Misfits

Lucas

The television blares in front of me and a package of cookies is opened on the table. I have already eaten half of the carton, and I'm working on the other. To say the least, I'm on a sugar high. My energy levels are off the charts, and I'm practically bouncing off the walls. My six-year-old self isn't used to this amount of sweets, or being alone for so long. In fact, I've never been alone for more than one hour. Apparently, at my age, it is illegal. But I don't care! Mommy's at work and I get to eat cookies and life is good! Well it is up until I hear a knock at the door. I'm confused. Mommy wouldn't knock, she has a key! Who would be coming to our apartment so late? I hide the cookies underneath the couch pillows and get up to open the door. To my surprise, there is a police officer standing there, a gentle expression on his face. He begins to tell me a lot of things that I don't understand, like alcohol and DUI and... jail. Except I know that last one. Mommy is in jail? This I don't understand. The officer comes into my house and starts riffling through my drawers, packing a bag for me full of clothes and toiletries. Now I am really confused. Where am I going? We drive to my friend Jordan's house and his mommy comes outside to greet me. She gives me a big mommy hug and says that I will be staying with them for a few days while my mom is away. But I know where she is. She isn't vacationing. She is in jail. That DUI was the first of many. And that DUI was the first time I had to grow up past my age. Only age six and already acting like I'm ten. Soon enough I will be age seventeen and acting like I'm thirty.

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I stuff beer bottles into the black trash bag I'm holding. The stench of alcohol is constant in our apartment, despite my efforts to clean up her messes. Our one toilet has been puked in almost as many times as it's been peed in. I'm a sucky cook, yet the only one who makes our meals. I don't know what I did to deserve a mom like this, but it most have been pretty bad. Maybe in a previous life I murdered the elderly or kidnapped helpless children. That would be equal to the way I'm treated by my parents.

My dad left my mother after the one-night-stand that conceived me took place. After finding out she was pregnant, my mother called dad, but he didn't want anything to do with me. He told her to 'get rid of it'. She wasn't about to do that though, so she decided to raise me on her own.

Aubrey Prince wasn't always an alcoholic. When she decided she was going to raise me, she was sober. When I came out of the womb, she was only on the painkiller drug. Ages 0-5 she was up for the Mom of the Year award. Then my dad came back into her life. He said he was sorry, and that he loved her, and he wanted to get to know his little boy. He lied. He was in town for barely a week before getting mom hooked on alcohol again. A month later the late nights started. A month after that they didn't even call a sitter to watch me because they were just too drunk to care about leaving a five-year-old home alone. A month after that he left us again.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" I hear my mommy scream at daddy, listening from my room. I can tell her words are slurred.

"This is just too difficult, Aubrey. I can't raise a boy. And I can't stay with a woman I don't love!"

There is a sound of a plate crashing against a wall and mommy sobbing. Wheels roll on the hardwood floor, and a door slams. I peek around the corner to see mommy rocking back and forth on the ground, her back shaking in despair and her blouse getting stained with tears. Daddy isn't anywhere to be seen. He left me. He left mommy. He left us.

Mom couldn't take the heartbreak. She refused to work for a month, almost getting us kicked out of the complex and onto the streets. She drowned herself in alcohol, drinking herself to forgetfulness. I spent a lot of time with my friend from pre-school, Jordan, and his family. His mom was so nice and gave the best hugs. Julia made home-cooked meals, which were a novelty to my young self. A few years later, Jocelyn was born, giving me a new perspective on family relationships. I had a family with these people. Two siblings, a mom, a dad, even a dog.