We lived in a small apartment in Chicago. It was just me, my mom and my little brother. I was 19 years old and what you would call a pretty tough kid. Working out in the gym and hanging out with my friends was my favorite pastime. As I got older, I started getting into more trouble. Stealing and doing drugs with my friends became a rush that often landed me in jail. I never served time but my mom was at a loss as to what to do with me.
Summer was approaching and my mom was dreading to have to deal with another summer of me getting into trouble. I overheard her talking with my dad on the phone one evening.
She approached me and said, "I've been talking with your father, and although he's been a terrible father, I think it's best that you go and spend the summer with him."
Needless to say I wanted nothing to do with it. I told her that there was no way I was going to spend time with that dead-beat father.
You see my father left us shortly after I was born. He was heavy into drugs and spent time in prison for felony theft. Although looking back, it seems like I was headed down the same path. However in my eyes he was still scum. The only time I had ever met my father was when he got out of prison - I must have been about 7 years old.
After prison he tried turning his life around. He was renting a small farm in Kentucky, had a girlfriend living with him and together they had a daughter. He fathered his daughter, my half sister, who is only a year younger than me, shortly after leaving my mom and I and before being sent to prison. His girlfriend however, was waiting for him openly when he got out of prison.
Anyway, there was no way I was going to stay there. Things kind of changed though. I was out one night with my friends. One of my friends wanted to break into a store, which was not a good idea. As the brick went flying through the window, it was obviously too late for me to stop him. With sirens blaring, my friend, hoodie over his head, jumped into the store as I instinctively followed. Unfortunately I did not have time to cover my face, and was fully exposed to the security camera watching our every move.
I ended up at the police station. My mom had to come and try to get me out. As I'm waiting in the cell, one of the guards brings me out. There's my mom, with a look of complete disgust and loss in her eyes. They tell me I have two options, go to jail or spend the summer with my father. Apparently my mother had long discussion with the detective and pleaded with him that I get that option so that I stay out of jail, and my mom wouldn't have to worry about me through the entire summer.
As I hear their ultimatum, I'm thinking that I'll do neither. I'll tell the cops that I'll spend the summer with my dad but I just wont go. I figure I'll just hang out at one of my friends for the summer. But then the cop tells me after I agree to spend the summer with my dad, "If we find you out on the streets you'll do hard time. ..and whoever we find you with will be charged with harboring a fugitive. No questions asked this time. We're giving you a huge break. ...any judge that sees your rap sheet wouldn't hesitate to through you away."
I still have it in my head that they wont catch me. But unfortunately word gets around about the part where anybody I'm caught with will be charged as well. My friends are all telling me to just go, after all it's only for a few months. So reluctantly I go.
I talked to my dad on the phone a few times before leaving, so we got to know each other a little bit before I show up. I learn that my half-sister (blood related through my dad) is a really good kid, with good grades and all. So I'm thinking, great, here's this nerdy girl I'll have to deal with all summer long.
The drive down was painfully long. It was the worst feeling, knowing I'd be dropped off there for the entire summer. My little brother was in the back seat complaining the whole ride, which made things even more dismal.
We pulled off the highway onto a rural road. From there onto an even smaller road, and then a dirt road. I stared out the window as the dust from our tires blurred everything behind us. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but farm fields. I thought to myself, "how can anybody live out here."
We finally came to a mailbox with our destination address marked on it. There was a long driveway that seemed to vanish into the distance as it wound up a slight hill. As we pulled into the gravel driveway and made our up over the hill, the small little farmhouse came into view almost out of nowhere.
It was almost exactly as I had pictured. To the left of the house was a barn, and behind the house towered a larger barn. The house was a modest two story typical looking farmhouse, painted white, with a covered porch that wrapped around most of the front. Trees shaded the perimeter of the house. On the porch was a group of people waiting for our arrival. Sitting on the porch swing was my dad and his girlfriend Gale. I could see that Gale was a very large women, not very tall but very wide.
Sitting on the porch steps where three girls about my age. One was rail thin, the other was smoking hot, and the third had a body that mirrored Gale's. I thought, "the large one has to be my half sister."
As we pulled up and got out of the car, my dad walked up and hugged me, which kind of took me by surprise. Considering his past, I was expecting him to have less emotions - certainly not hugging me. He was a large man, and the years of drug and other abuses were evident on his body. We were introduced to the girls on the steps, and to my surprise, my half sister Stephani was not the fat one, rather the really good looking one. The other two where her friends.
My mom and brother stayed for a short while talking but not for long as they wanted to hit the road to get back home before it got too late. When they left it was a bit awkward of a feeling. But my dad said, "lets get your things and show you your room."
Inside the house was small and smelled old, but it was clean and nicely decorated. Like most of the house, my room was very small. The room consisted of a single bed, which took up nearly the entire room for the exception of a small path along one wall with the bed pushed into the corner. There was one small window to let some light in and sparse built-in closet.
I dropped my things on the bed and was shown around the rest of the house to get more familiar with things. As we made our way back outside, Gale asked Stephani and her friends, who were still on the front porch, to show me around outside.
Stephani and her friends walked by around to the back of their house. On the back of the house was a small screened in porch. She pointed out the fields that were theirs, and the two barns. The fields seemed to go on as far as the eye could see. They also had some chickens and goats.
We ended up sitting in the barn talking for a while. As they talked, I started to get the impression that Stephani was a stuck-up little brat. Not at all the type of girls I was used to hanging or being associated with. But what was I to do? I was stuck there for the entire summer.
