her hand. I reach out my hand and grasp hers. “You must be Geoff,” she says as she looks into my eyes. “Laroy told me all about you.” Her hands are rough and slightly cold. She leans closer to me. “Also don’t worry about Vinny, he means you no harm.”  I can tell from her look that she is trying to communicate that everyone here has problems. I nod my acknowledgement to what she has said and head down the stairs.

What was a quiet place last night is now a beehive of activity. There are about 15 people running around. Everyone seems to have a task. Some are cooking breakfast and getting the resident kids on their way to school, others are moving in and out of the office. Across from the office is the telephone we are allowed to use. Sherry is sitting there on the phone, silently using the pick on her hair. She looks up at me smiles and mouths the words “court today.”

 I walk to the end of the hallway and into the kitchen. There food is laid out cafeteria style. It seems to be massive pans of pancakes, eggs, bacon and oatmeal. People swarm around me on their way to whatever they are doing. Everyone who passes reaches out a hand, rubbing my back, touching my arm or the occasional hug. There are so many staff members and so many names to learn. My head is spinning.

I walk in to the dining room. Jay T. Tucker is happily gobbling down a stack of pancakes. He looks up at me. “Jay T. Tucker is a mean mother fucker,” I say. He laughs and a gob of pancake lands on his chin. I am now more convinced than ever that he is retarded.

Lorraine walks up behind me, wraps her arm around my neck. “Your social worker just got here.” “You will not go to school today but meet with her.” “We will call the school and let them know where you are.” “Grab some food and a seat,” she gently pushes me in the way of the food.

Walking back into the kitchen, I grab a plate and put a pancake and some egg onto it. Grab a coffee and head back into the dining room. Christine has now joined Jay T. she looks up at me and quickly looks back down to the torn up paper napkin in front of her. As I sit down, she gets up and storms out of the room.

To be continued………….

Geoffrey Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writting "A Day in the Life". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written consent.

Hey! You! Get Out of My Way! Part 5 Leaving Home

Now, I’m not sure what a skull fuck is but I can figure it out as Vinny takes a step closer to me while un-buckling his pants. I slide as far to the top of the bed as I can. “Scream and I’ll kill you,” Vinny says to me a crooked smile crossing his face. I am thinking as quick as I can, look around the room for anything that I might be able to use to stop him.

Vinny takes another step towards me and the adrenaline builds up in me like fuel looking for a place to escape. I spring into the air landing on him, knocking him to the floor. Landing with both legs on his chest I begin to pummel him. “Stop it,” he screams. The adrenaline in me cannot stop me from repeatedly punching him, all the pain and fear is leaving me through my fists.

The door burst’s open and Laroy steps in. “What the fuck is going on?” he screams. “He’s trying to kill me,” Vinny screams. With one hand Laroy grabs the back of my shirt and flings me into the air. I crash into the wall and slide to the floor, knocking over Vinny’s alter with the skull candle on it. Vinny shrieks and runs to save his skull after it hits the floor.

Laroy looks at me and points a finger. “We don’t kill people around here,” he says his face turning a bright red. “Oh yeah, do you skull fuck people here?” I ask. “What the hell are you talking about?” Laroy says looking between Vinny, who is on the floor cleaning up his broken alter and me. “He told me that he was going to skull fuck me and he had me cornered.”  Laroy looks at Vinny who is looking at me mouthing the words “shut up.”

“Again?” Laroy screams this time grabbing Vinny and bringing him to his feet. “How many times do I have to tell you, we don’t tell people we are going to skull fuck them?” Laroy grabs Vinny by the back of his collar and in one move drags him out of the room.

“You’re dead!” Vinny screams. I can hear him being dragged down the stairs. I lie down on the bed and stare at the wall. Hours later I am awoken by the sound of Vinny walking back into the room. ‘Stupid faggot,” he mumbles under his breath.

He silently undresses and climbs into his bed. “You are so dead,” he whispers in my direction. I lay awake but pretend that I am asleep. I only relax when I can hear him snoring softly.

To be continued………….

Geoffrey Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writting "A Day in the Life". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written consent.

Hey! You! Get Out of My Way! Part 4 Leaving Home

I follow quickly. Laroy is walking and talking. He is giving me the history of the house as we go. "It has two additional stories to it," Laroy tells me.

One floor is for the youth who need to stay and another floor is just for staff. Climbing the staircase to the second floor we pass the bathroom. “That’s one of four,” Laroy adds. Slightly winded, Laroy pauses and places one hand on the railing. He coughs into his hand and waits to catch his breath.

From where I am standing I can hear a television. Laroy takes another breath in, straightens up and continues the climb. We walk into the room at the very top of the stairs. “The TV room,” Laroy says with a sweep of his hand. In the center of the room is a giant old black and white tv. Scattered around the room are several boys and girls, everyone is smoking.

