A STRANGER IN PRISON

          Mom was really upset.  Her father had been incarcerated in Montana.  She had a lot of superstitions.  She started screaming when a bird got into the house.

          “A bird in a house means someone is going to die!”

          To make things worse the bird didn’t make it.  It was hurt as everyone was trying to get it out of the house.

          “I just know Daddy is going to die!” Mom kept saying,

          Our whole house was in an uproar.  The following morning I went to school with out Mom.  During the day Deryl called me at school. I could tell he had been drinking.  I could hear Mom the background.

          “Do you want me to come and get you from school?”

          “No.  I’m staying all day.” I said emphatically.

          I wasn’t sure what was happening but school seemed like a better choice.

          When Bronco and I arrived at home from school, Uncle Darin was at our house.  Uncle Darin was Mom’s youngest brother.  He lived in Albuquerque. He was tall with dark curly hair and deep brown eyes.  When I was younger I enjoyed being around him.  He played the guitar and I would make up songs and give them to him to play.  But unfortunately he was an alcoholic.  Mom blamed his drinking on a failed marriage and that he had a broken heart.  As the years passed, he was no longer the uncle I looked forward to being around.  He was becoming more belligerent and when he drank he was mean.

          Mom, Deryl and Darin had been drinking together.         

          “We’ve been waiting for you to get home,” Mom said. “We’re leaving for Montana.”

           We drove straight through.  The adults took turns driving. When we passed through Wyoming, the fog was so thick the car was crawling.  Eventually Bronco and I fell asleep.

          It was strange entering the old, massive prison building.  Stranger yet, was the sight of the older man, talking to Mom, Darin and Deryl through a small barred window: and knowing he was my grandfather. 
        I didn’t listen to the conversation.  Bronco and I wondered around the room investigating the old pictures fastened to the stonewalls.  The man behind the window was a stranger to me. I barely remembered him.  This was only the third and the last time I would see him. Later in the car, Mom made a comment:   "After daddy gets out of prison he might live with us".

         (I was wondering where I could live if I left home.)

          Some time later I heard one of my Aunts comments: “I don’t know why Wanda cares anything about him and how she can be so good to him.  She was the one he abused the most." 

          Mom never returned to high school.  She had lost her determination to get her diploma. 

          Deryl was home less and there definitely was tension in the air.  Money was short and we ate a lot of eggs and toast.  I should have known change was in the air.

(Mom's dad never came to live us.)

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http://footprintslife.blogspot.com/2013/06/philipsburg_10.html The beginning of the story... 

SENIOR MOTHER

          My walked briskly down the sidewalk to Hotchkiss High school and opened the front door.  The halls were empty. We were late. The opening assembly for the beginning of school had already begun in the gym.

          “Gloria, wait up!”

          I waited as Mom caught up to me; her arms were filled with her new school supplies.  My thirty-five year old Mother was returning to school as a senior.

          We entered the full gym and sat on a front bleacher.  I was sure every eye was turned our way.

          After the assembly I hurried in the direction of my first class leaving Mom to find her own way to her class.

           “Gloria, was that your mother with you in the gym?” Alice asked

as we walked down the hall.

          “Yes, she is going to be a senior and get her high school diploma.”

          “What does it feel like having your mother at school with you?” my fellow student asked with a chuckle in her tone.

          “I better not say.”

          Mom did great at school.  She made straight A’s.  We had seniors at our house studying and she was the center of attention.

          I couldn’t compete with her.  I became more of a socialite.  Unfortunately, Mom had access to all my teachers who told her I would make better grades if I wasn’t such a social butterfly.
                               ***********************************

          Deryl’s construction job was keeping him away during the week. Mom, Bronco and I were in the country in that big farmhouse.  My imagination was still bothering me every night.  I began sleeping downstairs instead of alone upstairs in my room.  Mom never admitted it, but I thought she was having some fears also.

          I was popular with the 10^th grade girls this year.  Diane talked to me about the way they had treated me the year before and she and I became close friends.  Diane was a Hotchkiss.  Her family had founded the town of Hotchkiss.  Her parents had been killed and her Aunt and Uncle were raising her.

          A new girl came into school her name was Beverly.  She was living with her grandparents.  She never did confide why she had left her Mom and Dad.

We became good friends and one day I confided to her the fear I was struggling with.  I felt better just talking about it.

          One Sunday afternoon we were discussing UFO’s and if they were real.  “I have an idea let’s look in the Bible,” I suggested.

          I opened my white Bible and laid it on the bed. Beverly and I sat cross-legged on my bedspread.  We didn’t know where to start, so we began with Revelations.  Both of us were limited in our knowledge but we were fascinated by the angels and beasts we read about.

Comment...I found it interesting that we were interested in the Bible...and that we chose Revelations to try to understand....Gloria

http://footprintslife.blogspot.com/2013/06/philipsburg_10.html The beginning of the story...