The MakeUp Artist Internship

Rob Thompson

     I remembered that hot summer night.   The summer of 2002 was hot and humid. Hannah was three and we were playing on the floor. We were playing Bratz. It was a hot day. Hannah was so cute. She looked a lot like mom. I was helping her dress a doll. All of a sudden the door slams open and dad comes in and starts screaming and pushing mom. We were all scared and mom grabbed us, her work clothes and a few things for us and we drove downtown, past the lights and we went up to this building that looked like a jail. We rang the doorbell and a very nice lady let us in. I remembered that. I remembered that we stayed there for a few days, dad said he was sorry, he and mom went to counseling and he never got like that again.... However, my mom had to lie and say he never did that when be became a jailer. "I hate it here. I want to be HOME with my babies. I hate leaving those two here when I go to work. It would be too risky with Veryle. I think the shelter actually encouraged me to leave the facility and go back to mhy abuser, Mark was a 'nice guy' and was sorry, but we have to go to counseling. He is going to lie. I know he is and I don't want to go home...." I just remembered how dark and dirty the place was and that Hannah and I were so scared in "childcare". It was just unsupervised kids playing and one girl wanted my shorts because they were what Gemz sold in the mall.

    Dad was a jailer for a few years. He looked sharp, but he played a good game. He had a great uncle on the department who was well respected and after a few doses of golden seal, he was a jailer, but he never quit. Sheriff Ostrander even said, "That's Padgett's boy." Dad smoked pot and was a "crooked jailer" and mom always knew he was going to get caught. It was about the time dad "suggested" she have another baby. "'We really need to try for a son,' he told me. I really don't want another child. I mean we were broke after having Hannah and I am not going back to post partum depression like I did. I wanted to die. I was worse with Hannah than little Jade. He full well knew that I could be infertile after the procedure, but it stopped the pain, and also I had my tubes tied. 'But you will want another baby' they told me. I told them no. I think had I been with Johnny I would have popped them off left and right. He has two kids now, a girl and a baby on the way. Then Jade, who knows her dad isn't Rob. What AM I going to tell her. In Kindergarten, Mrs Farris called her 'Edward Scissorhands' because she was 'so shy and had a face like Johnny Depp'. I hate lying. HATE IT!"

    I pick up Dad. He lives on Richards Street in an apartment. It's a low end apartment. One of those with the diamond shaped window in the door. I climb the steps. A train goes by. I knock on the door.

    "Hey," dad said.
"Hi."
"How are you?"
"Good, busy at the firm, have a few painting gigs."
"Law school. Jade, don't be like to me, or is Johnny paying you?"
"No. He's not like that."

    The windows shake and vibrate as a train goes by. He shows me around. It's very primitive. He had a girlfriend. She was a regular at The Stone bar, a small, hole in the wall bar where people you don't see during the day frequent. Rob worked at another bar, The Library as a line cook. He tried. "Jenny will be here around four, but we can stay out," he said. I nod. "We were watching that Idol show and you really look like his daughter but fat." He was always commenting on my weight. "Nice car," he says. It's Scott's. He and Lauren are out of town. It's an older BMW. We drive to The Club Car. He orders a beer. One of many.

    "So, are you leaving me?"
"No. Not at all. I am not leaving you. You brought me up. Hell you cleaned up the living room that Friday night I projectile vomited everywhere. You sat next to me as I puked in that bucket and you washed my clothes when it came out both ends. You've been there for me. I will always love you." He begins to cry. I was almost nine and I got sick in the middle of the night.
"Thank you. I love you, too."
"You're the best."

We talked about stupid things, want he was doing with his life, his new girlfriend, and he asked me if I was still munching carpet.

"In fact I am. I did last night," I tell him a matter of factly.
"Does douchebag care?"
"Not really."
"I can't believe he plowed your mom.   She's such a prude and she has a bad body.   She got fat."
"That isn't fair."
"Well, she sure wasn't plowin' me. She had that fancy penis and didn't want mine, She never wanted me."
"At one time she did love you, dad."
"Well I was so good to her,". He said. I want to scream that he was a liar.
"I am so sorry that she didn't see it." There was so much I should have said.

I wanted to tell him, "she never was treated fairly by you unless you wanted something. You forgot birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and she got tired. She got tired of being left, tired of being screwed, and honestly I think this is the happiest she has been in YEARS!!!"

We talk until about six. The sun looms low in the sky. I drive him home. His girl is home. "Jadie, I "
Love you." I tell him I love him, too, as I do. He raised me and he tried, He took me and Hannah to the mall and he was a good dad. Dad just has a lot of demons. A lot. I drive by mom's. She is still at work, so I take some more diaries. 2003 was another happy time. Mo discovered photography and painting and life wa s really good, Every Sunday afternoon was a photo shoot for us and mom was getting pretty confident within herself. I would learn why by reading. Mom was still in love with her doctor, but then she began her first affair. Jake Boren was a firefighter. Strong and bold. Plus dad began to cyber girls online.... He threatened to punch my teeth out the night he was showing a permission to a woman.

It was around this time things began to unravel.