“Everyone,” Laroy says addressing the kids who don’t seem to move or look at him. “This is Geoff, make him feel at home.” A couple people look at me. Laroy goes around the room and introduces people.

“Vinny, Christine, Sherry, Alice and Jay T. Tucker this is Geoff. Sherry has a large afro with a pick sticking out of it, a clenched fist is at the end of the pick, she looks at me and nods her head.  Jay T. Tucker lifts his head looks and me and tells me that “He’s a mean mother fucker.” “I’ll remember that,” I say.

Christine looks like a little bird, she is bone white, thin and has a head of uncombed black hair. She coughs into her hand and I notice that her hand is very small and her fingers are red. She looks at me; her eyes are smudged with mascara. She holds onto Vinny’s arm tighter than she already was.

Vinny is tall thin and has his hair cut like Mick Jagger’s. He is wearing combat boots, one foot on the floor the other on the couch. “Can you move?” he says to me. “You’re blocking the set.” “Oh sorry, I quickly say and step to my left. Jay T. is staring at the tv, he looks slightly retarded.

Laroy motions with his hand for me to follow him. We walk into a small entry way next to the tv room. There are three doors off this common room. “Tonight you share.” He motions to one of the rooms and opens the door.

The room is small with two beds. On one side of the room there are psychedelic glow in the dark posters and on the floor by one of the beds is a skull with a candle on it. It’s a skull that would buy in Spencer Gifts. Laroy points at the empty bed.  I walk over and sit on it.

“Make yourself at home, I’m on the overnight shift tonight,” Laroy says while stepping back into the hallway. “I’ll be downstairs, come down when you are done.” And with that he is gone.

I sit on the bed and look around the room. “Welcome to your new life,” I say. I lay down on the bed, tears flow quickly from my eyes. Twenty minutes later the door opens and in walks Vinny. He stands in the doorway and looks at me.

“Shit, are you crying?” he asks. “No,” I say quickly wiping my face. “Good,” he says “I don’t want you crying when I give you a skull fuck.”

With that said he reaches behind himself and pulls the door closed.

To be continued………….

Geoffrey Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writting "A Day in the Life". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written consent.

Hey! You! Get Out of My Way! Part 3 Leaving Home

“The first rule,” Laroy says leaning forward on the desk “is to never talk about Equinox while you live here.” “There are several at risk teens who call this home.” “The second rule is to make sure that no one follows you to the door, we have had a lot of people try to break in to get to someone.” He stands up and walks to the office door. “That’s why we have this,” Laroy leans over and grabs a baseball bat. He swings it and hits an imaginary ball, he watches it fly into the crowd and then makes cheering noises.

“Home run,” he says and laughs. He walks back to the desk using the bat as a cane. “Rule three is no drugs of any kind. You can smoke cigarettes but no weed.” He continues. “I was in the Hells Angels and I know what weed smells like, so please don’t test my skills.” He wiggles his eyebrows up and down and giggles. “You’re gay aren’t you?” Laroy asks narrowing his eyes. “We had a guy named Louie in the Hells Angels, he was gay, what a good friend.” Laroy gets that far away look in his eyes. I try hard to imagine what he could be thinking of. I also try to imagine how accepting the Hells Angels are of gays in their club.

“Now, you can only live here for one month, we don’t have any more room than that,” Laroy says pointing a finger at me. Six months later we would laugh about that rule. Laroy stood up, walked over to a filing cabinet behind me ruffled through it and pulled out a list of rules handing it to me. “Here’s more that I can’t remember,” he giggles again and adds the word “Viola,” when he hands it to me.

 There are rules about smoking, house meetings, bathrooms, bedrooms, sex, school and mandatory meetings that you need to attend with a therapist.  “You will also be assigned to a case worker,” Laroy says “but we will worry about that tomorrow.” Laroy stands up and motions me to follow him into the hallway. A large mirror with a table beneath it reflects my image back at me. My eyes look empty and hollow. Things had gotten so bad at home that I was no longer inside.

Laroy turns and walks to the end of the hall. The first room on the right holds the dining room and an upright piano. The sheet music for “The Me Nobody Knows” sits on the stand. Laroy continues walking. Through the dining room is a door that takes you into the kitchen. He reaches over and opens the fridge; it is stocked to the gills.  Laroy says to me “You must be hungry, I know I am” He reaches into the fridge and starts to pull out food. He crosses to the cabinet and brings down two of everything, two plates, two cups, two glasses and a handful of napkins. He opens the bread and starts to make me a sandwich. He fills my glass with chocolate milk and does the same for his. He hands me my glass and raises his, “To new beginnings and schizophrenia!” He clicks my glass and drinks down the chocolate milk, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.

“Grab your sandwich and I will show you around.” With that said Laroy leaves the kitchen.

To be continued………….

Geoffrey Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writting "A Day in the Life". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written consent.