My Life in a Nutshell - Part II

So we moved to Hagerstown.. and like i said, now that i had seen the house, i was no longer upset about moving, i wanted to move. The first few months were just fine... but all good things must come to an end right? And it did.

T.J.'s middle child, Joe, had been living with us. He was about 17.. and he was not a good boy..at all. He was always in some kind of trouble, with drugs, fighting, stealing, etc. One night, he was over at a friends house, spending the night. His friends dad had a very old classic car he had been restoring for years. He was almost finished with his pride and joy when Joe screwed it all up. He and his friend were inside watching TV, and his friend wanted to take him outside to show him the car up close. They had no shoes on, and even took the TV remote out with them. Once they got in, they realized the keys were in the ignition. So they decided to take it for a spin around the block. (Neither one had a license) That spin turned into a "Mountain Ride". Some of you may know what one of those is but for those who dont, a mountain ride is when you go up in the mountains on all the back roads and smoke weed. While they were doing this, somehow the car ended up upside down in between some trees, and some big rocks. Needless to say, the boys walked home, in their socks, to a very angry father.

Thankfully, Joes friends dad did not press charges, even though Joe was driving, but TJ LOST it on joe. He made my mom and I go upstairs while he "scolded" Joe in the kitchen. Now, my mother and i are alike in EVERY way so of course, we were nosey and wanted to hear what was going on even if we couldnt see it. So we sat right at the top of the steps and listened. All we heard was a "POW" then Joe yelling "DAD IM BLEEDING" and TJ said "THATS NOT ALL YOU'LL BE DOING WHEN IM FINISHED WITH YOU" and we heard some more pows and wacks, then it stopped. We waited a few minutes and returned to the kitchen. And where joe had been sitting just a few minutes earlier, was a puddle of blood on the floor, and no Joe to be found. Neither me or mom said one word to TJ who was standing in the kitchen in obvious rage, sweaty and red as a beat. Let me remind you that TJ is an ex-Navy Seal and was well over 200 pounds. So when he looked the way he did that night, no one wanted to be near him. Mom cleaned up the blood, and the rest of the night was totally normal. Except joe never left his room once that night.

Things like this continued to happen, mom and TJ were fighting more and more, and it was getting more and more physical. But nothing was ever done about it. Then one day, our landlords came to us with news. See we had been renting to own this house in hagerstown, and turns out our landlords wanted their house back and didnt want to sell it. So we were given a date and time to be out. Of course, moving AGAIN...

Somewhere in the midst of all this, my father had moved from Virginia Beach to Pennsylvania, a small town only 25 minutes from Hagerstown. It was called Waynesboro. Mom had taken me there to see my dad many times, and my dads parents lived there also. After finding out we were going to have to move, mom thought about Waynesboro and her and TJ liked it a lot there. It was a small, country town and it impressed them. It was far different from Hagerstown. So they decided to buy a house there. It was a nice size.. not huge like the one in hagerstown, but definitely not small. And, we moved...again.