May 1, 2013

• Starting Early

  I was a preteen. It was sometime in the mid 80′s. A neighbor (An arch enemy) about five houses down had FINALLY moved away. And a card arrived on our doorstep telling us to welcome Chuck, Becky and Samantha. A Samantha! Nobody else EVER had that name back then! 

  We always cut through that yard to get to John’s house. (John was my brother’s best friend. He had a younger brother my age, Daniel. We were like brothers and sister.) So, the lady was out there and we stopped to say hello. She was like a living Barbie doll. I reckon she was in her early 20s, and I asked her if she was Samantha. She said no, her daughter was. (Her daughter was just a little baby, and SO CUTE!) And how did I know that? Turns out the mortgage company left the cards. 

  I guess she was trying to hold onto her youth. She began to sort of hang out with us, when she was not at work. She would take us to the mall. And not the one in Winston Salem. The Four Seasons mall that was like an hour and a half away. It was a whole lot bigger. And in those days, all the cool kids hung out at the mall.

  She would buy her baby daughter Samantha gummy bears, and we would window shop for hours. It was fun hanging out with her. 

  Then she got a new car. I don’t remember what kind, but she was really proud of it. By this time, she had gotten pregnant and was really showing. This guy named Chad had joined our gang, and i had a sort of a crush on him. She had taken all of us to the mall, and it was on the way home. In her new car. I was riding shot gun, and Chad was directly behind me. He was reaching over and tickling me, and I was laughing. And then it happened.

  Bu-bump.

   

  It was only about a mile and a half from home. When we got out, there was a big dent in the lower passenger side. I don’t know what she hit, but she was very angry about that. Everyone else had trotted on home, and it was just me and her. She chewed me out. 

  By the time I got home, of course, I was in tears. My big brother asked me what happened, and I told him. (One of the few times he ever took up for me,) He went straight back to her house and chewed her out. A few minutes after he got back, she showed up.

  I knew who was at the door. When mom called me, I said I didn’t want to come out. I sat under my window and listened to her apologize to my mother, blaming her outburst on her pregnancy. But I wouldn’t come out and talk to her. I listened as she said she hoped that we could still be friends and we were still welcome to come over to her house. 

   

  I never went to visit her again after that day. Not once. And I never even really thought about that or her anymore for years. 

  Today in town, a car went by and someone was reaching from the back to the front, and it reminded me of all that. I guess it’s another one of my quirks, but I have always been that way, as this story proves. If you cross a certain line with me, I am done with you forever. And I guess this is just part of my nature. But this has never changed about me. The line of what I take has, but not that factor after it has been crossed. 

  • 3:48 pm
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