Spirits and Demons

New Home

                                                          Part Thirty Three

  The liquor storage room in the rear of Carl's bar was rather small in size. Cases of whiskey and beer had to be moved and stacked on one side of the room in order to fit seven people inside. Sunday when the bar was closed, Virginia set-up a single queen size bed and connected a gas stove to provide heat and to use it for cooking. The storage room held a permanent stench from stale cigarette smoke and alcohol oozing in from the front of the bar where the customers sat. A large washtub was used for baths since there was no bathtub or shower. A single, tiny window was near the top of one wall and it had burglar bars on it. The bars name was Boots and Ethel's and Carl had purchased it from some bikers a few months back. Virginia cleaned it up the best she could and began replacing the rock and roll records on the jukebox with country music. Even though she and Carl were in the middle of changing the biker bar to a country bar, the bikers had no other bar to go to. Mike recalled it was one of the craziest things he'd ever seen before. Cowboys and bikers fighting over the bar changing hands went on for months. Over every little thing from which records would be put on and taken off of the jukebox to who was sitting on which barstool at the bar. They'd fight on the dance floor out into the parking lot. It was never a dull moment and Mike did all he could to keep his siblings safe in the small, cramped liquor storage room they were living in. Many fights erupted over the biker's and cowboy's girlfriends. One of the cowboy's girlfriends was drunk and flirting with some of the bikers. It wasn't long after that when they went outside arguing and a biker beat the jealous cowboy up in the gravel parking lot. The beat up drunk cowboy finally got up off of the ground and with his girlfriend trying to get in his truck, he drove away running over and killing her. Mike kept his siblings in their room so they wouldn't find out what had happened. The fighting at the bar continued and Carl was finally able to convince Virginia to move her children into his house at the end of the gravel road. No one was happier than Mike when he realized they'd be living in a house again after the long months being cramped in the liquor storage room. Mike had been sleeping on the hard surface of the pool table late at night after the bar was closed since there was nowhere else to sleep. There just wasn't enough room in the one bed for him and all of his siblings. To be able to sleep in a soft bed again was a relief for everyone.

  The next weekend arrived, Jimmy Don and Mike moved into one of Carl's rental houses situated right next door to Carl's house. Ricky and Ronny were upset since their mother made them live in Carl's house but on weekends she'd let them stay with Jimmy Don and Mike. Jimmy Don and Mike were both in junior high school and had homeroom together since Jimmy Don had failed a grade. Their mother and Carl were always working at the bar so Jimmy Don and Mike began having parties every friday and saturday night. They'd only invite ten or twenty friends but before long there would be up to fifty and sixty kids coming over every weekend to drink beer and smoke pot. The parties really got out of hand but being right outside of city limits, there was rarely a problem. The stereo's volume would be high as it could go and everyone would be dancing up a storm. It got to where their friend's parents would happily drop their friends off every weekend just to get rid of them. Once in a while a deputy would come by after receiving complaints from some of the parents about their children drinking and smoking pot. The deputy related to the complaining parents to simply not allow their children to go to Jimmy Don and Mike's house and there wouldn't be any problems. Any time a deputy would drive up, all the beer and pot would be taken out of the back door and hidden in the edge of the woods. No one was ever caught with anything yet the deputy could easily tell many of the kids were drunk and stoned. He'd give a stern warning and drive away. Jimmy Don and Mike would turn the music down and all of the lights off before their mother and Carl would arrive home from the bar. The funny thing was there would always be several kids that didn't go home and they could be found passed out all over the place from the previous night's partying. Jimmy Don and Mike wouldn't know who some of the kids were and they'd wake them up, telling them they had to leave and to please not return unless they were invited.