Jayla (My Story)

Childhood Trials

All my life my adopted parents had been the best. They never even argued that we knew about. Every evening, just before dark, I would run to the big old oak in our front yard and wait for (a) daddy to come home. He always brought me candy from the store up the road. Of course I had to share with Jess and Jena but he always brought enough that it didn't matter.            

In 94things changed It started getting dark before daddy would come home. Night after night it got later and later. We saw less and less of daddy. He even started having to go out of town for work.
      My sisters and I were in our room one night playing as usual. In our house you walk into the front door through the living room into the kitchen. Off from the kitchen was three joining bedrooms.                                

It was an old house with brown paneling on all the walls. It was an open floor plan and There was no doors to separate us so we had free run. My room was the middle room and I would sit on my knees with my back to the foot of the bed. My sisters would run from the front room to me and I would throw them over my head onto my bed.

   The house was quiet other than the sound of us laughing. It had already started getting late and (a) dad hadn't got home yet. Mama seemed worried. She called daddy's boss when she hung up the phone she was not happy and even though she tried to hide it with a smile we could tell.
"Y'all go play Daddy is gonna be late." she said.  That night laying in bed we were unable to sleep. We could here mama and (a) daddy talking but it didn't seem like their normal talk. Mama wasn't her cheerful self, she wasn't laughing, we knew something was wrong.

    A few days after the talk mama had to have a physical done and blood work. Just to make sure she wasn't sick. Looking back now it's quite obvious but to a nine year old mind
Not so much.
     Mama had a lump in her right breast that they found and she had to go for a mamagram.

     I was sitting at school when they called me to the office for check out. I was excited we never got to miss school. When I got to the office it wasn't mama there to get us. Instead it was my aunt Julie ( My biological dad's sister) even after the adoption my dad's siblings remained  our aunts and uncles.) We were taken to the hospital to mama. She was waiting  when we got there. She had a metal piece around one of her fingers and she had bruises on her arms.
  
Once we got home my mama and all her grown kids were talking about what happened. My sisters and I just sat and listened.
   " Someone knocked on the door and when I went to it she was standing on the porch." Mama started telling them what happened.
  " I'm Ella, and I just came to tell u that I'm pregnant with Eddie's baby. So are you gonna divorce him?" She asked my mom
  "No, I'm not, but I will divorce your ass off my porch." Mama answers and slapped her right off the porch. Ella ran to her car and about that time my (a) daddy pulled up.
" Eddie what is going on?" Mama asked him " you need to tell her to leave. "
    " She doesn't have to go anywhere." Dad replied. But that was the wrong thing to say to my mama.
        See In my family we have a problem. One that I later started referring to as " the bitch in the closet."  Once that door is open you will wish you hadn't. It's a mental snap where you loose control. In some cases blackout.  When a situation is too much for me to handle level headed then the bitch takes over. This is a trait that came from my (B) dad's side....MAMA
 
"What?" Mama asked
"I said she doesn't have to go anywhere." (A) daddy repeated propping himself up agenst his suburban.
SNAP...

Her closet swung open and Mama's bitch was ready to fight. Mama grabbed daddy's stand up tool box and threw it out in the front yard. Mama goes out and picks up a tire iron and went to town. She hit him all up and down his legs. He was pushing her off of him while trying to get in his truck. That's how Mama's finger got broke. She jumped up and smashed the windshield out of the truck and my dad took off.
   Now you might think after all this that would be the end of that however it wasnt.
       (a) Daddy came back and he and mama were gonna try to work things out. He stayed about a week but Thanksgiving he left for the last time.
       
  "Daddy, why are you leaving?" Jess cried. "Please don't go Daddy. Don't leave is again."
    " I have to baby but I will come pick you and your sisters up for the weekend. OK?" Eddie answered as he walk out the front door.
    "Y- Y- You pro-mise?"  Jess sobbed
"I do" he said and he was gone.

       We cried all that night. I thought my sister Jess was gonna have to go to the hospital.  She had asthma and she cried so hard she couldn't get a good breath. At some point that night Jess and Jena fell asleep.                                      
    I lay there in the dark thinking.  Wondering what had happened to our family. Our home was always a happy place and now our lives seemed as dark as the room I was laying in...
   God please be with my family. Help us and bring back the happy.