I had been in Washington about two months and what had started out so good was now deteriorating into chaos, Things were tense at both work and home but at least at work I still had Lance in my corner. I may have pissed off his dad and step-mom, but he was behind me 100% and that was somewhat reassuring. Then came the night I lost that as well… The bar was completely empty except for me and the cook who was busy cleaning up. In walks a friend who comments on the fact that the place is empty and asks if I want to smoke one? Common sense would have immediately said no with the microscope that I was under but when it comes to weed, I have no common sense so I said sure and we went to the upper level to partake. before we went I made the mistake of telling the cook (someone I considered a friend and had been out drinking with on several occasions) what I was doing and to keep an eye on the bar, he said no problem and I was off for a smoke. When we returned downstairs I was nice and stoned and still no one in the bar. I closed up shop and headed home for the night. The next day when I get to work. Lance greets me coldly and asks if I would come back to the office. I was puzzled but I went back with him and once there he pulls out a form and tells me to sign it. I look at it and see that it is a resignation form and he wants me to quit, I ask what the problem is and he tells me about the night before. I knew it was the cook and I said so and refused to sign the paper. He was fearful that I might do something to the cook so he tells me he will give me one more chance but that I was on my last warning. I thanked him and promised not to say anything to the cook other than we are not friends anymore and somehow kept my job, but I knew it was only a matter of time as I had lost my final supporter and within a week, I got a call from the big boss (Lance’s dad) to tell me that I was no longer employed there. I accepted with humility and even thanked him for the job, I knew I wanted to stay on good terms because most of the new friends I had made were the people there and I wanted to be on one side of the bar or the other.
Now I had to find a new job, I had not been saving money and I was very low on funds but with things being tense with the girls, I could not start mooching food off them as well. I remembered the friend that had owed me when I initially took off called to see if he had it yet. He said no but that he had money coming in at the end of the month and he would pay me then for sure. I believed him as his word had always been good in the past, only thing was that I needed the money now. I called my brother who was also friends with the guy and since they were both in the same town, I thought it would be easy for him to get it and send it to me. I asked if he would send money right away and then get paid back at the end of the month. He said sure and I felt relieved, I would be getting about $500 within the next week, plenty to last until I could find a new job. Or so that’s what I thought, one week went by and no money. I thought the post office is usually slow so that is what it must be. Then another week goes by, I was starting to worry that maybe it was lost in the mail but I keep faith. After the third week with no money, I was doing just what I wanted to avoid, mooching off the girls food. The thread that I was hanging by was starting to fray. Sometime during the fourth week the money arrives with no letter of explanation so I decide to give my brother a call. He tells me that he did not send the money right away instead waiting to get it from our mutual friend before he sent it on. I asked him why? That he knew I needed it to eat and why would he do that? He tells me that he will not be offering any help again and that he thinks that I deserve to be in a cage. I was shocked! This from the same guy that used to sell and do just about any drug he thought he could make money off of? My brother and I had been very close growing up as we had no other siblings, were close in age and had no father. ( we had a step father but he was more of a drill sergeant than a father, and that wasn’t until we were 8 and 10 years old ) So it felt like a knife in the heart to hear my only brother say those words to me. I reacted in pain telling him to ‘fuck off’ and that I never wanted to see or talk to him again and hung up the phone. It would be the last time I would talk to him for nearly five years.
Things felt like they were spiralling out of control and only got worse when the eggshells I had been walking on at home finally broke. The girls sat me down and told me that I would have to leave, they told me I could have two weeks to find somewhere. I felt very depressed for the next few days, wondering if this would be my last stand, I felt as though my whole journey had been a failure and that I would be going back with my tail between my legs and I started to mentally prepare for such a reality. One night while drowning myself with some beers down at Draft Pic’s, one of the regulars comes over and says “I hear you are looking for a place to stay?” I tell him that I am but ‘I have no job which means no money’, to which he replies “one of my tenants runs a construction crew and could use some help”. I instantly perk up thinking maybe this could work. I tell him that I have no construction experience and he says It should be no problem because he is only looking for a basic laborer and gives him a call to see if it will work. He said no problem and that I coud start the next day. Wow, what a turn around, I came out to drink my problems away and it turns into a whole new opportunity to extend my freedom! I told him that I would be there in the morning and headed out with a big smile on my face, I went home and informed the girls that I had sorted out a place and a job, they were very happy for me, and even happier that I would be leaving on the week-end. I started the next day and was hoping to work around the legal obligations required with employment and was unfortunately told that it would have to be by the book and once again I used my real name and social security number, I didn’t like it but saw no alternative.
I moved into my new digs that week-end, the place was across the river in Mount Vernon. It had 4-bedrooms and 2 baths. The three bedrooms upstairs were all taken by the owner, my boss, and another friend from the bar. I was lucky enough to get the basement room, it was isolated from the rest of the house and had its own bathroom, it was almost like having my own apartment. I was puzzled as to why no one else would want this room as I thought it was the best one in the house, it only took until that evening to find out why. Besides a bedroom in the basement there was also a nice rec-room and the guys that lived there all grew up in the area and liked to party all the time. The rec-room was the center of said parties, and right next to my room. For me it was no problem as I was an avid party animal myself and thought that this would be the best place to live in town! I started to settle in and feel at home, my new roommates were all very cool and the parties were having a nice effect on my love life, having a bedroom right next to the party definitely has its advantages. The emotional rollercoaster was back on a peak and I was feeling great, my fortunes had changed very quickly and I was grateful for that but I knew they could change back just as quick so I was cautiously optimistic about what came next. Little could I imagine of how much better things were about to get.
A Continuing Story About Life On The Run