Spirits and Demons

Nowhere To Go

                                                               Part Forty One

  Several years went by, Virginia married and separated from Carl and she moved into the rental house with her children. She kept one bar and Carl kept the other two bars. Home life had gotten completely out of control, her barmaids were staying drunk and popping pills, not to mention all the guys who followed them to the house. Virginia had a rule that no guys could move in, though they were welcome to visit if they were dating one of the barmaids. Often times Mike and his siblings ended up having to sleep on the screened in porch since there were so many barmaids living there. Sleeping bags and blankets were spread across sleeper sofas that had been placed on the porch. It was difficult to sleep with all of the coming and going's on, yet they adapted somehow and still made it to school. There was the common fistfight between guys over the same barmaid on occasion with the winner ending up taking the barmaid out on a date. There was Betty, Carlene, Ingrid, Charlene, Rose Marie, and Judy just to name a few. Virginia encouraged them to dance with the customers at the bar and get them to buy drinks and shoot pool. All in all things went fairly smooth, income from the bar allowed Virginia to raise her children and pay the bills.

  Ricky and Ronny had found work in Winnie and finally were able to share a house with some friends they'd met. A few years living in Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Sis's garage had toughend them up even more. Jimmy Don was running around with a bad crowd and eventually got caught with drugs. The judge gave him an ultimatum, either join the military as soon as he turned eighteen or go to jail. He joined the navy and was sent to San Diego, California for boot camp and then on to the island of Guam. Mike graduated high school miraculously and met Terri, whom he married in December the same year he graduated. He was signed up for college and when time arrived for him to start, he discovered his records were lost by the college and he wasn't allowed to attend. Virginia had met a new boyfriend and was flying all over the states with him, leaving Tommy and Kathy in the care of the barmaids. She contacted Mike and asked him if he would move Tommy and Kathy in with him and Terri since the state authorities discovered she was never home to raise them and they'd begun proceedings to take Tommy and Kathy away from her and place them in foster homes. Mike felt he had no choice but to move them in, even though he and Terri lived in a tiny, two room house. Terri pregnant, Mike, Tommy, and Kathy had to sleep all in one bed and it was too crowded. Every day Mike arrived home from work, his mother in law Judy was on his doorstep to greet him. It was driving him insane, all the pressure of taking care of his siblings, being married with a baby on the way and his mother in law at his house all of the time. Terri couldn't cook so Mike had to cook for everyone every evening he'd get home from work. He had a talk with Terri and she informed him she didn't love him, she was in love with his brother Ricky. Mike was deeply hurt and in shock, and realized to himself that he wasn't in love with Terri either. Feeling as if he would lose his mind, Judy approached him and demanded he put Tommy and Kathy in the street to fend for themselves even though they were only eleven and nine years of age. Mike felt as though he'd never experienced such hate similar to this in all his days. The pressure had become so great, he took Terri to her parents house and related to them since she was in love with Ricky, he felt it was appropriate for her to move back in with them. She was four months pregnant, Mike knew he'd tried to make the marriage work but it didn't stand a chance now that he was also having to deal with finding a home for Tommy and Kathy. No where to go, he took Tommy and Kathy back to their mother's rental house to live and he stayed there also trying to figure out what to do, where he'd live. With his two youngest siblings back in the care of the barmaids, Mike rented a room not far away in a bachelor house. Every day before work he'd go by and get Tommy and Kathy ready for school, and every evening after work he'd go by and take care of them until their mother would come home home late at night from working at the bar. The barmaids were too unpredictable and unstable to take care of them, staying drugged up and drunk all of the time. The pressure was all too much for Mike and it began wearing on him more and more. All he could think of was he'd soon have a son that he wouldn't be living with to take care of, two siblings still on the run in Texas, two siblings with no parental direction, a brother in the military still on drugs, and their mother being taken advantage of by her new boyfriend. Mike was convinced his only escape was to begin taking drugs and drink, anything to help him remain sane and block out the harsh realities of life, and ignore the deep hatred that had permeated the soul of someone one would never expect.