Winning Her

WH 1

I grew up on the south side of the Colorado springs, which backs up against a national park. I was six when it happened, my mother had franticly twisted my long black hair into a bun and stuffed it under a hat. I was given silly glasses so my brilliant green eyes wouldn’t give me away. My mother was Italian and when she happen to have one of her moments she spoke fast in Italian, my father I had never met he was said to be a leader of some Indian tribe but mother never talked about him.

    We lived close to a small Indian village and would shop the local stores, but once I changed my mother hardly went out of the house, I almost never went outside to play. The windows were closed and the doors locked. I cried a lot that summer, all I wanted to do was play with my friends. I was told to stay in the house one day when she had to pick up a few things, but once she was gone I saw a close friend who was waving at my through the back window. I did what any normal child would do, I went outside to play. For about an hour everything fell back into normal, the wind started to pick up and my silly glasses hurt my eyes, so without thinking I took them off, as I did so the wind knocked my hat off dropping my black hair.  

      Madie who was my playmate ooohhhed “That’s pretty” she said. Without a beat an elderly woman yelled, then within minutes at least six tribes members were getting closer to me. My mother had just gotten home when she saw me outside. Her screams could be heard past the air force base outside the springs. She scooped my little body up and ran me to the house, locking the doors and closing the windows. I was old enough to understand that I had done something wrong, and I sat quietly in the corner where she had put me.   

    A few hours went by and the people outside started to go back to there houses, mother sat down beside me and put her head to mine. “Oh meha, we are going to have to move.” was all she said. I helped her back that night, with tears streaming down my face, but not a sound came out of me. Never again would I see my playmate. We moved in the cover of darkness, slipping out of the small town and heading towards a bigger one. We ended up in Radford, Virginia, it was pretty but colder, smelled different too. The Jefferson National Forest had mountains that lined that boarder from Virginia, to West Virginia. Without knowing it mother had family that lived there.

    I was greeted with a little fear in their eyes and then pushed aside to see my mother. I was pretty sure this was my mothers sister, but I didn’t really know. I was given a room and pretty much left to myself. As I got older I got madder, things didn’t add up and I began to lash out. If my mother was going to stay on good terms with her sister, we would have to move…again. I was ten by the time we moved to our next home. “I don’t understand why you are acting like this, Meha!” I growled under my breath, trying to bite my tongue but she kept pushing the topic. “Meha is NOT MY NAME.” I screamed over the radio, that wasn’t very loud to begin with.

    She slowed the car down, and looked at me, it wasn’t that look you get when your gonna get your ass handed to you, it was more of a fear look. I had just scared my mother, I regretted it, but didn’t say a thing. The next place we lived in was an apartment just out side of Boston. It was small and musty, I hated it. I waited another six year before I just couldn’t take it any longer. We got into a huge fight that night, a lot was said mostly normal teenage crap, but I wanted answers about why we moved in the first place and she wouldn’t tell me.

    I left that night after she went to bed, had a small bag packed and a few hundred dollars to my name. It didn’t take me long to figure out that this was gonna suck, on the bright side I had gotten my G. E.D early and wouldn’t have to deal with going to school. Looking for a job was a pain, no one thought I could handle heavy loads or do much of anything. One guy even asked me why I wasn’t in school. It got really aggravating. To save money I would wait for my mother to leave for work and I would go home and eat my fill and get some sleep. I think she knew I was doing this, cause she would stock the fridge every few days with things only I would eat.