Spirits and Demons

Searching For A Home

                                                                  Part Eleven

  Bonnie's son, Donnie Ray was already on his way to becoming institutionalized even though he was only eleven years of age. The first night that Virginia and her children had moved in, the police came in the middle of the night to pick Donnie Ray up and take him to the Louisiana Training Institute for boys since he'd stolen a neighbor's bicycle. He said he'd only stolen it for the front tire he needed for his bicycle. He gave the police the front tire he had hidden under his bed and took the police to the woods where he'd thrown the rest of the bike. Needless to say, James Michael suffered from the fallout since he tried to make friends with the neighbors only to be scolded for living in the same house as Donnie Ray's family. Nothing was out of bounds and there was no discipline at all for the children. They'd sneak beer, wine, whiskey and be as drunk as the adults. James Michael's only hope was to get out of there as soon as possible, at least to a comfortable environment somewhere that he hoped existed.

  Louisiana rains came and it flooded everywhere. Donnie Ray came home on a weekend visit from the LTI. He,  Jimmy Don, and James Michael took Billy Ray's aluminum boat and paddled straight from the front door of the house, down the driveway onto the street and then the highway and paddled all the way, six miles to Cheniere Lake and fished all day long. The flood had left two feet of standing water everywhere so paddling wasn't a problem. Towards the evening they paddled all the way back home with the fish they'd caught. A big fish fry and party were held this night since Donnie Ray had to go back to the LTI the next day. What a party it was, James Michael will never forget the drunks falling into the fire and everyone having to pull them out before they burned to death. James Michael took his medicine daily and hoped his health would improve faster so he could run away to a better life somewhere else, far away from the miserable life he was forced to live around all the alcoholics and violence.

  Arlis would come over on a regular basis and beat up Billy Ray, Louis, and any other adult males that would happen to be around. The next thing James Michael knew, everyone packed all the belongings they could into two cars and moved to Kansas City, Missouri to get away from Arlis. On the way to Missouri, all the kids were hungry and of course the adults were busy drinking, not tending to the kids. It was a very long drive so a rest break was taken near some apple orchards right off of the highway. Ricky, Ronny, Chip, and the rest of the kids ransacked the apple trees, bringing back all the apples they could carry in their t-shirts rolled up to their necks. The kids were famished and it wasn't long before they began fighting one another for the apples even though they'd twenty or thirty apples apiece. James Michael was too weak to even pick the apples from the trees, so of course he was happy Ricky and Ronnie shared a few of their apples with him. The long drive took nearly twenty four hours since it was well over eight hundred miles from West Monroe, Louisiana to Kansas City, Missouri. Arriving in the middle of the night, everyone climbed five flights of stairs to the fifth floor apartment that was rented by the week. A bloody fight was going on in the hallway between some alcoholics who'd stabbed one another over the last drink of cheap wine in a bottle lying on the floor. James Michael cried silently as he made his way into the apartment to find somewhere to lie down for some much needed sleep and rest. It took him quite a while to fall asleep amidst the unfamiliar, big city noises at night. He lay still, pondering what life in the big city would be like, especially after witnessing the bloody brawl in the hallway just moments before.